Tweak

@Tweak@feddit.uk

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the UK shut down during easter?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah you get reduced hours with a number of things, particularly buses. Shops have more incentive to stay open, though.

  Classic examples being Good Friday running like a regular Saturday, Saturday running like a regular Sunday but Easter Sunday is as normal because everything is already sparse enough.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Russia ready to wage cyber war on UK, minister to say⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, this article is saying they’re ready to do something they’re already doing.

  The one thing I would say on top of your comment, however, is that North Korea have generally been less interested in attacking other state actors and more interested in monetary crimes, like when they stole millions in crypto. China and Russia generally don’t devolve into that kind of “petty” crime; not sure about Iran though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unidentified drones spotted over three US airbases in Britain, USAF confirms⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Lol was thinking it might not have been a good idea to move back to East Anglia, but hey ho…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨KFC drops pledge to stop using ‘Frankenchickens’ in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would lean towards there being chickens available, but KFC doesn’t want to pay for them. They want one supplier to provide all of it, rather than a bunch of smaller suppliers.

  But you’re absolutely right, this is the kind of question the author of this article should have asked.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Special relationship at risk if UK bans arms sales to Israel, says Trump adviser⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Special relationship at risk if UK bans arms sales to Israel, if Trump wins the election.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK clothing sales to EU plummet as Brexit red tape deters exporters⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also, in my view the EU is quite undemocratic. The separate Council, Commission and Parliament are an affront. Especially the fact that the Parliament, which represents the electorate, does not have the power to introduce legislation.

  You do realise that the entire structure of the EU was primarily dreamt up by British legal experts? It’s quite literally one of the best, most robust and most competent systems of governance in the world.

  Yes, Parliament can’t introduce legislation by themselves, but that’s because we don’t want populists like Farage, Boris or Trump to do that. They’re charismatic, but not actually competent. That’s why talented legal experts in the European Commission (who are each appointed by elected governments of member states, the UK had 6 iirc), people who actually know how law works, write the laws. The elected MEP’s vote on the laws.

  However even here we’re missing the fact that the European Parliament (EP) do have a say in the legislation. The EC writes an “Impact Assessment” with rough draft of the law they’re thinking of writing (which anyone can comment on), then this is presented before Parliament who propose and discuss amendments. So it’s completely disingenuous to imply that the elected EP is somehow beholden to the “unelected” (but chosen for competency by elected member governments) EC bureaucrats.

  And all that skips around what starts the EC’s initial proposal. Aside from occassionally writing laws off their own backs, the EC responds to requests from:

  • The European Council (heads of state or government of each EU country)
  • The Council of the European Union (government ministers from each EU country)
  • The European Parliament (directly elected by EU citizens)
  • Citizens themselves, following a successful European Citizens’ Initiative

  That’s right, not only can Parliament demand new legislation (they just have to get the big boy lawyers to write it for them), but individual citizens can directly!

  Parliament has the final say in whether or not legislation is implemented. That’s completely democratic. What you call “an affront” is actually competent people writing effective legislation. Rather than bullshit like the Rwanda deal which states the UK will accept vulnerable refugees from Rwanda in exchange for the small boat migrants to Rwanda (all paid for by the UK taxpayer), or the general ineptitude of no legislation at all and a Hard Brexit causing issues like sewage being dumped in our rivers since water companies now face restrictions on importing treatment chemicals from the EU.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK clothing sales to EU plummet as Brexit red tape deters exporters⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  William Rees-Mogg wrote 3 books in the 90s, I forget the 3rd one but the other two were called “(The Best Time To Buy Is When There Is) Blood In The Streets” and “The Sovereign Individual”. The latter describes a Sovereign as someone who earns more than $200k per year (90s money, so more like £500k today) and uses their wealth and influence to live above the laws of any nation. This is the kind of “sovereignty” his son Jacob Rees-Mogg campaigned for, he’s literally laughing at all his supporters while he’s doing it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Transport secretary considers ban on floating bus stops in UK cycle lanes⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I mean apparently this is being driven by charities for the blind, but you can even see in the main image for the article that there is a defined crossing over the cycle lane with different texture pavement tiles. The blind are far from being ignored here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The “Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state” petition just got a response.⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The petition isn’t over with this response, it’ll run for 6 months and if it breaks 100,000 signatures it is required to be debated in Parliament.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Huge disappointment’ as UK delays bottle deposit plan and excludes glass⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Recycling is bullshit, we should be re-using glass with a deposit system. Like much of Europe.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Two UK water companies lack complete maps of sewage networks⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You don’t apply for a permit, you go to LinesearchbeforeUdig - lsbud.co.uk. This is a free service anyone can use, and you’ll get emails from various asset owners with maps of what they have in the area you select. Some might try to charge for this, these ones are assholes.

  As far as the law is concerned, it’s up to you to make sure you do it right and the costs for doing it wrong will all fall on your shoulders.

  The only permit you need AFAIK is planning permission - which won’t be granted until you convince them you’ve done a sufficient line search. Aside from that, you need permission from the land owner, of course.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Leasehold charges to be capped at £250 rather than cut to zero: Report   – Mortgage Strategy⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Exactly. The whole “privatise the profits, socialise the losses” needs to end.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rwanda bill set to become law after protracted stand-off with Lords⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You should remind those people that the Rwanda deal is two way, the UK is taking vulnerable refugees from Rwanda in exchange.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Infected blood scandal: Children were used as 'guinea pigs' in clinical trials⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The majority of children involved are already dead now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RAF fighter jets deployed to shoot down Iran drones, MoD says⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Are you saying Israel has ambition to invade and conquer the entire region?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RAF fighter jets deployed to shoot down Iran drones, MoD says⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The UK sells Israel weapons. The US sells Israel weapons. Unlike other countries, Israel pays more reliably. A good salesman looks after their best customers.

