It was known that the software was shitty and buggy before it was foisted on the Post Office, having been rejected by DWP (and the Post Office right up until they were given no choice). It was Blair’s decision, he didn’t want to upset Fujitsu or discourage investment from Japan.
Short and long versions of a report into that on the JFSA website.
Pressure from govt to pretend that it worked, and to make the business profitable for privatisation, caused this inhuman clusterfuck.
Amazing scientist and all round decent man. I’m glad he lived to see his particle found, or probably found, or whatever the current state of the debate is.
I especially appreciate him for saying these sorts of things, to colleagues, journalists and anyone else who might listen:
I’ve heard this sentiment that it is immoral a lot on the internet, and I would like to hear more about it. It feels intuitively correct to me, but I would like to hear the reasoning behind it....
Gay was not originally a slur, AFAIK. It was adopted as a less clinical descriptor by gay people, especially gay men (again, AFAIK). There have been concerted efforts to make it into a slur and it is often used in a derogatory fashion, but it does not have a pre-history of being used as a slur.
Queer is the opposite. It was used as a slur and it is a rare example of successful reclamation of a word. A slogan in the 1980s on Gay Pride protests was “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous, get used to it”. At the time, queer was very much a slur so the chant had a bite that you wouldn’t hear in it today.
She’s very similar to JK Rowling, even if Jordan Peterson is as far as she’s got in her adventures with the far right so far.
You have an incorrect mental timeline on sports inclusion. Some sporting bodies have recently begun to introduce bans under pressure from conservative politicians desperate to distract the people they are pickpocketing. The stronger trend is for inclusion, because two years on gender-affirming hormones eliminates all the advantages a trans woman might have apart from extra height for those who went through a male puberty because they weren’t lucky enough to get puberty blockers early enough.
The 43-year-old became eligible to compete at the Olympics when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2015 changed its rules allowing transgender athletes to compete as a woman if their testosterone levels are below a certain threshold.
(Feel free to look up Hubbard’s performances before and after transition.)
One of the big tells with Lewis is her scare-mongering about trans women in women’s prisons. It has long been the case in the UK that women who are considered too violent to be housed in a women’s prison have been sent to men’s prisons. This applies to all women, cis and trans, and obviously includes trans women who have committed violent crimes against other women. People like Lewis seize on very rare instances where errors have been made to cause alarm and distress. Of course, they ignore the fates of trans women who have mistakenly been housed in men’s prisons without any of the protective segregation cis women in men’s prisons receive.
Also it was weird of you to bring up her race in the original comment - her being a white woman is orthogonal to the criticism you are making of her.
No idea why you think race and class are not relevant in a comment about her abuse of intersectionality. If you don’t understand, dictionaires exist.
As I’ve said elsewhere, it’s about who you want to benefit from your clicks. Pirate her books and articles if you want to know what she has to say (but honestly, it’s not much so probs don’t bother).
The data showed that the chance of scoring rose when teammates showed their support through touch. The effect only appeared after a failed first shot, which makes sense because such a scenario is likely to spike stress levels.
Of course, the data is not shown. And the study is not able to draw causal conclusions. In this case, they’ve hunted around and found a subset of shots (second shots after a first failed shot) where it’s true. And it’s easy to make up reasons after the fact why that might make sense.
It does seem very reasonable to hypothesise that supportive team mates make it less likely you choke on the second shot. But they haven’t shown this is down to touch (they just used that as a proxy for supportive team mates). Nor that the percentage of successful second shots after a failed first shot would be improved by more touching regardless of whether team mates are genuinely supportive or quietly seething…
Amanda Knox faces another trial for slander this week in Italy in a case that could remove the last legal stain against her, nine years after Italy’s highest court threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate....
She’s appealing a conviction for slandering him. Her grounds for appeal are that the police bullied the confession out of her.
He spent two weeks in jail and had to abandon his business and his hometown because of it.
When investigators looked at all the communication on Knox’s phone, they found a text that she says was a response to Lumumba, telling him that she would see him later and that she hoped he had a nice evening. Kox accused investigators of confusing and coercing her during the interrogation, with them allegedly insisting to her that the text was instead confirmation of a plan to meet with Lumumba later. Knox now maintains that she was forced to recall a false memory that she and Lumumba were both at the apartment the night that Kercher died, when, she says, that was not the case.
