Domain: service.gov.uk
Stories and comments across the archive that link to service.gov.uk.
Comments · 11
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Re:Well, there was that one time
If Chinese companies do not fight government requests then what is to stop the government from gaining access to American trade secrets those companies become privy to including their own trade secrets where the companies are branches of US companies operating in China?
None because:
"Trade secrets are defined in China as technical or operational information that:
Is not known to the public;
Has economic value and practical applicability; and
Is subject to measures taken by the owner to maintain confidentiality." -- Trade Secrets in China FactsheetIe, since it's known that giving Chinese companies trade secrets likely means the government can and will demand those secrets and then give them to other companies, one hasn't really taken measures to maintain confidentiality. Yes, that's a shitty system, but it's well known. You don't do business in China involving trade secrets or they will be "stolen".
The reason this is whataboutism is because US telecommunication companies have been repeatedly shown to be complicit with the US government in spying on its users. They haven't been shown to engage in corporate espionage, so one can still use US telecoms for business work and feel relatively safe. Meanwhile, the US government doesn't engage in extrajudicial actions in the US*, although it could definitely be argued that it's judicial actions by proxy with trade partners amounts to extrajudicial actions outside the country. However, virtually all countries are not above extrajudicial actions outside their own borders, often citing the rules of war or similar as justification.
So, if you're one who worries about extrajudicial action by China in China or areas where it has influence, you should worry about using Chinese phones. If you do any sort of business with trade secrets, you should worry about using Chinese phones.
If you worry about extrajudicial action by the US in the US, you have little reason to worry about using US phones or services. If you worry about extrajudicial action by the US outside the US especially in areas where the US has or could have influence, you should worry about using US phones or services. If you do any sort of business with trade secrets, you probably shouldn't worry about using US phones or services.
For most Americans, either phone is fine. For most Europeans, either phone is fine. For the Chinese, they'd want an American phone. For everyone else, it's almost a wash. For those with trade secrets, American (or European) phones are the way.
Most people aren't companies. Most people (especially those in China) would be better off not living in China. In some ways, most people would be better off living in America precisely because of how willing it is to abuse those not living in America but so reticent about abusing those who live in America. On a practical level, most people are irrelevant to either governments and no amount of spying by either matters.
* I wouldn't go as far as to say everyone is safe because abuse does happen and most of the inner-workings aren't inspected by those which we can necessarily trust to be forthright about or ever act on abuse in a meaningful way. Still, the risk is pretty vanishingly small.
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Capacity != generation
Renewables in the UK were about 30% of electric generation; natural gas, oil and coal were about 52% of generation. And for those renewables? The largest portion was bioenergy - the burning of (predominantly) imported wood pellets to power turbines. Onshore wind was second-place. So first place is still evil fossil fuels, second place is burning trees imported from abroad, and then we're down to onshore wind...
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Re:Gawd!
Your wife should have gotten a skill set that actually pays. That is her fault, not societies. I work in a fortune 100 company. Guess what numb nuts. The women make just as much, and hold as many positions or more then men. They don't have it any worse.
You are just lucky to live in an enlightened country, I guess.
Its not the same in the UK.Are you working for HR in the fortune 100 company, or did you hack the payroll database?
Or are you just making up facts. -
Re:this should be a misdemeanor
The UK CAA recently did some pretty extensive testing, 1.2kg class drones were a significant hazard to helicopters and non-airline airplane windscreens and propulsion surfaces. That means almost the entire firefighting fleet in most cases as only the larger 737 class tankers would be likely to have birdstrike rated windscreens and fanblades, and those are only used on the largest of forest fires.
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Re:Yeah, it was her fault
UK Highway Code, rule 126. Here's a direct link to the stopping distance chart.
Spoiler: similar numbers to the "bullshit" website.
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Re:Eddard Stark: 4k is coming
One of the problems in the UK, is that HMRC, and the valuation office agency actually charge companies by how much lit fibre-optic cable they have, since it is considered a business asset.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ra...
Appendix 1 contains the tax rates. It is based on distance in kilometers and number of fibre optic cable strands.
https://assets.publishing.serv...
Some agencies have compared this to an 18th century window tax. What's the point of getting property developers to install FTTP when the business owner gets clobbered with annual taxes in the end.
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Re:In other news...
The government that slashed police numbers, meaning they were and are effectively crippled?
This doesn't look like "slashed" to me:
https://assets.publishing.serv...Or do you want police officer numbers?
https://assets.publishing.serv...Meanwhile in that same period (2006 to 2015) recorded crimes fell from 5.5m to 3.8m (see https://www.gov.uk/government/... )
Looks to me like you're a hyperbolic idiot. Me, I'm glad we're not spending too much on the police and don't for a moment mistake their role with that of the army.
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Re:In other news...
The government that slashed police numbers, meaning they were and are effectively crippled?
This doesn't look like "slashed" to me:
https://assets.publishing.serv...Or do you want police officer numbers?
https://assets.publishing.serv...Meanwhile in that same period (2006 to 2015) recorded crimes fell from 5.5m to 3.8m (see https://www.gov.uk/government/... )
Looks to me like you're a hyperbolic idiot. Me, I'm glad we're not spending too much on the police and don't for a moment mistake their role with that of the army.
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Re:Nothing new here
You missed the far more stringent maintenance requirements and cradle-to-grave monitoring by the manufacturers. See this incident of 28 December 2016 at 0844 hrs. Does your car manufacturer have such timely recall-to-base procedures?
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Re:Emergency response
Expensive to run and they certainly cannot land everywhere.
Anything that goes into the air is expensive. I noticed that the world-wide fleet of Sikorsky 92 was just shut down for 11 hours of boroscope inspection per aircraft following the catastrophic failure of a tail rotor on the West Franklin just before New Year. Anything that has (and needs) this level of after-sales support is going to remain expensive. (AAIB report ; particularly fig 1 on p3 if you're into engineering pr0n.).
Looking at the solitary image (of a "concept"), this is going to require hard surface to land on and then drive away (slick tyres, I note ; very low suspension) ; I doubt that they'd be able to land on more than 10 degrees of slope (without the wings/ bumpers/ airframe contacting the ground before the wheels do - a rather important point). That's a tighter constraint than the helicopters I've used (including the S-92s).
Oh look! New! Shiny!
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I put it down to this
This is the dumbest thing. You've been able to renew your tax disc online for years now and the site's always been fine. You don't have to replace you're existing paper disc until it expires so I don't understand how they've taken a functional site, added barely any additional load and made it fall over.
I put it down to many sites saying that anyone can check any cars status on the government's vehicle inquiry service (currently down). Loads of people want to check whether their friends and neighbours cars are legal.