How about concentrating on reading comprehension, mathematics, and basic sciences, or if one does go into "trades", go into real trades that have proven to be durable careers...
No doubt you haven't read the article, and wouldn't let something like that get in the way of a good rant anyway.
But the plans also include improvements to mathematics and science (I can't comment on reading/writing).
FTA: Mathematics: five-year-olds to be taught fractions for the first time, for a solid grounding at an early age in preparation for algebra and more complex arithmetic. The new curriculum states that nine-year-olds must be taught times tables to 12, with more emphasis on the skills of mathematical modelling and problem-solving.
Science: evolution will be taught to primary school pupils for the first time, with the new curriculum having a greater focus on scientific knowledge, practical work and mathematical requirements. In secondary school, pupils will study biology, chemistry and physics in greater depth, with greater emphasis on mathematical modelling and problem-solving.
Without speculating about the political motivation for it, this looks like an improvement to me.
I don't think Google could be legally compelled to lie
I'm not so optimistic, but in any case there's plenty of scope for carefully hiding the truth.
"we do not provide any government, including the US government, with access to our systems. Nor do we allow goverments to install equipment on our networks or property that gives them access to user data."
What about equipment "just outside" their networks, or accessing whatever Google considers non-user data?
I'd be surprised if (unknown to Google) they aren't employing some people who also work for the NSA.
"Third, we provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law."
Through a secret court?
Hopefully we can get more transparency, and it's good that Google are pushing for that.
Well, the earlier/. story mentioned that GCHQ (UK) stores *three days* worth of data flowing through Britain (where almost all the high-speed cross-Atlantic cables terminate), and the metadata from that for 30 days.
A shadow copy of all the text in email or Facebook is easy. Adding the media is more costly, but not that much.
Trains should also be very safe, which may well make the Canadian accident the more interesting story.
I read some of the RAIB (British railway accident investigation) reports, as they're published. They're usually things done during maintenance (workers putting a trolley on the wrong track that's still in use; letting a piece of rail-wheeled equipment runaway) and rarely about normal freight or passenger trains -- the routine stuff is very safe.
Autoland systems were developed in the 40s and perfected in the 60s by the Brits.
Yeah, and it wasn't until the 90s that passenger jets started rolling off the lines with them;
That's not what the Wiki page says. It says British Airways had it on their Trident aircraft in the 1970s, and it implies it was regularly used in foggy NW Europe -- 12 equipped runways just in Britain back then!
"In 2006 most airlines operating into Heathrow already had autoland-equipped aircraft" (and that's airport's a mix of everything, full-service long and short, and budget long and short-haul).
Europe / not America might not be relevant for yesterday's crash, but it certainly is if you're talking in general.
Ryanair (budget, short-haul) pilots write on forums that they have autoland on their planes, and use it when necessary or to keep the plane certified for it (~monthly).
I wondered what the regulation was like here in London.
The number of taxis isn't restricted. To drive the type you can hail on the street you must pass an extensive test of streets, junction and landmarks ("...at the north end of Kennington Road, SE1. In the terminology of The Knowledge, from here the rider can go "left - Westminster Bridge Road, forward - Baylis Road or right - Westminster Bridge Road". But as well as knowing the road names, they will be expected to know that in front is Lambeth North tube station, the stone building on the right is Christ Church and Upton Chapel and further back on the right is Kennington Police Station." here). There is a one-off fee of a few hundred pounds to do that exam, the license fees are lower (less than £500, I'm not sure which fees are necessary). There are also criminal records checks.
To drive the type you can only book in advance (by phone, or from a man with a clipboard and a radio outside a nightclub) is similar, but with a much easier test and lower fee. These drivers tend to use GPS, and IME have no idea where they're going.
The EU's the only thing with a chance of preventing further erosion of British citizens' working rights, civil liberties, environment, etc.
Obligatory civics note: The EU is not the authority behind the European Convention on Human Rights, which in turn motivated the UK's Human Rights Act. Leaving the EU and leaving the ECHR are different actions.
