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You know if you've had a drink, you don't know exactly what speed you're going.

Sure, but 1 pint is still under the limit for most people and many people do drive on that basis. There's also the time factor. If I have a pint at 7pm can I drive at 9pm? If I have 6 pints starting at 7pm can I drive at 7am? Yet somehow we can have a concept of "units" and such for drink driving to give people an idea. Much as you may not like it many people teeter around the edge of the drink drive limits purely because the limits are so high (they're half or lower in other bits of Europe) and the risk of getting caught is so low.

And people know when someone is too pissed to drive, but somehow people aren't capable of knowing whether they're going faster than 20mph on a bicycle? Really?

I'd suggest that a good number of people who regularly go over 20mph already have a speedometer in the form of a GPS, and if not, a significant percentage of people capable of going over 20mph on the flat will know quite well that they're going over 20mph.

It's all pissing in the wind as it doesn't have a hope in hell of coming into force, but the argument that you need to have a speedo is just a shit one - as the drink driving limits show.

In Richmond Park (where they were often enforcing the 20mph speed limit) the approach by the police seemed quite simple:

• someone doing ~23mph on the flat = meh
  
• someone freewheeling down Sawyer's Hill at 28mph = meh
  
• someone actively pedalling down Sawyer's Hill at 35mph = pulled over
  

Any technologists here who can weigh in on whether Meta’s metaverse really is doing as poorly as it seems?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/08/17/does-mark-zuckerberg-not-understand-how-bad-his-metaverse-looks/

You can often drink ride too, I think the important think is to not compare apples to giant peaches.

Any technologists here who can weigh in on whether Meta’s metaverse really is doing as poorly as it seems?

Ironic that that Forbes article seems to live on the ugliest and most unusable website that I have seen in ages

All cars have a registration number clearly visible.

This means that cars are never driven poorly, or illegally - well, it would if the registration number had the effect that is being mooted here.

ftfy

Same for insurance. I know it's not going to happen but it's funny how a government who are supposed to hate red tape keep suggesting extra red tape when it wouldn't effect Tory-voting DM readers.

DM readers are the least self-sufficient bunch of handout demanding fucking children that existed.

"why are we giving subsidies to [blank] 😡"

"let the market decide"

"cut red tape to free business"

"I need a government regulator and compensation for my diesel that I bought because of the lower BIK, even though the writing has been on the wall since 2010."

the japanese government has asked people to come up with ideas to encourage people to drink more booze (so it gets more tax)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/17/japan-government-launches-competition-to-get-people-drinking-alcohol-drinks-tax-revenue

I know of a great Instagram account that says they shouldn’t

1 Attachment

The original, accept no substitute
https://instagram.com/shibuyameltdown?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Some gems in there.
Just going to get some more wine.

Some gins in there.

I thought it looked different. Hey ho

Forbes.com is really just a self-publishing platform, a bit like Medium. Although it does have some 'staff' articles.

Happy end for P&O Ferries, seems like they were right and their staff cost them potential
profits of almost 1 million quid per person. God bless Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/18/po-ferries-owner-reports-record-breaking-profits-after-mass-sacking

They got rid of British seafarers so they could hire Filipinos and treat them the same as the Indian migrant workers who build Dubai's skyscrapers. If only the British seafarers were protected by EU labour laws.

Why nationalise only the failures? They should take equity stakes in energy companies rather than offering loans, and thus own the successes

Might be being thick but how does that work out?

Am sure I read somewhere that maritime workers don't have regular employment rights, EU or otherwise.

The Guardian burying the lede somewhat

the bulk of revenues and profits come from other divisions. It operates ports in 78 countries on six continents including London Gateway and Southampton

Obvs not going to defend p&o's actions, but yeah they're not really connected. Except possibly if this P&O is reflective of their overall business practices. But that's not discussed.

I guess the idea is that they had the capacity to continue to support a loss making business.

Surely God blessed the whole business with increased profit after they cleansed themselves of the filthy English crusaders.

All because they can get an extra £25 millions in profit by firing expensive UK seafarer, which seemed like small fish compare to their profit.

I think severence payments are tax deductible. From memory, a fair few of those staff were paid off.

Am sure I read somewhere that maritime workers don't have regular employment rights, EU or otherwise.

They don't but it's complex. Depends on various things including how much time they spend at sea, on land, and where amongst other things EU based maritime workers do have rights but it's pretty difficult to guess who has which rights as it depends on so many factors.

Going back to the whole cost of living crisis and nationalising essential services. Surely wholesale gas prices are only an issue for countries that don't have any gas supplies themselves.

But in the UK the North Sea produces more natural gas than we actually use. The issue is that private companies are extracting the UK's gas, then selling them to the highest bidder on the international market. If the government were to take back control of their own gas supplies, they could supply all of the UK's gas at cost price.

Is this a gross simplification?