steeznson

@steeznson@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Richard Flanagan wins Baillie Gifford prize but rejects £50,000 over sponsor’s fossil fuel ties⁩ ⁨⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  This Baillie Gifford controversy is nuts. They are one of the largest investment companies in terms of backing renewable energies and they invest way fewer funds than their competitors in fossil fuels.

  Arts festivals like the Edinburgh Book Festival have been browbeaten by these grandstanding authors into removing them as a sponsor but the only repercussions we’re going to see is the event being reduced in scale in coming years. The government is not going to step in and take their place and there’s no viable alternative source of money other than the private sector.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mortgage rates rise despite interest rate cut⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think their decision was influenced by the most recent budget. With business costs rising due to the national insurance increase, banks are anticipating that inflation will fall less quickly. This is compounded by government spending increasing which also has the potential to have an inflationary effect.

  Given this background it is not inconceivable that BoE might need to raise interest rates again and this means the banks need to keep their fixed rates high to cover the risk of people locking in rates that turn out to be too low.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dr. Octagon - Blue Flowers⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Vintage album. Kool Keith at his best.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm homeless after making and losing £1,000,000 and having a hit film⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I know some who have managed to hold down successful careers despite their habit. I wonder how many hidden “functional” users there are

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Twitter's UK userbase has been absolutely decimated since Musk took over⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The phrase “absolutely decimated” annoys me since to decimate has a really exact definition of shedding 10% of something

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Actress Dame Maggie Smith dies at 89⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is probably what I’ll remember her best for

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Women in STEM⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I thought her husband took a lot of the credit at the time. Might be mistaken about that though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Women in STEM⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Could also add Marie Curie in there. I didn’t realise until recently that there is a lot of controversy over France “claiming her achievements” since she was born and educated in Poland.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s music streams jump after arrest and sex crimes charges⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Have enjoyed memes pointing out that a character who is a diddler named Diddy could have been written by Hideo Kojima.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I have no idea how to react to this.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think this would be less surprising if we didn’t imagine LGBTQ people were one homogeneous block of political beliefs and opinions. Some of my most right-wing friends are gay.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Letby shift data was scientifically worthless, statisticians warn⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the subtext of it was that she could have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice if this one piece of evidence was invalidated. However from reading about the case it just seems like on piece of circumstantial evidence as opposed to the lynchpin for the case.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Letby shift data was scientifically worthless, statisticians warn⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This article doesn’t explain exactly why the statistical anomaly should be inadmissable in court. She was a common denominator in being on shift when a large number of infants died on the ward. From my understanding of the case too, various colleagues had been raising suspicions about her for several years; one consultant testified that he walked in on her standing over a baby that was in medical distress while only watching and not taking any actions to assist it. I think there were unexplained results in the autopsies too.

  It seems reasonable to have the shift rota as one part of the case against her given that it was more like corroborating evidence instead of the centerpiece for the prosecution.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mars brings Marathon name back in UK as nostalgia rises for retro sweets⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I still think Opal Fruits is a more descriptive name

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Individuals have a perverse relationship to the economy where what’s good for the individual diverges from what is good for the economy. For example saving money is good but if everyone does it then you can end up with deflation like Japan.

  In terms of children people do it due to biological urges without fully assessing the hit to quality of life or finances. The economy needs more workers at every point though since pensions are essentially a ponzi scheme.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If they made paternity leave an equivalent length of time - and mandatory - then they could resolve a lot of the discrimination women face in the middle of their career when employers assume they will disappear on mat leave and withhold promotions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kendrick Lamar - Watch The Party Die (Drake Diss) New Song - YouTube⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not sure this is specifically Drake diss but that’s obviously relevant context. Kendrick is going back into his hip-hop saviour mode and complaining more generally about the culture.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lil Wayne Says Super Bowl Snubbed Him for Halftime Show: ‘That Broke Me… It Hurt a Lot.’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  He spends a lot of time rapping about New Orleans but I suppose his album and mixtape prime were 16+ years ago.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[FRESH Music Video] LL COOL J - Murdergram Deux ft. Eminem [03:09 | Rap, Hardcore Rap, Hip-Hop, Detroit Rap, Midwest Rap, New York Rap, East Coast Rap, In English, USA]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly sonically this one sounds very modern. Q-Tip production on this sounds like what Hitboy has been doing for the recent Nas albums.

