moderatecentrist

joined 6 months ago
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Iran Publicly Executes Teen Champion Wrestler for Protesting Regime in c/news@lemmy.world
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think my view is that I don't like how oppressive Iran's regime is, but there are many world governments I don't like (including that of the US). I also think the US and Israel probably shouldn't be murdering Iranian civilians with bombs just because Trump and Bibi don't like Iran's government.

‘A toad is a perfect tenner’: experts recommend wild candidates for new banknotes in c/nature@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 0 points 3 weeks ago

I look forward to being in a future pub and hearing someone say "alright mate can you lend me a couple of toads?"

199
Amazon is reportedly developing an AI-centric smartphone (arstechnica.com)
 

Reuters said the phone is codenamed Transformer

AI integration is a “key focus” of Transformer, per Reuters’ sources, who said that Amazon wants the phone to drive usage of Amazon’s AI products

It’s unclear why Amazon thinks now is a good time to get back into phones. Even potentially low prices may not be enough to convince people to buy.

You ARE looking forward to this, right?

UK needs nuclear deterrent independent from US, Ed Davey to say in c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 1 points 3 weeks ago

Maybe the UK can partner with other European countries to build missiles for nukes, and in return those countries could get protection under the nuclear umbrella. Although I guess that would be a big commitment, promising to launch a nuclear attack on behalf of another country in certain circumstances

UK needs nuclear deterrent independent from US, Ed Davey to say in c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 3 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Fair points. But defence might be a sensible thing to spend money on, in a world where stronger powers (Russia, US, Israel) are deciding to attack weaker powers (Ukraine, Iran, Palestine) just because they feel like it

UK needs nuclear deterrent independent from US, Ed Davey to say in c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 2 points 3 weeks ago

I guess the UK should build up independent capabilities first, before pulling away from the US. Also maybe the UK should seek greater ties with the EU, which together can become independent from the US. The costs of strategic independence could then be shared across the EU.

32
UK needs nuclear deterrent independent from US, Ed Davey to say (www.theguardian.com)
 

Sir Ed Davey thinks the UK should build a "fully independent [nuclear] deterrent", presumably involving British missiles, rather than use American Trident missiles which are currently the delivery vehicle for British nukes.

Do you agree with him?

Migration minister fails UK citizenship test question in c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago

Nice, my sense of Britishness remains intact

Migration minister fails UK citizenship test question in c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Brit here:

spoiler

  1. Marmite
  2. Guinness
  3. Michael Sheen? First Welsh actor that comes to mind. I think Christian Bale was born in Wales but considers himself to be English.
  4. Frankie Boyle if I remember correctly
  5. Ant and Dec? I think they're both married to women, I don't know
  6. Tea
Migration minister fails UK citizenship test question in c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm British born and bred and I got 88%. Some of those questions are interesting and definitely better questions than asking the height of the London Eye.

Maybe the UK citizenship test should try to select people who support important British principles (rule of law, democracy, religious freedom, legal equality of men and women, etc). But I suppose somebody could pretend to support those things for the purposes of passing a test, and after the test they might decide they don't believe in democracy after all. Also I'm sure there are born and bred Brits who don't believe in democracy.

199
After outages, Amazon to make senior engineers sign off on AI-assisted changes (arstechnica.com)
 

The online retail giant said there had been a “trend of incidents” in recent months, characterized by a “high blast radius” and “Gen-AI assisted changes” among other factors

Maybe LLMs should be used cautiously. Maybe companies shouldn't be directed by executives who have bought into the "AI" hype train without fully understanding it.

The first lesson of war is ‘know your enemy’ – and Britain’s enemy now is Donald Trump in c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well it's just a suggestion I'm thinking of, and I'm happy for anybody to prove me wrong. But yes I guess the reality is that no European country alone (such as the UK) can fully stand up to the US, because no European country alone comes anywhere close to the US in terms of military power or economic power. Europe together can stand up to the US though.

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The first lesson of war is ‘know your enemy’ – and Britain’s enemy now is Donald Trump (www.theguardian.com)
 

Maybe the UK should rejoin the EU. Maybe that's the best way to protect the UK from the hostile United States.

US would "strenuously oppose" Poland or other European state developing nuclear weapons, says Pentagon official in c/europe@feddit.org
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago

True. And the UK has its own nukes but unfortunately relies on American missiles to deliver them.

Yes it would be good if the umbrella was enlarged, and also European countries could contribute funds and engineers for this potentially Europe-wide nuclear programme

Claude Code deletes developers' production setup, including its database and snapshots — 2.5 years of records were nuked in an instant in c/technology@lemmy.world
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why would somebody trust AI with access to their production servers, and why would that person also not have remote database backups

I was on social media before web browsers existed. I am Legion. in c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
[–] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

I looked that up, looks interesting. Apparently it's not available for us in the UK though because they say they don't have the resources to comply with age verification, which is now a legal requirement for social media in the UK

11
Yes, Keir Starmer must do better and go faster in bringing Britain closer to Europe. Here’s how to reset his reset (www.theguardian.com)
 

Is this author right to suggest the UK should get closer to Europe?

Or are Reform correct with their view that Europeans are nefarious adversaries who only want to control us?

39
Starmer’s position on Iran pleases no one, but that is because there are no good options (www.theguardian.com)
 

Thoughts? The article says that Britain can't annoy the US too much over this Iran war, because UK security is unfortunately completely dependent upon the US.

Starmer has to deploy what influence he has with the White House carefully. He must consider other strategic goals – the need to keep Trump onside in Ukraine, for example. And he must be mindful that Britain’s own military and intelligence capabilities are enmeshed with Pentagon systems.

As one [minister] puts it, Britain would be “massively exposed” if a capricious US administration decided it no longer wanted our friendship.

Perhaps the best way for the UK to stop being a vassal of the US is for the UK to join forces with its European allies. Europe together can surely create the capabilities needed to defend the continent.

58
Donald Trump and the climate crisis: the US is in reverse while China ploughs ahead (www.theguardian.com)
25
‘Right about everything’: Liz Truss tweets photo of meeting with Trump (www.theguardian.com)
 

The two finest political minds of recent history have met

46
When Amazon badly needed a ride, Europe's Ariane 6 rocket delivered (arstechnica.com)
 

Stuff like this makes me think maybe my country (the UK) would be better off back in the EU. Europe together can create great technology like rockets. The UK alone can't.

39
PM asks Sir Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK 'colonised by immigrants' (www.bbc.co.uk)
 

I assume many of you have already seen this news by now

It's interesting to see Sir Keir explicitly asking someone to apologise for such comments. Maybe he thinks he needs to be more forthright about his values so that Labour will choose to keep him as their leader.

38
Zero net migration would shrink UK economy by 3.6%, says thinktank (www.theguardian.com)
 

The article says this:

Jump of £37bn in budget deficit by 2040 would force government to increase taxes, NIESR predicts

If you were prime minister, would you cut immigration even if it reduces GDP and requires tax rises, or would you keep current levels of immigration?

6
MP expected to step down potentially paving way for Burnham's return (www.bbc.co.uk)
 

If the Gorton and Denton seat becomes available, Burnham would need approval to run from Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) a body which is generally seen as being supportive of Sir Keir.

Several Labour sources said they expected the NEC to object on the grounds that Burnham standing for Parliament would in turn trigger a by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty, which would be seen as a drain on party funds as well as politically risky.

Thoughts? Should Andy Burnham try to challenge Sir Keir? Would this help the country at all?

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