Mike Scott

Recent Actions

• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  But note that things have changed since 1995 -- I think company law is UK-wide and isn't different in Scotland. There's a new legal status of "community interest company", which is basically the UK version of a non-profit. It gets...
• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  American Worldcons used to run over Labor Day, but then Dragoncon grabbed that weekend. As best I can determine, the last US Worldcon on that weekend was L.A.con IV in 2006, though it ran Wednesday through Sunday and so didn't...
• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  I was a Bid Chair for Loncon 3, the 2014 Worldcon in London, and ran Facilities on the convention committee. We received no meaningful support from any level of government, or from any quasi-government organisation such as Visit London. Worldcons...
• Commented on The impotence of the long-distance trillionaire
  There’s the Marxist argument that workers should be entitled to receive the value of their work. Steve Jobs’s work was worth at least $100 billion to Apple; why should Apple’s other shareholders get all of that value and not him?...
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  No one is going to let a major bank go under again. That lesson from 2008 has been learned. Any bank that has a liquidity crisis will be nationalised, and keep trading and honouring its financial obligations....
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  The Internal Market Bill passed the third reading in the Lords with the amendments to make it comply with the Withdrawal Agreement and international law. The government can either accept it with the amendments, or put it through the Commons...
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  Chrisj @10. We don’t have the highest death rate from Covid-19 in Europe. This is just the left wing’s version of the British exceptionalism that they so decry from the right wing. Just as we’re not uniquely good, we’re also...
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  There won’t be customs inspections on the border in Northern Ireland. The Withdrawal Agreement that was signed in January prevents that. The customs inspections will be between GB and NI, not between Ireland and NI....
• Commented on Dead plots
  “No signal” is perfectly plausible in 2020 in the centre of the city of Canterbury. It’s a combination of lots of buildings with thick stone walls and a conservation area (and UNESCO World Heritage Site) that stops anyone from putting...
• Commented on "It'll all be over by Christmas"
  Noel @40: Bolsonaro has just sacked the Health Minister in Brazil. Breaking news in the past few minutes....
• Commented on "It'll all be over by Christmas"
  If the Republicans turn against Trump, they don’t need the embarrassment of new impeachment hearings. They can use the 25th Amendment to remove him for inability to hold the office of President, which is certainly true....
• Commented on A serious question
  Are you exact about that 0.5° angular diameter? Because if so, then not all full moons on Earth will trigger lycanthropy — at its maximum separation from Earth, the moon’s angular diameter is 29.3’, just under half a degree....
• Commented on Long range forecast
  Don't buy short-term coal or oil futures, either. The long term is just a sequence of short terms, and if something will lose out in the long term then it will lose out in one or more short terms. This...