  Mr. Smith (1995) probably has the most recognisable hits on it in terms of diving into one of the earlier albums.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sausage rolls and Oasis: ‘Britishcore’ TikTok trend drives interest in UK culture⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The UK has always had an outsized influence on popular culture worldwide. For example our musicians are overrepresented in terms of music charts in many other countries. There was a good Economist article about this a few years ago where they interviewed a die-hard Gorillaz fan who lived in rural Russia.

  However, that 90s ‘cool Britania’ self confidence we had is definitely missing these days. We’ve retained a sense of British twee or fascination with the mundane though which I suspect is driving this modern interest. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that youtube/instagram shorts are preoccupied with the mundane - and we have heaps of that to offer up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[FRESH Music Video] LL COOL J - Murdergram Deux ft. Eminem [03:09 | Rap, Hardcore Rap, Hip-Hop, Detroit Rap, Midwest Rap, New York Rap, East Coast Rap, In English, USA]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  His back catalogue is great. He constantly reinvented his sound for new eras and innovated throughout his career.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Manchester rioter's mum who went on £1,200 Ibiza trip must pay compensation amounting to cost of her holiday⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  She obviously left in the believe that her child couldn’t be sentenced with her in absentia

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which rural area will take the UK’s nuclear waste?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah my mate worked there for a few years after his chemical engineering degree. I hadn’t realised what a disaster it was until he spoke about it. Apparently the Russians phoned the site when Chernobyl happened because it was the worst nuclear disaster in Europe that had happened before.

  Mate also told me there were many flora and fauna that lived in the area despite the high levels of gamma radiation. One of his colleagues had a bird shit in her hair on the way in to work one day and it wouldn’t wash out in the chemical shower so they had to shave her hair off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rich Homie Quan dead at 34⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Awful news. Lifestyle makes me nostalgic for university. Atlanta music scene can’t catch a break in recent years.

  This is also (seemingly) another major rapper dying of a pill overdose like Shock G and Gangsta Boo.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK riots: Judge hands down longest jail sentences yet⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you for providing this extra context. I don’t think that people are really interrogating the circumstances properly when they compare sentences. Roger Hallam is a bona fide weirdo too - anyone who has not heard him being interviewed should listen to 5 mins of him describing his worldview.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drunken woman defecated on police officer who tried to put her in handcuffs⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Finally a story about Teesside that’s not about Ben Houchen. Although on 2nd thoughts would this still count if the story features a massive shit?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘It’s just a rich man’s playground now’: how St Ives became patient zero of British overtourism | Cornwall⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My in-laws live in Cornwall. Off the tourist beat near Troon. I find the whole place terribly depressing given the enormous divides between the haves and have-nots. The tourist trap parts like St Ives and Padstow are like theme parks, the latter definitely being Rick Stein Land; then, the poorer parts remind me of rural Ayrshire where my Dad’s family are from.

  My wife has a lot of positive associations with the place with childhood memories of grandparents and other relatives. I’ve not managed to make any of my own despite visiting at least once a year.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Argentina got rid of rent control. Housing supply skyrocketed⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We can observe housing supply dropping in places where rent controls were recently introduced like Berlin though

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kamala Harris' running mate Tim Walz is not 'normal,' CNN contributor says⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t understand why she didn’t pick Shapiro. Pennsylvania is THE swing state for the Democrats this election and should be much more important for them than Minnesota if they were behaving rationally. There were a few reports out saying that Shapiro was the candidate up until the last 24 hours before it was announced for Walz but they dropped him due to concerns he was too Jewish.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Civil servants cannot wear ‘fetish gear’ to work, minister confirms⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That name rings a bell but would need to double check with my friend. She said it was basically a ghost town with only a few really eccentric posts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Civil servants cannot wear ‘fetish gear’ to work, minister confirms⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  One of my friends in the civil service said they have this kind of internal linkedin/facebook thing that virtually no one uses. However they have some kind of craigslist style functionality and she saw someone trying to sell used sex toys on there.