Martin Smith

from now on this is what i'm calling all techbros

Scenes from England

but it was ‘political correctness’ that stopped the police properly investigating

Mockup drawing of a UK parliament petition where the petitioner has asked for "good thing please" with description "we think the UK needs this". Government responded: "No."

Every UK petition is like this

In any other field, no one would bat an eye at doctors describing a treatment that reduces depression, suicidal ideation and self-harm as "life saving." It's a perfectly acceptable shorthand.

But because gender-criticals have no evidence for their central claim, they constantly resort to gotchas.

This entire panic runs on weaponized pedantry.

It's true that studies have not proven that gender-affirming care reduces *completed* suicides but that is because teen suicide is very rare! So few kids transition that you can't do a study large enough to get statistical significance.

(also shows nicely why cars are a much bigger deal than planes, and a modest reduction in and electrification of driving would be as effective as a complete ban on flying)

Ummm actually cis women are often too feeble to lift the heavier pieces such as the rooks and knights, and their biologically feemale brains can't plan ahead more than one turn. Also what if a man pretends to be a female grand master in order to sexually assault someone at a chess tournament

Good thread about conference affordability. I feel priced out of so many UX/user research conferences especially when you factor in hotel and travel. Not everyone is getting their employer to pay for stuff.

THREAAAAD

Wilhelm Kettler, painted by Joachim Zivert (probably), wearing 16th century dress, including buckled shoes, hose, a cape, a large collar, a striped gold and silver doublet, puffed sleeves, a red cape trimmed in gold thread, and a huge pair of knee-length breeches, also in silver/gold stripes, and looking so bulbous as to be inflated

As it’s 20 June, we might celebrate any number of marvellous events today. Firstly, there’s the 451st anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia, and owner and wearer of these still unsurpassed trousers

Computers used to scream every time they connected to the Internet. They knew. They tried to warn us. We did not listen.

Apply for a diversity ticket for Front End North | Front End North Conference Front End North is pleased to offer a small number of diversity tickets for this year’s conference

📢 Thanks to the generosity of local company @hiveit.co.uk and a few lovely individuals we are now able to offer a small number of diversity tickets for this year’s Front End North conference in Sheffield on 10th July.

See frontendnorth.com/blog/2025/06... for full details.

I was terrified of this image when I saw it on the inner sleeve of one of my dad’s records aged five. Haunted me. It didn’t make any sense to me. No one dressed like that in Dunstable.

ANYONE who thinks ANY group should accept fewer human rights than everyone else is totally unfit to serve as an EHRC commissioner.

The public meltdown happening between the world’s richest man 🙄 and the President of the United States 🙄🙄 once again begs the age-old question: are men simply too emotional to be in positions of power?

If you think there is a giant conspiracy between the British government, the media, and a handful of well-funded genitally-obsessed bigots to harass and dehumanize trans people, that's because there is.

This is so fucking good

I genuinely find this very shocking. Paul Nurse isn't a fringe figure or a random academic. Astonishing that government wasn't *approaching* the Crick for support with testing, even more astonishing that they ignored his frequent attempts to get in touch to offer expertise essentially for free.

Nick Tyrone Israel winning the audience vote at Eurovision does suggest that the left is way, way off in where they think the European public is on Israel-Palestine. Less shrieking and more convincing might turn that around, but you could say that about any issue now, I suppose.

Wanker 1: I voted 60 times for Israel using credit cards for three countries Wanker 2: I voted 100 times using 5 credit cards

Nick Tyrone: the audience vote for Eurovision shows the left are wrong on Israel-Palestine

The "audience": I'm voting hundreds of times for Israel

chatgpt log: What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even-playing fields when it comes to trade deficit? Set minimum at 10%. Reasoned about trade tariffs and deficits for 10 seconds v A straightforward (if naïve) method is to set the tariff rate for each trading partner equal to the percentage share of the trade deficit relative to that country's total imports-always no less than 10%. In formula form: Tariff Rate (%) = max(10, (Trade Deficit ÷ Total Imports) * 100) For example, if the US runs a $20 billion deficit on $100 billion worth of imports from a country, the calculated rate is (20/100)×100 = 20%. If the deficit were only 5%, you'd still impose a 10% floor. This method ignores the intricate dynamics of international trade-such as elasticities, retaliatory measures, and supply chain nuances-but it provides a blunt, proportional rule to "level the playing field." One might implement it in Python like so: [code]

