It’s part of Labour’s platform. Also right now, even for pubs and beer gardens, there’s a license to restrict the number of people that can smoke outdoors.

The idea that early kingdoms are despotisms in which the people exist only for the sovereign, is wholly inapplicable to the monarchies we are considering. On the contrary, the sovereign in them exists only for his subjects: his life is only valuable so long as he discharges the duties of his position by ordering the course of nature for his people’s benefit. So soon as he fails to do so, the care, the devotion, the religious homage which they had hitherto lavished on him cease and are changed into hatred and contempt; he is ignominiously dismissed and may be thankful if he escapes with his life. Worshipped as a god one day, he is killed as a criminal the next. But in this changed behaviour of the people there is nothing capricious or inconsistent. On the contrary, their conduct is quite consistent. If their king is their god he is or should be, also their preserver; and if he will not preserve them he must make room for another who will. So long, however, as he answers their expectations, there is no limit to the care which they take of him, and which they compel him to take of himself.

• J. G. Frazer, Taboo, The Burden of Royalty

Super Cyanide

Happy [object Object] birthday!

0 * 1.25 = 0, so why not?

“You don’t need to follow anybody! You are all individuals! You are all different!”

In simplified terms, LDP is the center. Its policies span center-right and center-left. It’s basically “the government” since WW2 and swings between left and right depending on the specific PM and their faction.

Ah, yes, the IT crowd.

In theory, methods like nightshades are supposed to poison the work such that AI systems trained on them will have their performance degraded significantly.

Encouraging. However, there seems to be a question missing in the discussion: why aren’t more people taking the reduced hour offerings?

According to the report itself, after the first stage of trial, 86% of the working population started to negotiate for reduced hours, of the people surveyed, 51% were offered reduced hours and only 14% took them. It’s an unprecedented large proportion, but still less than one would expect given the benefits. There are other factors preventing people to do so. I hope there will be a follow-up research to find out why.