Sorry. I'm aware of that (and often correct people), but it's easy to forget when British MPs get it wrong. There are some EU civil liberties things. For example, I doubt we'd get stronger data protection laws without the EU.
I think you're being overly optimistic about the EU's role in protecting various things within Britain as well. Between the opt-outs and special cases, a lot of the intended protections under EU rules get watered down here anyway.
In some respects, the most compelling argument for leaving might be that it simplifies our political system and thus makes it harder for our national government to avoid taking responsibility for unpopular actions.
You make a good point, but I'd be concerned that the Daily Mail, Sun etc support the wrong side of the argument. Isn't the working time directive a good thing, and our opt-out a bad thing? Many people here seem to disagree, although few (if any) in my social circle.
At present, it's far too easy for our administration to be saying something popular at home, while simultaneously negotiating for an opposing position at European level, and then when the European version goes through because there's little real accountability at that level, the folks back home can mumble something about the EU making us do it.
This is the fault of the British media -- in other EU countries the press report on what MEPs are doing. I don't know why The Guardian doesn't point out the hypocrisy, it should make some very easy anti-Tory headlines.
The British are not the EU, in fact they are viewed by most as an US shill inside the EU. In the area of surveillance they are ahead US by quite a bit.
We need another De Gaulle. He gave the finger to the US and to NATO in the sixties, and he absolutely didn't want the UK in the CEE (later to be known as the EU). We don't need Turkey nor Israel in the EU and we certainly don't need the 51st american state either (aka the UK).
Please don't make us (the UK) leave! The EU's the only thing with a chance of preventing further erosion of British citizens' working rights, civil liberties, environment, etc.
Unfortunately, many of the uninformed voters here want to leave:-(
In fairness, London did have those bendy buses for a while, which had an unfortunate habit of catching fire.
Three of them. The (design?) fault was fixed, and there were no further problems.
Boris' withdrawal of bendy buses now means several affected routes are overcrowded, and more buses are needed to run the routes (a bendy bus carries more people than a double-decker bus).
Most (all?) British banks still charge business accountholders for electronic transfers. Published figures on websites are around 15-50p, depending on the service. No doubt large companies can negotiate a better deal, if they make enough small transfers that it becomes worthwhile.
My father was sometimes in, sometimes not in one of the big British teacher's unions. In his final job, when he was about three years away from retirement, the head teacher essentially wanted to get rid of him -- he was one of about five remaining older staff whom the previous headteacher had employed. Unfortunately, the children he taught all got excellent results, and he ran a couple of high-effort after school clubs.
Anyway, the headteacher accused him of cheating the result on exams, which was untrue. The union helped my dad prove that this wasn't true, and helped negotiate that he'd retire at the end of the school year with a good pay-off. (This was a private school, no taxpayer money involved.)
FWIW, "but everyone did it" is usually an excellent legal defence for workplace issues of lower-paid staff in the UK. It reflects the problem onto managers, who should have made sure everyone didn't do it. With a union, everyone should have been safe to say "I did it" to support your friend without losing their jobs too. Clearly, there's something wrong with the American implementation.
The system of prepaid cards with fees is not the perfect solution for poor workers. But it is better than the old system of paying them with checks. Free checking is not available in most banks.
Then why not fix that problem? You also enable poor people to pay bills electronically, buy things online, etc.
British banks have to* offer a "basic bank account", which has no fees (as normal in the UK) but doesn't allow any borrowing, and so doesn't require a credit check. If you have a valid identity document, and don't have "multiple convictions for fraud", you can get one: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts
It's not that well publicised. For a while, I lived with some Eastern European immigrants in a cheap flatshare in London. They were keeping cash under the bed, but they all were able to open a basic account.
*As is often the case in the UK, instead of a law or regulation the industry is doing something on the understanding that if they didn't, there'd be a regulation, and it'd be worse for them.
