Dave Berry

Dave Berry

  • Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
    My recollection is that the satanic panic over D&D was primarily a USA phenomenon and was mostly in the 1980's. The satanic panic over child abuse was the 1990's and did affect the UK (thanks to the influence of American...
  • Commented on Shrinking the world
    a wooden bench in an unheated third class carriage and without a toilet, although the journeys did include scheduled relief stops....
  • Commented on Decision Fatigue
    At a recent reading here in Edinburgh, Randall Munroe of XKCD remarked that the most optimistic outcome of Martian terraforming would still be worse than the most pessimistic forecast of climate change here on Earth. So perhaps we should let...
  • Commented on The gathering crisis
    The posties are going on strike as well: https://inews.co.uk/news/when-next-royal-mail-strike-dates-august-septebmer-2022-1798589...
  • Commented on The gathering crisis
    The question isn't whether "this too shall pass"; it's who will take control and which policies will they implement?...
  • Commented on The gathering crisis
    The two main problems with the Scottish Independence scenario are both economic. The first is that 2/3 of Scotland's trade is with the rest of the UK; quitting the UK would create the same issues of red tape and border...
  • Commented on The ends of education
    This post seems contradictory and confused. Contradictory: on the one hand, you seem to be arguing that university education is desirable, but then on the other hand you're deriding it as just producing obedient serfs. That seems contradictory to me....
  • Commented on Behind the Ukraine war
    On the subject of tanks, Russia is also developing a next-generation tank, with improved armour and active protection systems to protect against anti-tank missiles. They aren't in production yet (and economic sanctions may delay them further). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-14_Armata...
  • Commented on Oh, 2022!
    The auto industry is currently investing in quantum cryptography. This is because the cars they are designing now will start being built in about five years and will last for another fifteen years at least, by which time they expect...
  • Commented on Quantum of Nightmares
    This year, Hannukah fell on Nov 28th to Dec 5th....
  • Commented on Omicron
    I think we're heading for either Sunak or Javid. Both millionaire libertarian banker types. (Wildcard: it depends how racist the 1922 Committee collectively feel the party base is.) I think the people who fund and lead the Conservative party would...
  • Commented on Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?
    That was a great talk, Charlie. Thanks. As I mentioned at the break, it may be interesting to see how this affects distance learning. E.g. will we see facial recognition used to verify identity in online exams, and will this...
  • Commented on Social architecture and the house of tomorrow
    Interesting questions. I'll just comment that when I was buying a new hifi earlier this month, the firm I bought it from took me round their new showroom, which included a home cinema room that they can equip for £10,000....
  • Commented on The Inevitable Brexit Thread (1)
    Alex Hewat @ 22, The main debate is between factions of the Conservative party (and the DUP, who are supposedly supporting the government). Labour, as the official opposition, are significant players, and there are factions within that party too. Smaller...
  • Commented on The Pivot
    which gave Nigel Farage a semi-permanent slot but not once invited a guest speaker from the Green Party or the SNP Are you sure? There was a recent episode of "More or Less" which compared the frequency of Question Time...
  • Commented on Solarpunk rising, or how to turn boring bureaucratic meetings into creative fodder
    At least require new-build houses to include solar panels (perhaps a combination of water heating and electricity). This would be cheaper than retrofitting the the solar panels after the houses have been built. It is unlikely to increase the price...
  • Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
    Nick, it's interesting that you bounced of The Expanse novels, because I was going to mention The Expanse TV series as an example that got some sense of scale, even within our own solar system. It's true that people still...
  • Commented on Trapped in the wrong trouser-leg of time
    On a happier note, I enjoyed the panel about utopias & SF that you participated in at the Edinburgh Book Festival last week. Thank you for alerting us to it....
  • Commented on Paging Agent 007
    At least one climate modelling program was rewritten by professional software developers. The results were unchanged; the original, badly written, program did work. IEEE Software paper If anyone wishes to prove that a climate modelling program is wrong, all they...
  • Commented on Eleven Tweets
    Maybe we should discuss strategies to accelerate ad blocking (and anti-anti-ad-blocking) penetration. That's where adding a micro-payment facility to an existing ad blocker would help. Instead of news sites fighting the ad-blockers, they could sign up for micro-payments, so that...
  • Commented on Eleven Tweets
    I reckon the best way to bring in a micropayment system is to piggyback onto a Ad Blocker. Imagine a cross-platform ad blocker that also lets you create an account for micropayments. The ad blocking functionality provides you an immediate...
  • Commented on Ever Young?
    For me, being an adult means taking responsibility for oneself (and while hale and well, depending primarily on oneself instead of on others). For me, it was taking responsibility for someone else. First, my son; now (shared with my siblings),...
  • Commented on Facts of Life and Death
    It's not clear to me that "No British government can afford to deflate the housing market". They can't trumpet this as policy but there is a clear demand for more housing and I think all the parties are proposing increases...
  • Commented on Facts of Life and Death
    What does FWCS stand for? I assume it's not Fort Wayne Community School, which is what Google returns....
  • Commented on Constitutional crisis ahoy!
    I doubt that Section 29 really amounts to a veto. If the UK leaves the EU and Scotland stays in the UK without amending that law, it will just become one of the many obsolete laws that everyone ignores. It...
  • Commented on But it's not April 1st yet!
    I see this as a precursor to running Android apps directly on Windows 10 Like an offical version of AMIDuOS?...
  • Commented on Fantasy shibboleths
    Shibboleth: the complete absence of religion. Or one religion that everyone believes in. Or, gods that are just super-strong monsters (a la D&D). Actually, this applies to much SF as well. Even though I'm an atheist, I don't expect everyone...
  • Commented on Random thought for the day
    I read somewhere that this sort of arbitration clause has been standard in trade treaties for a while. They were mainly aimed at preventing countries from nationalising corporate assets without due compensation. What has changed is that recently corporations have...
  • Commented on Second childhood?
    My 16-year-old son swears by Homestuck....
  • Commented on On the lack of cultural estrangement in SF
    In reading this thread I'm reminded of my reaction to Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. Leckie did build a different society, with a different religion and a different outlook on life. As SF, it worked and was interesting. But the characters...
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