UKMT January 2021 - i have no chin and i must chitterwagger

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT January 2021 - i have no chin and i must chitterwagger

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

NotJustANumber99 posted:

Surely the drones only look right from like one particular, quite narrow angle? How did everyone know where to stand?

London is in Tier 4 so the only angle (that matters) is the TV camera.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2021 12:19

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 10:18

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Jose posted:

lol i read an article the other day about a guy who pumped $1.4bn into bitcoin

https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/1346038379960537089?s=20

Seems like it's still fine? An 8% fluctuation is nothing for bitcoin...

# ¿ Jan 4, 2021 13:37

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Convex posted:

In other made-up, looney left project fear news
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/05/mother-fears-son-could-die-as-brexit-stops-medical-cannabis-medicine-supply

What's super insane about this is The UK is the largest exporter of cannabis in the world*.

We could literally just let people do the final processing and fill these prescriptions in the UK if we wanted to.

_{* This was 2018 so might no longer be true with more legalisation in American, but we still manufacture a poo poo ton of weed.}

# ¿ Jan 5, 2021 21:49

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Jedit posted:

There is no slippery slope. Anyone who wants to say socialism is poo poo or fantastic is free to do so, because it is an opinion. What you should not be free to do is to deny proven facts without evidence of your own.

"The WHO has declared Covid-19 a deadly pandemic"

"The IEA has declared socialism is a danger to global financial systems".

These two positions clearly do not carry equal significance. But I absolutely do not trust our government - who banned the teaching of materials critical of capitalism in schools - to make that distinction.

blunt fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Jan 6, 2021

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 12:41

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

TheRat posted:

What about legislating against the platforms that faciliate and make money off of mass distribution of miss-information/incitement

This. You don't legislate against individual speech, you legislate against platforms with a defined level of reach that publish it uncritically and/or without context.

The issues we have with social media today are the same issues we've had with press regulation for the last X years. But like others have pointed out, until we have a government that's actually interested in holding powerful people to account that isn't going to change. I don't see how criminalising (for-example) individual anti-vaxx speech changes anything for the better.

Guavanaut posted:

does that mean that you just throw your hands up and allow people to incite any shite on youtube?

No to YouTube, yes to coolfreevideos69.com until they approach a specific level of reach/turnover (I think I've seen some proposals of eg 50,000 monthly active users)

Edit: vvvvv we already have active non-bot moderation, it'd be fine.

blunt fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Jan 6, 2021

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 13:02

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Derbyshire Police are back at it again...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55594244 posted:

A police force that was criticised for its "intimidating" approach to two walkers is to review its lockdown fines policy.

Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore said they were surrounded by police after driving five miles from their home for a walk on Wednesday, and fined �200 each.

Derbyshire Police initially said driving to exercise was "not in the spirit" of lockdown.

But it now says new national guidelines mean it will review its position.

In a statement, the force said all of its fixed penalties issued during the new national lockdown will be reviewed.

'A picnic'
Ms Allen, from Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, said she assumed "someone had been murdered" when she arrived at Foremark Reservoir on Wednesday afternoon.

When she and her friend were questioned by police, they were also told by officers the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed as they were "classed as a picnic".

She said: "The next thing, my car is surrounded. I got out of my car thinking 'There's no way they're coming to speak to us'. Straight away they start questioning us.

"I said we had come in separate cars, even parked two spaces away and even brought our own drinks with us. He said 'You can't do that as it's classed as a picnic'."

Ms Allen said the experience was "very intimidating" and had left her feeling scared of police in general.

Her friend, Ms Moore, said she was "stunned at the time" so did not challenge police and gave her details so they could send a fixed penalty notice.

At the time Derbyshire Police said that driving to a location to exercise "is clearly not in the spirit of the national effort to reduce our travel, reduce the possible spread of the disease and reduce the number of deaths".

The force added: "Where there are cases of blatant breaches of the regulations then fines will be issued by officers."

Derbyshire Police has also been giving fixed penalty notices to people who visit Calke Abbey and Elvaston Castle.