Lumumba was arrested and held for two weeks, based on the comments Knox made while in custody. Eventually, a man who had been drinking at the bar came forward, saying that Lumumba was there all night and that they had talked, giving Lumumba an alibi. Lumumba, who is Congolese, was released once the alibi put him at his bar at the time the crime took place.
Your point only makes sense if you believe that Rudy Guede was telling the truth. It’s possible but she was acquitted so you probably shouldn’t libel her here.
Just to pre-empt the usual misunderstanding when these badly reported stories get posted: this is the equivalent of an appeal, initiated by Knox. Not the Italian courts persecuting her.
It’s always the police who write up what you say, then they ask you to sign it. They wrote up what she said and she signed it. The following day she wrote a long letter saying that she didn’t think it was true because she’s been under duress. That is why the conviction for slander has been quoshed and this new trial is now happening.
It’s a confused tangle of evidence, for sure. But there are approximately two Black men in Perugia and she falsely accused the one who wasn’t there. It sticks in my craw, even if the most obvious explanation is that she is an American white woman and falsely accusing Black men is part of her heritage.
Rudy Guede did not confess. He admits he was there, on an impromptu date with Meredith Kurcher, heard a commotion while he was taking a dump, disturbed the killers, who ran for it. He pled guilty for a shorter sentence. He chose a fast-tracked trial and was originally sentenced to 30 years, reduced on appeal to 16. Knox and Sollecito were also convicted and got longer sentences than Guede because they went to trial. They were but were later freed on appeal.
I’ve no idea what the truth is but your summary is inaccurate.
If his story is true, his DNA would be found all over the place. His story being: they were making out, he didn’t flush the toilet, he fought off the attackers, and he tried to help Meredith before getting scared and running away.
I’m offering the kindest explanation for Knox falsely accusing a Black man. The other is that she saw a Black man at the scene.
She may well have ‘retrieved’ a false memory because the police were haranguing her about some texts with Lumumba but it was a lot more than her mentioning his name in passing. She signed two confessions saying that she had been in another room of the house while Lumumba murdered Meredith. Those confessions are considered inadmissible. This trial is about whether she did, in fact, slander him or whether it was entirely due to police pressure.
…the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. In the U.S., a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertson’s The New World Order, but, as we have recently seen, there are many others.
Post office operator wrongly jailed while pregnant rejects executive’s apology | Post Office Horizon scandal | The Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
My opinion on Bone conduction earphones (sh.itjust.works)
(Sorry if it’s a miss, this community looked the most fitting)...
Peter Higgs, who predicted the existence of the Higgs Boson, has died at 94 (mailings.ed.ac.uk)
Want to visit Brazil? From next year, US travelers will need to share their bank statements first (www.cnn.com)
2024 is shaping up to be the year of travel reprieves....
Saying What Can't Be Said: Israel Has Been Defeated – a Total Defeat (www.haaretz.com)
[CW: Slurs/pejoratives, morality] When is it considered immoral if someone is saying something that they know is pejorative and they are not intending it as disparaging towards the original group?
I’ve heard this sentiment that it is immoral a lot on the internet, and I would like to hear more about it. It feels intuitively correct to me, but I would like to hear the reasoning behind it....
[BBC Sounds] Helen Lewis has left the chat (www.bbc.co.uk)
I’ve really enjoyed this radio4 series about internet culture and the impact that messaging apps have had on our lives/politics....
A Pat on the Back Statistically Improves Free Throw Numbers in Basketball (www.goodnewsnetwork.org)
Amanda Knox faces a new slander trial in Italy that could remove the last legal stain against her (apnews.com)
Amanda Knox faces another trial for slander this week in Italy in a case that could remove the last legal stain against her, nine years after Italy’s highest court threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate....
These Women Came to Antarctica for Science. Then the Predators Emerged (www.wired.com)
Mother who pushed kids from moving car, killed partner was astrology influencer disturbed by eclipse (www.latimes.com)
Danielle Johnson was worried about the eclipse....