The Humble Bumblebee

Exactly! They are on the side of the angels, so it’s completely understandable that they will use all means at their disposal to fight evil. Which is what their opponents are, so obviously they should be resisted. It’s not about the methods, it’s about who wields them.

Data varies widely, but the R&D spend of pharmaceutical companies is between 8 and 18% of their cost structure, and all the rest of the costs are NOT fixed. It’s simply untrue that medicines cannot be developed without the US being price-gauged in the process. This is eminently affordable.

Sure. It’s just such a sad state of affairs that we got ourselves into as a species, where our very health, while eminently achievable, don’t happen because resources are allocated in such a stupid and short-sighted way.

While this is true, isn’t that just a difference between insane profits and normal profits? This is certainly not about affordability as R&D costs are nowhere close to their greatest expenditure, and they wouldn’t have to spend insane amounts on marketing in the US if they won’t be selling there.

Health is way too important to be left to the vagaries of the market, especially as the incentives are so clearly misaligned. A single dose that cures, which would be ideal for us humans, is like death to pharmaceutical companies.

This would be obvious in any sane civilisation, and acted upon!

That’s because health is way too serious a matter to be left to the vagaries of the market, especially when the incentives are so clearly off. A single cheap dose that cures, which would be ideal for all of us, is death to pharmaceutical companies. This would be obvious in any sane civilisation!

Definitely! 😂

And here is Starmer’s fatal flaw. Nothing, no matter how passionately he believes in it, is more important to him than political convenience. So the man committed to tackling violence against women and girls appoints the associate of the sex-trafficking predator. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Ossoff: We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It’s the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class. They are the elites they pretend to hate.

Well, this would be a fun test of the Lascelles Convention. The king can refuse to call an election if he can rely on finding an alternative prime minister, which is surely the case if the PM's doing it to avoid a leadership challenge

Yes. A noticeable amount. Sometimes, a sufficient amount, and sometimes even significant amount, depending on the context. It’s never a minuscule amount, it has to bring you to a different level or stage.

Not to mention that those algorithms are completely opaque and routinely subject to arbitrary changes, so public discourse can't even adapt to them! The whole thing is completely and utterly unsustainable. Heads should roll!

This is what every government should be doing. These platforms should be regulated and forced to behave according to the law, otherwise democracy is over. You can't have a few unimaginably wealthy men have complete control over algorithms that are shaping public discourse on dominant platforms!

Pedro Sánchez: "We must speak clearly about the management of platforms such as X and the vision of figures like Elon Musk. Freedom of expression is not the riaht of a magnate to buy the public debate and manipulate it through algorithms that amplify confusion. Spain will move forward with legislation under which technology executives will assume direct criminal liability for serious violations on their platforms. The era of hiding behind servers is over."

Spain’s PM: “The days of hiding behind servers are over.”

Because you don’t know in advance that is going to be the case. And even if you knew, your children shouldn’t be penalised for it!

Agreed.

Not sure “backed up” is the right description. I doubt that they are supportive of this, there’s no benefit and all cost for them, it’s just that they are too craven to do anything about it!

Not sure genius is the word you’re looking for. Just a completely shameless guy with insatiable greed and an opportunity. A kid in a candy shop with the shopkeeper unconscious, nothing genius about it.

innovation, but national security and, ultimately, sovereignty.

access to officials of International Criminal Court, and the companies complied.

It would be strategic irresponsibility of the highest order for European countries to allow this dependency to persist now that the US is no longer a reliable ally. This is not about efficient investment and

Of course it’s better to have an open, competitive market. But, in this case, this is not on the menu if American software giants are involved.

This is critical infrastructure. The US government has already shown willingness to wield it as a weapon when they asked the providers to withdraw

So not so much that AI is taking jobs but companies are laying folks off to pay for AI in the hope it takes folks jobs.

Indeed. That last bit is a strong tell…

Agreed. A strong coalition of democratic middle powers is the way to go. Hopefully that's the way we choose.

somehow force, cajoled and prodded into doing the right thing. Doable, but not easy. Hopefully, people have had enough of a shock to demand real change this time. Hopefully it won't just be another Occupy movement that has great momentum and ideas, and the fizzles out.

What a time to be alive!

can only prosper in an extremely divided society. And they are currently going too fast to maintain consensus. So there will be an opportunity in the near future.

The problem is that elites have shown to be utterly incapable of leading the world to anything better, so they will have to be ...

tolerance of differences as long as goals are broadly in the same direction, coalition building. United we stand, divided we fall, and all that!

It's not going to be easy, but there is a path, because the kind of sociopathy and nihilism that is currently in charge is foreign to most humans, and ...

libertarians, evangelicals and white nationalists to get on, yet they somehow managed to unite them all under one banner, while left-of-centre tribes were pummeling each other over minor differences.

There are lessons there. Don't underestimate the enemy, and also strategy, inclusiveness, ...

and came up with Fox News, which was incredibly successful for them. Once they had media dominance, culture wars also started bearing fruit, and, finally, the blessing of social media and co-option of tech bros.

They were also incredibly good at coalition building. There is no reason for ...

Well, there has been almost a century of gradual, quite dramatic progress. It's just that the conservatives saw that they were on a long term losing path in the 1970s, and decided to play a long game. They built think tanks, started taking over the media, figured out the importance of propaganda ...