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[Embattle]

1% of English residents take one-fifth of overseas flights, survey shows

 

[Gwadien]

No shit

 

[DaGaffer]

1% of English residents take one-fifth of overseas flights, survey shows

It's a pretty meaningless statistic. Everyone immediately jumps to "rich bastards abusing the environment for fun and jollies" mode; that's certainly the tenor of the Green Party commentary in the article. The reality is the vast majority of those people are frequent short hop fliers, so their CO2KM may be little different from the people who do a couple of long hauls a year. I work with a bunch of people who back and forth from London to Dublin every week, they're the drivers of volume.

 

[Embattle]

Yes but it is still useful when you bare in mind the other statistics such as 48% of the population didn't fly at all last year.

Also wouldn't the effect of many short journeys be even worse environmentally than one long haul, on short haul there are alternative forms of transportation and the repeated take offs surely make it worse.

Personally I believe you should be charged more if you fly more. I even gave some thought to having a system where you are allocated a certain amount of flights/milage each year, you could introduce a trading system as well.

I've not flown since 2002 when I went to Florida, in fact my total flights are 3 with 2 to Florida and 1 to Menorca.

 

[Scouse]

Question should be - why do you need to fly from London to Dublin every week when videoconferencing is so ubiquitous?

It's not every week that you need to workshop face to face all the time?

Whilst I take the point about long haul (which may or may not be on more efficient jets, but do tend to be higher altitude - which is worse) I know people who do the same to Germany every week.

Increasing costs based on numbers of flights taken would primarily hit business - and that would force a culture change to either teleworking or local staffing - both of which are more desireable outcomes.

 

[Job]

Its going to be hilarious when someone makes a deepfake extension for skype.

 

[DaGaffer]

Yes but it is still useful when you bare in mind the other statistics such as 48% of the population didn't fly at all last year.

Also wouldn't the effect of many short journeys be even worse environmentally than one long haul, on short haul there are alternative forms of transportation and the repeated take offs surely make it worse.

Personally I believe you should be charged more if you fly more. I even gave some thought to having a system where you are allocated a certain amount of flights/milage each year, you could introduce a trading system as well.

I've not flown since 2002 when I went to Florida, in fact my total flights are 3 with 2 to Florida and 1 to Menorca.

Most of the damage aircraft do is a function of altitude so one long haul can be worse than several short hauls. And while I agree people should be encouraged to use surface transport instead if possible, in practical terms that's not always possible; is a 50 minute flight ultimately worse than a four hour train plus two hour ferry journey (never mind the practicality, I'm not even certain on environmental grounds; diesel ships are HUGE emitters).

Interestingly lots of business flyers integrate carbon offsets into their corporate travel budgets already.

 

[Embattle]

Most of the damage aircraft do is a function of altitude so one long haul can be worse than several short hauls. And while I agree people should be encouraged to use surface transport instead if possible, in practical terms that's not always possible; is a 50 minute flight ultimately worse than a four hour train plus two hour ferry journey (never mind the practicality, I'm not even certain on environmental grounds; diesel ships are HUGE emitters).

Interestingly lots of business flyers integrate carbon offsets into their corporate travel budgets already.

Also interestingly isn't there considerable controversy over carbon offsets.

 

[DaGaffer]

Question should be - why do you need to fly from London to Dublin every week when videoconferencing is so ubiquitous?

It's not every week that you need to workshop face to face all the time?

Whilst I take the point about long haul (which may or may not be on more efficient jets, but do tend to be higher altitude - which is worse) I know people who do the same to Germany every week.

Increasing costs based on numbers of flights taken would primarily hit business - and that would force a culture change to either teleworking or local staffing - both of which are more desireable outcomes.

Actually in my job most of the ideation and design thinking is face to face and happens every day. But we're an unusual case. What's a lot more common is room full of consultants parachuted into a business, sometimes for months, sometimes for years, and they're a. Not going to able to understand the business by videoconferencing (at least not at first) b. May simply not be available locally, and c. May have to be on prem anyway if they're dealing with data etc I'd be surprised if there are any serious businesses in Dublin that don't have a few people in their business of that type.