But in a statement, the force said further guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) had "clarified the policing response concerning travel and exercise".

The guidance said: "The Covid regulations which officers enforce and which enables them to issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices] for breaches, do not restrict the distance travelled for exercise."

The NPCC added that rather than issue fines for people who travel out of their local area "but are not breaching regulations, officers will encourage people to follow the guidance".

The force has now said it will be "aligning to adhere to this stance".

Assistant Chief Constable Kem Mehmet said: "We are grateful for the guidance from the NPCC.

"The actions of our officers continues to be to protect the public, the NHS and to help save lives."

It is not the first time the force has been accused of being overzealous in enforcing alleged lockdown breaches.

In the country's first lockdown in March the use of a drone to film people walking in the Peak District was labelled "nanny policing".

Really would have thought that after the NPCC told them "yo wtf?" for their behaviour during lockdown #1 they would have chilled out a bit, but I guess police gonna police🤷 .

# ¿ Jan 9, 2021 16:45

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

And here's a question I've been meaning to ask - do members of this forum consider it to be social media or not? I put it in the social media box just wondering how many others do?

I consider any site/service that's made up of primarily user generated/contributed content to be social media, so I'd qualify this forum to be social media the same way that I would say Usenet / BBS were.

I know that a lot of people consider social media to only be algorithmic feeds and only non-human moderation though, so yes to FB/Twitter/Tik Too etc, no to forums. but they're wrong

Was MySpace social media?

I guess it's contextual?

blunt fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Jan 16, 2021

# ¿ Jan 16, 2021 01:47

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

peanut- posted:

Like that but worse, at least you're paying the same amount there. I've seen a few recently that will give you a 10% discount on the listed price if you take the deferred payment option over paying up front.

The deferred payments are interest free too, so the only upside for the company is making money on egregious charges & interest when a payment gets missed.

Klarna's primary revenue is through transaction fees - same as Stripe and Paypal. They don't actually make too much on missed payments because 1) most customers don't miss payments, and 2) They don't have a banking licence so they're mostly acting as a proxy for other lenders, who take the bulk of the interest and late fees.

quote:

So, how does Klarna make money if not from interest and surcharges? The answer is merchant transaction fees from retailers. Klarna reckons it can increase the average online store�s orders by 30% and the average spend by 34%. The claim stands up when you speak to some of Klarna�s customers who admit they have upped their spending.

quote:

Klarna charges merchants a set-up fee, monthly fee and a small percentage of each transaction. The details of these fees are dependent on the contract held with each business but are reported to be in the region of $600 for setting up fees, $90 per month and 1.5% - 3% for each transaction. These fees are comparable to competitors Stripe and PayPal who charge 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. However, the monthly fee charged by Klarna is more expensive than PayPal that charges $30 per month and Stripe who do not charge monthly fees. Klarna does not charge for implementation of �Klarna Payment,� allowing customers to �Buy Now, Pay Later�.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/nov/17/klarna-buy-now-pay-later-system-that-is-seducing-millennials

It's still bad that they're making credit available to people who may not have the ability to repay and that retailers are incentivizing these purchases, but I don't think their business model is especially comparable to Wonga.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2021 14:51

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

peanut- posted:

That explanation doesn�t make total sense in the context of the deferred payment discounts now being offered. If retailers pay Klarna for sales why are they explicitly incentivising customers who might otherwise pay up front onto deferred payment schemes?

Because it's in the retailer's interest to get a customer to try something that increases their subsequent sales by ~30%.

Getting customers hooked on by now pay later is a bad thing. In this case I'm just saying the blame lays with the retailer, not the payment processor.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2021 15:24

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Guavanaut posted:

Replacing council tax with a 1% property tax doesn't seem like the worst idea and I can't wait to see how he instead makes it something that rewards landlords.

For starters I could imagine it being something landlords pass onto tenets but losing the single occupancy and student reliefs...

# ¿ Jan 18, 2021 01:35

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

willie_dee posted:

I've not seen it once in the South West?