  Also, it seems that since Israel suffered no significant damage from the attack, they’re not going to retaliate now. So the support worked, because otherwise there probably would have been more than minimal damge to Israel, they would have responded and we’d have open war between Israel and Iran.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RAF fighter jets deployed to shoot down Iran drones, MoD says⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The fuck do my people have to do?

  Have allies before you get invaded, or have nukes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RAF fighter jets deployed to shoot down Iran drones, MoD says⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Aren’t we supposed to help defend our allies, and vice versa?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MP raises security fears over a Chinese firm's involvement in North Sea windfarm developments⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Cables can be fixed by anyone, China don’t make the cables.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨World first UK prototype could pave the way for constant energy all the time - from space | Science & Tech News⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yup that’s what I gathered from this. Literally had the “duh” realisation as I was writing that comment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cass review urges ‘extreme caution’ in prescribing puberty blockers to trans youth⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the claim from the Guardian article about this:

  Puberty blockers and hormone treatment had been given to young patients despite a lack of research into their impact

  Frankly I find that hard to swallow, given that puberty blockers existed long before they were used to treat trans people. Puberty blockers were used to treat children with extremely early puberty, their effects are generally well known. Sure, there’s always the classic “more study is needed” line in academia, but this almost presents it as careless implementation of a new drug, rather than a known and approved drug given to more people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Palestine activists arrested after halting production at Yorkshire weapons factory⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why are you trying to turn this into personal attacks all of a sudden??

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Palestine activists arrested after halting production at Yorkshire weapons factory⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The factory makes drones for Israel, Israel used a drone in this strike, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this factory made this drone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨World first UK prototype could pave the way for constant energy all the time - from space | Science & Tech News⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There may be times when the sun is eclipsed by the earth, but this will be infrequent.

  This will happen once per day lol. For a geostationary orbit anyway, as the orbital period is 24 hours.

  The point, as you mentioned before, is that the nighttime/eclipse part of this period will be very short and the day very long. Our night lasts hours, a geostationary satellite’s night is minutes (maybe a little over 1 hour for the longest ones).

  This website calculates eclipse periods for satellites: satellite-calculations.com/…/satellite_eclipse.ht… Apparently it’s a seasonal thing, like 3 months you get daily eclipses, 3 months you get no eclipse, then another 3 months on and another 3 off. The 3 months with eclipses are the around the equinoxes, so Feb-Apr and Aug-Oct.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Palestine activists arrested after halting production at Yorkshire weapons factory⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Is this the factory that produced the drone used in the recent attack?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Public has no right to swim in sea, claims firm that dumped sewage at bathing spot⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also the current government are entirely to blame here, the main reason water companies dump so much sewage is that they’ve been less able to get the chemicals they use to treat the water since Brexit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Britain developing new, sovereign nuclear warhead⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also Trident is a multi-stage rocket, they haven’t even got the first stage working right in the last two tests, let alone the final delivery stage.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Britain developing new, sovereign nuclear warhead⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No they haven’t. Did you even read what that treaty is about? Countries that already have nuclear weapons get to keep having nuclear weapons, and countries that don’t have nuclear weapons will agree not to develop them in exchange for receiving peaceful nuclear technology. Aside from that, countries must “pursue” disarmament, but the treaty does not actually require it to happen.

  Given the recent stirrings of Russia, and our proximity to their main path to the Atlantic (where most of the world’s undersea internet fibres are), disarming would be incredibly foolish.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Data centre power use 'to surge six-fold in 10 years' due to boom in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, National Grid predicts⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a little more complicated than that.

  At Distribution level, there are a variety of companies that each serve a specific region. These companies own and operate the networks from LV to 132kV) WPD was brought back under UK ownership and is now called NGED - National Grid Energy Distribution - which is the only distribution operator that’s a part of National Grid PLC. NGED cover south Wales and parts of England stretching east from there.

  At Transmission level (132kV and above), it’s owned by NGET - National Grid Energy Transmission - for England and Wales, with SPT and SSE owning the transmission infrastructure up in Scotland.

  The operator is NGESO, National Grid Energy System Operator. They operate the entire transmission network of the mainland UK, covering England, Wales and Scotland. They manage generation and demand and ensure they match. Apparently they’re changing their name to NESO, in line with being made fully independent of National Grid.

  But yeah, all of these (including all the DNO’s I didn’t list) are private companies.

  The bigger issue however is that our consumption market is completely detached from the generation market. With renewables taking over, our electricity should be getting much cheaper - generators no longer have any fuel costs to pay, which was always the dominant cost over the life of the plant. Instead, we get consumer sellers advertising “We use 100% renewable energy!” as if that’s justification to pay a little more and go with them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Data centre power use 'to surge six-fold in 10 years' due to boom in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, National Grid predicts⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It includes that.

  “Demand on the grid is growing dramatically, and forecast to double by 2050 as heat, transport and industry continue to electrify.”