One of challenges of being a small country is you're not going to have local talent on tap.

 

[Gwadien]

Game changer; Amazon Alexa gets Samuel L Jackson's voice

 

[Scouse]

SIDAMP off the google play store. For all your Commodore 64 Sid music needs.

It's free, has a brill interface, auto downloads the high voltage sid collection if you want too.

Casting it through the google home app to my chromecast audio so the last ninja is blaring out of my old stereo

 

[Scouse]

Game changer; Amazon Alexa gets Samuel L Jackson's voice

Having used both - Google's device and interaction is way better tbh.

But star power pulls...

 

[Moriath]

SIDAMP off the google play store. For all your Commodore 64 Sid music needs.

It's free, has a brill interface, auto downloads the high voltage sid collection if you want too.

Casting it through the google home app to my chromecast audio so the last ninja is blaring out of my old stereo

Speccy was more iconic music wise. The c64 was too good haha

 

[Scouse]

Speccy was more iconic music wise. The c64 was too good haha

Ah, that old chestnut

In this case you're objectively mistaken - the SID chip still has a huge following because of it's unique sound. Lots of music still being produced off the back of it and you can go to festivals which revolve around it.

Slay radio is a station (out of gothenburg I think) dedicated to C64 music - loads of people doing remixes and reworkings of the old classics

 

[Gwadien]

@Scouse

Here lies the problem.

Quarter of secondary pupils 'get private tuition'

Not that parents get tutors, that's fine, it's the fact that GCSEs are so fucking hard and education is so dire that parents feel like they have to.

Mental.

I guess it promotes growth in the economy though.

 

[Scouse]

Here lies the problem. Quarter of secondary pupils 'get private tuition'

That's not really a solveable problem. If people have done well, they're going to try to provide for their children. Always have, always will.

The bigger problem is the two-tier educational system that we subsidise for the rich (they pay, yes, but these schools run tax free and swallow up the best teaching talent) - creating a structural imbalance in our democracy.


Anyway. GCSE's are far from "so fucking hard". What it is is that teachers have bob to no hope of getting kids to be interested in the huge classes of massively differing abilities and social backgrounds.

Always makes me laugh when people say "it's not about class sizes" - and try to produce evidence to prove that point. From first-hand experience - being on the receiving end and teaching adults - that once you get over about 15 people the ability for anyone to receive quality that is tailored to their specific needs is massively reduced.

Funny that state schools have massive classes and private schools it's about 10-15. With better teachers.

 

[Wij]

Been getting tutoring for my kids for years and they're only 8 and 11.

 

[Gwadien]

That's not really a solveable problem. If people have done well, they're going to try to provide for their children. Always have, always will.

The bigger problem is the two-tier educational system that we subsidise for the rich (they pay, yes, but these schools run tax free and swallow up the best teaching talent) - creating a structural imbalance in our democracy.


Anyway. GCSE's are far from "so fucking hard". What it is is that teachers have bob to no hope of getting kids to be interested in the huge classes of massively differing abilities and social backgrounds.

Always makes me laugh when people say "it's not about class sizes" - and try to produce evidence to prove that point. From first-hand experience - being on the receiving end and teaching adults - that once you get over about 15 people the ability for anyone to receive quality that is tailored to their specific needs is massively reduced.

Funny that state schools have massive classes and private schools it's about 10-15. With better teachers.

When was the last time you looked at a GCSE paper?

 

[Scouse]

When was the last time you looked at a GCSE paper?

This year. GCSE Biology. What a joke.

When was the last time you looked at an O-Level paper?

 

[Gwadien]

So you're judging GCSEs by looking at 1 paper?

OK.

 

[DaGaffer]

So you're judging GCSEs by looking at 1 paper?

OK.

