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Post by tangent on Jun 18, 2020 11:19:27 GMT
From the New York Times, where you can expect a fairly good summary of international affairs, in this case rather accurate With the highest death rate in Europe and an economic forecast worse than any other developed country, Boris Johnson's government can't get anything right. So, it's full steam ahead to a chaotic Brexit at the end of the year, which looks increasingly likely to be a hard Brexit without any trade deals.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2020 14:34:15 GMT
Well....You didn't ask your 'right wing American friends', now, did you? The New York Times is the epitome of FAKE NEWS to them.
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Post by tangent on Jun 22, 2020 15:00:31 GMT
Anything left of centre is FAKE news.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2020 18:06:32 GMT
Yes...and? Your graph posted it 'left of center' and thereby FAKE news by your metric. So are BBC and The Guardian, now showing in the first time I've seen this graph presented. My usual sources: AP, Reuters, NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, PBS, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Atlantic, New Yorker, Mother Jones. They don't show Fortune, but I use that as a reliable source with a conservative business 'bent'....ah, on par with The Economist. I'm in the Daily KOS pipeline, but I ignore most of it. The Huffington Post manages to bleed in to my feed, but it also tends to get ignored. The Rolling Stone is missing from your graph, too. I consider it to be 'hit and miss'. And....Not a single one of the 'Comedy Central' crowd is represented here.
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Post by ceptimus on Jun 27, 2020 10:27:40 GMT
With the highest death rate in Europe and an economic forecast worse than any other developed country, Boris Johnson's government can't get anything right. Not that I believe their forecasts, which historically are little better than random guesses, but the latest IMF forecast has Britain's GDP growing faster (6.3%) than the Eurozone (6.0%) next year - and actually faster than any other country in their table, except for China.
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Post by tangent on Jun 27, 2020 11:33:59 GMT
Not that I believe their forecasts, which historically are little better than random guesses, but the latest IMF forecast has Britain's GDP growing faster (6.3%) than the Eurozone (6.0%) next year - and actually faster than any other country in their table, except for China. Thanks for the reference. I was actually thinking of this year's forecast, which is about -10.2%. OK, not quite as bad as France, Italy and Spain but a lot worse than the US, Japan, Canada and other advanced economies. And also worse than all other economies listed apart from Mexico. (I had seen earlier estimates that were a lot worse, which is why I made that comment.)
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Post by kingedmund on Jun 30, 2020 16:55:40 GMT
Tracing program. Hmmm. By cell phones?
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Post by tangent on Jun 30, 2020 17:04:12 GMT
Tracing program. Hmmm. By cell phones? Yes.
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Post by kingedmund on Jun 30, 2020 21:57:08 GMT
Since I am wired odd ball, I don’t carry mine with me all the time. Some places there is no service so I don’t bother with it. I’ve just never really been attached to technology hence why my posts here can vary from every day to once every two weeks.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 1, 2020 17:02:18 GMT
I don't think that's how they do it. 'Contact tracing' is tracing back those individuals one had physical contact with when one was potentially infectious. How do cell phones have anything to do with it?
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Post by tangent on Jul 1, 2020 17:41:53 GMT
A few countries have developed apps that (a) detect when you're close to another person for more than 15 minutes, and (b) tell you when that person has been infected with the virus, suggesting that you isolate yourself. South Korea* used one in January/February that they developed years ago in preparation for the virus whilst Germany and India have developed apps hastily in the past three months. There may be other countries that are developing apps. The UK tried to develop one but it was a complete failure and they have now abandoned it :rolleyes: Britain is now using real people to do the work the app was supposed to do, phoning people up and asking them who they have been in contact with.
*South Korea may be using a slightly different method, I'm not sure.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 1, 2020 21:57:35 GMT
What an excellent tool for social control.
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Post by tangent on Jul 1, 2020 22:39:48 GMT
What an excellent tool for social control. This was a criticism of South Korea's system but being South Korean, they got away with it. The apps developed in Germany and Italy used anonymous data, largely as a result of restrictions in the way Google and Apple record the data. The data from their apps can only be uploaded into a government database in an anonymous way, so that the government is unable to do anything with it. Individuals themselves must take action. The UK tried to produce an app that uploaded the data together with the owner's details but it didn't work. Germany's system probably works something like this: - Andrew meets Beth
- Their phones exchange Bluetooth signals
- Andrew's phone sends Beth's phone a tag, let's say A567
- Similarly, Beth's phone sends Andrew's phone the tag B239
- After a short period of time, Andrew's app uploads {A567;B239} to the government database, along with the date and time
- Similarly, Beth's app uploads {B239;A567} to the government database
- Three days later, Andrew develops coronavirus symptoms and types this into the app
- Andrew's app uploads this information to the government database
- Beth's phone asks the government database periodically if there have been any new cases relating to her tag
- The government database informs Beth's app that the person owning A567, whom she met three days ago, has developed coronavirus and that she must therefore self-isolate
The government does not know who owns the tag A567 and cannot therefore take any action.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 1, 2020 22:45:56 GMT
And, in a society in which only a select minority actually own and operate such, how effective is it? I mean, when most of the population is offline it's useless.
As an aside, this was one of the major reasons for my resistance to any mobile communication device. It makes you a target. You can be tracked. Fuck that noise.
Fold in facial recognition programming and you've got a really troublesome witche's brew.
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Post by tangent on Jul 1, 2020 23:02:50 GMT
And, in a society in which only a select minority actually own and operate such, how effective is it? I mean, when most of the population is offline it's useless. That was not a problem in South Korea but it has been identified as a major problem in any system that the UK is thinking of producing. IIRC, 50% of the population must own smartphones that are capable of using the app. They must be willing to download the app and keep Bluetooth switched on all the time, thereby draining their batteries. And users must keep their phones with them and switched on at all times outside the house. Some countries are producing wristbands that do the same job. For example:
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Post by kingedmund on Jul 9, 2020 4:36:53 GMT
Fold in facial recognition programming and you've got a really troublesome witche's brew. Same reason I don’t want an Alexa in my home. I’m not to keen on a robot that at some point rebel on one.
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Post by tangent on Jul 9, 2020 7:31:19 GMT
I’m not to keen on a robot that at some point rebel on one. I think we're hundreds of years away from functioning robots - ones with human-like movements.
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Post by kingedmund on Jul 17, 2020 3:06:33 GMT
I typed that all wrong I see. Lol. Well. This is the start and I Don’t feel I want to go down that rabbit hole.
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Post by tangent on Jul 17, 2020 13:11:21 GMT
Well. This is the start and I Don’t feel I want to go down that rabbit hole. It would be quite entertaining if you did.
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