I see it constantly in my local Tescos (South West)

blunt fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Jan 18, 2021

# ¿ Jan 18, 2021 13:59

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Confirmation that we're underreporting deaths

quote:

Almost a third of recovered Covid patients will end up back in hospital within five months and one in eight will die, alarming new figures have shown.

Research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there is a devastating long-term toll on survivors of severe coronavirus, with many people developing heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver and kidney conditions.

Out of 47,780 people who were discharged from hospital in the first wave, 29.4 per cent were readmitted to hospital within 140 days, and 12.3 per cent of the total died.

The current cut-off point for recording Covid deaths is 28 days after a positive test, so it may mean thousands more people should be included in the coronavirus death statistics.

Researchers have called for urgent monitoring of people who have been discharged from hospital.

Study author Kamlesh Khunti, professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at Leicester University, said: “This is the largest study of people discharged from hospital after being admitted with Covid.

“People seem to be going home, getting long-term effects, coming back in and dying. We see nearly 30 per cent have been readmitted, and that’s a lot of people. The numbers are so large.

“The message here is we really need to prepare for long Covid. It’s a mammoth task to follow up with these patients and the NHS is really pushed at the moment, but some sort of monitoring needs to be arranged.”

The study found that Covid survivors were nearly three and a half times more likely to be readmitted to hospital, and die, in the 140 days timeframe than other hospital outpatients.

Prof Khunti said the team had been surprised to find that many people were going back in with a new diagnosis, and many had developed heart, kidney and liver problems, as well as diabetes.

He said it was important to make sure people were placed on protective therapies, such as statins and aspirin.

“We don’t know if it’s because Covid destroyed the beta cells which make insulin and you get Type 1 diabetes, or whether it causes insulin resistance, and you develop Type 2, but we are seeing these surprising new diagnoses of diabetes,” he added.

“We’ve seen studies where survivors have had MRS scans and they’ve cardiac problems and liver problems.

“These people urgently require follow up and the need to be on things like aspirin and statins.”

The new study was published on a pre-print server and is yet to be peer reviewed. However experts described the paper as “important”.

Commenting on the study on Twitter, Christina Pagel, director of the clinical operational research unit at University College London said: “This is such important work. Covid is about so much more than death. A significant burden of long-term illness after hospitalisation for Covid.”

Last year, researchers at North Bristol NHS Trust found that three quarters of virus patients treated at Bristol's Southmead Hospital were still experiencing problems three months later.

Symptoms included breathlessness, excessive fatigue and muscle aches, leaving people struggling to wash, dress and return to work.

Some patients say they have been left needing a wheelchair since contracting the virus, while others claim they can no longer walk up the stairs without experiencing chest pain.

In December, the ONS estimated that one in 10 people who catch coronavirus go on to suffer long Covid with symptoms lasting three months or more.

Overall, roughly 186,000 people in private households in England in the week beginning November 22 were living with Covid-19 symptoms that had persisted for between five and 12 weeks, the most up-to-date ONS data shows.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/almost-third-recovered-covid-patients-180255388.html

So over a five month follow-up period almost 1/3 of covid hospital admissions are readmitted and 1/8 of people originally admitted and subsequently discharged die, after the initial 28 day window. Presumably this means that the pressure on the NHS will continue to grow for a period even as infections decline as people are readmitted at a later date.

Holy poo poo long-covid is terrifying.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2021 13:52

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Is the forum playing up for anyone else? Sometimes timing out, not loading etc? Have tried 3 different wifis and same with all of them. Other websites loading fine.

Yeah, intermittently not resolving/running super slow.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2021 21:21

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 10:18

blunt: Jul 7, 2005

Guavanaut posted:

Looks like there's no obvious change either way for England & Wales other than the increases due to changed standards of evidence and continuing trends from austerity continuing to be just complete awful poo poo.

(That's not specifically adolescent focused though, it's overall.)

This study looking at children comes to the same conclusion* - a small rise that's statistically insignificant.

*Granted it's to July 2020 so only covers the beginning months, but includes the first school closures.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2021 20:17

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT January 2021 - i have no chin and i must chitterwagger