I did the maths one a couple of years ago, some thing in the Guardian I think (something like that). Twas a piece of piss, but I am a lot better at maths than I was at 15.

 

[Gwadien]

History is insane, the easiest way to explain is it is that they've basically pushed GCSE up to A-level and A-level beyond.

Maybe it was necessary since so many Universities are focusing on having extra writing courses because lots of people can't string a sentence together.

But the problem ultimately is that if you compare the hours that the exam board recommend to spend on that subject compared to what the school can actually provide, it wasn't close when I was at school, but its definitely getting further away.

Again, this benefits the well to do kids, as they will do the extra work at home, but lots of kids won't.

When I was at school we had lessons for the content and maybe a week or two for the coursework, and was expected to do most of that at home, 'home work' was for hammering out essays and getting them marked, and or maybe prep for a presentation or something.

Now homework is the above and also quite a lot of content, content that can be difficult to absorb if you're just reading it and not having the initiative to search for other sources to make it more entertaining.

And yes, @DaGaffer I think lots of people look at education and consider the content easy, when they're adults.

 

[Job]

Straight from the horses mouth.

BBC bosses: 'We are not impartial on racism and Naga Munchetty had right to speak out'

 

[georgie]

Straight from the horses mouth.

BBC bosses: 'We are not impartial on racism and Naga Munchetty had right to speak out'

So you think racism is an issue they should be impartial about?

 

[Job]

Yes..quite obviously, in fact its in their charter.
They HAVE to be impartial...of course they completely ignore it

 

[Gwadien]

So in one thread you're jumping at 'white racism' what ever the flying fuck that means.

The other thread you're saying that we should ignore racism.

Scum.

 

[Scouse]

So in one thread you're jumping at 'white racism' what ever the flying fuck that means.

Y'see Gwad. This doesn't help.

Of course white people are subject to racism. It's not like <insert other colour here> people are any better than us. Which means they're just as racist.

Difference is - we live in a majority white country, so it's much rarer. But don't kid yourself that it's not a thing.

 

[Gwadien]

Y'see Gwad. This doesn't help.

Of course white people are subject to racism. It's not like <insert other colour here> people are any better than us. Which means they're just as racist.

Difference is - we live in a majority white country, so it's much rarer. But don't kid yourself that it's not a thing.

Yeah, it exists, but I think the term against the majority massively undermines the expanded problem and definition of 'racism'.

People believe that racism is a bloke going down the street and calling an indian guy a paki, but it's not, it's so much more than that, it's perception, it's opportunity, it's targeted policing based on skin colour...

Sure whilst a Indian guy might be racist towards a white person, the white person doesn't struggle in the latter areas due to their skin colours.

Inb4 Job comes in with yeah but white people are the victims of racism in other countries, but do you really want to sink (you may see it as rise) to their level.

 

[Scouse]

Yeah, it exists, but I think the term against the majority massively undermines the expanded problem and definition of 'racism'.

Absolute rubbish. Racism is racism. Pure and simple. Zero tolerance. From anyone.

People believe that racism is a bloke going down the street and calling an indian guy a paki, but it's not, it's so much more than that, it's perception, it's opportunity, it's targeted policing based on skin colour...

Sure whilst a Indian guy might be racist towards a white person, the white person doesn't struggle in the latter areas due to their skin colours.

Sorry - this is simply a function of living in a white majority country. It doesn't excuse it in any way - but yes, if you're a minority of any kind you'll experience increased prejudice.

But you don't combat racism by not acknowledging what it is fully, and to it's fullest extent. And that includes all of us in it together.

It's not just a problem of white people's making - if you act that way or try to present it that way it's: A) a lie and B) a lie that gives arseholes like Job fuel to deny their bigotry.

 

[Moriath]

Positive discrimination asking only black or whatever to apply is racism. And shouldnt be allowed any more than seeking white people for a job is allowed tbh.

Should be the best person for the job. No ifs or buts