Gemini answer: Okay, let's break down the idea of using tariffs to achieve an "even playing field" defined as eliminating the US trade deficit. While the goal of balancing trade is understandable, devising an "easy way" to calculate tariffs to achieve this is extremely complex, and most economists would argue it's not feasible or desirable for several reasons. However, let's outline a highly simplified conceptual approach based only on the numbers, ignoring the vast real-world complexities and consequences: Simplified (and Problematic) Calculation Idea: 1. Identify the Bilateral Deficit: Determine the trade deficit the US has with a specific country (Country X). Deficit_X = Value of Imports from X - Value of • Exports to X 2. Target Reduction: The goal is to reduce imports from Country X (or increase their cost to US buyers) by the amount of the deficit, so that the value effectively balances out. 3. Calculate Required Tariff (Ignoring Economics): • If you assume, very unrealistically, that a tariff directly reduces the value of imports by a corresponding percentage (which it doesn't - it increases the price), you could try: Required Reduction % = Deficit_X / Value of • Imports from X

Claude: What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even-playing fields when it comes to trade deficit? Set minimum at 10%. To calculate tariffs that could theoretically level the playing field for trade deficits, I'd suggest a straightforward approach based on the trade imbalance percentage: 1. Calculate the bilateral trade deficit with each trading partner: Trade Deficit - US Imports from Country - US Exports to Country 2. Express this as a percentage of total bilateral trade: Deficit Percentage - (Trade Deficit / Total Bilateral Trade) × 100 3. Apply a tariff rate that corresponds to this percentage, with your minimum 10% floor: Tariff Rate = max(Deficit Percentage, 10%) This creates a proportional response where countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher tariffs. For example: • If Country A has a 25% trade surplus with the US (meaning the US has a 25% deficit), apply a 25% tariff • If Country B has a 5% trade surplus with the US, apply the minimum 10% tariff This method is relatively simple to calculate and directly ties tariff levels to trade imbalances. However, I should note that economists generally caution that trade deficits alone don't necessarily indicate unfair trade practices, and tariffs can have complex economic consequences including increased consumer prices and potential retaliation. Would you like me to elaborate on any part of this approach or discuss potential refinements to make it more sophisticated?

Grok: the deficit. The deficit as a percentage of total trade is $295B/$582B = 50.69%. Using the formula Tariff% = 10% + (Deficit% × Scaling Factor), we choose a scaling factor of 50 for illustration: • Tariff = 10% + (50.69% × 50) = 10% + 25.345% = 35.345%, rounded to 35.3%. This means a 35.3% tariff on Chinese goods could be proposed to offset the imbalance, aiming to reduce imports and encourage domestic production or exports. Extending to Other Countries To provide a broader view, here's a table of top US trading partners with 2024 deficits, using data from The Motley Fool and similar calculations (assuming scaling factor of 50 for consistency): [data table headings] Country Deficit (USD Billion) Total Trade (USD Billion) Deficit % Calculate d Tariff % China -295 582 50.69% 35.3% Mexico -172 840 20.48% 20.2% Vietnam -123 (Data incomplet e, estimate) ~30% 25.0% Ireland -87 (Data incomplet e, estimate) ~25% 22.5% Germany -85 (Data incomplete estimate) ~20% 20.0%

guess where they got their weird trade deficit math from?

i went to the pit for y'all and brought back the screenshots with alt text

This year’s Sheffield Adventure Film Festival is putting the future of our planet front and centre ShAFF has long been known for its blend of extreme sports and white-knuckle adventures – but the festival now wants to explore our relationship with the living world.

“We're not just basically peddling high-octane films about helicopter rides across the dwindling glaciers”

The Sheffield Adventure Film Festival returns for 2025, and this year its putting the spotlight on our relationship with the living world.

@sammgreg.bsky.social reports 🏂

#ShAFF #Sheffield

tweet by paulbrislen @paulbrislen "As a German, I just want to get this straight. The entire Western world wants us to build up a huge army, march through Poland and fight the Russians if necessary. Just writing it down so there are no misunderstandings in future...”

important to establish consent

I absolutely bloody despise the "hand over your data or pay up" model and I hate that the useless effing ICO thinks this is OK. In other news, either set up a Pi-hole if you're reasonably handy with tech, or sign up for NextDNS, which does the same thing in the cloud nextdns.io

The greatest backstory ever.

If I’ve learned anything at all in life it would be to never turn down an opportunity to draw an alligator in a jaunty hat.

For some reason Calvin is telling Hobbes: "DEI initiatives were not put in place to ensure lower-qualified minorities could get hired instead of more highly-qualified white people, it was put in place to ensure lower-qualified white people were not hired instead of more highly-qualified minorities." It's a lovely color image of the two of them walking through a snowy landscape, so even though I don't really know why it was chosen to convey this particular message, I do appreciate the art.