The sysadmins at work manager the existing servers, but not as well as they could: a UAT environment has a different version of Java, a development server somehow gained a non-GNU tar, one of the two production web servers had a manual quick-fix applied and forgotten about. (They're the best sysadmins we can afford -- we're a charity in London, and it's difficult to compete with the salaries the financial industry can pay.)
By using Puppet, I hope we'll have standardised environments. So far nothing's in production, but already there's one good benefit: the Puppet scripts serve as some minimal documentation, and by version controlling them we can define a process (no changes except by Puppet from the VCS).
(There may be better options than Puppet. I've tried using it, and I very much like the principle, but Puppet itself seems pretty awkward to use seriously. The sysadmins say I'm doing it wrong, YMMV.)
Much of Europe has no dangerous wild animals, but that's because people hunted them to extinction.
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_Great_Britain (Britain is pretty boring when it comes to natural danger. No fires, no earthquakes, no volcanoes, no dust storms, no hot, no cold, no animals. Places flood occasionally, sometimes drowning people.)
In response to finding a better way to defend against polar bears, I would suggest the first step is to choose not to live with polar bears.
The place is called Svarlbard, high in the Arctic. Hardly anyone lives there (2600), mostly scientists, research students and some miners. Last time I read about it, bears weren't a problem in the 'town', so it's less than 600 people that need to carry a shotgun.
I won't try and compare to your particular examples, but in London they upgraded a suburban (sort-of) line with poor service (only every 30/60 minutes, peak/offpeak) with new trains, refurbished stations and a frequent service (12-20 minutes). The service went from being hardly used to overcrowded for much of the day.
(I'm also not sure what your examples have to do with the distinction between light and heavy rail. Isn't that more about the construction of the track, vehicles and stations than the frequency of the service?)
Google would have rather paid a fine and been able to keep the data me thinks. Maybe that is how we punish Google for being evil, make them delete the data...
They are not supposed to keep the data, fine or not.
If they don't delete the data this time, the summary says they will be held in contempt of court. That's bad.
if teaching computer programming in schools or not teaching it has no discernable effect, why bother wasting time on lessons on it when they could be devoted to something else?
AIUI, they're replacing what's called IT, but TFA refers to as 'secretary skills' (using MS Word).
Anyone want to comment on the connection between this gap, and the low salaries for software developers in London? (I'm basing this on the advertised salary ranges in jobs for London vs. jobs for other cities.)
Compared to other British cities, or compared to cities where you live?
I live in London, and I understand the salaries here to be higher than in most of Britain for most jobs, including software development.
Salaries in the US might be higher, but I don't think software development is different to any other highly skilled job in this respect.
I think public education itself here is a major problem. Most children are being force fed knowledge and asked to regurgitate it on command.
Except this is the UK, where it isn't that bad. (The current government is trying to make it worse, to go back to the "good old days" of learning lists of kings and queens, but anyway... they haven't yet done so.)
The final programming exam (for a 16 year old) should look something like this (PDF). The earlier questions are simple facts, but only getting those correct won't get a decent grade. Later questions require understanding.
I can tell you why WWII happened, why Hitler had broad public support, show you pictures of him kissing babies, and not just say what happened, but why it happened.
GCSE History, Unit 1 (PDF). Topic 3: "Which was more important as a cause of the Second World War: - the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, 1936, - the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939 You must refer to both causes when explaining your answer. (10 marks)"
Half the marks for the paper are for these longer questions, the other half are easier to get.
(Feel free to disagree -- we now have two primary sources on which to base the discussion!)
In the hacker community, the self-taught hacker is often better respected than his academically-shaped peer, and the reason has nothing to do with a disrespect of education, but rather an implicit understanding that you just don't learn as well unless you're interested in the material and follow your own path through it.
A hacker who goes to university, and chooses courses they're interested in (which I assume is also normal in the US?), will be better than the one who didn't.
Slashdot Mirror
Mongolia is not China, it's the country to the north of China.
(Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region (some kind of province) in China.)
From the article:
Outbound delays from the UK have generally been limited to 20 minutes.”
A 20-minute delay to flights to the UK makes international news? Beat that, Switzerland and Japan.
I haven't been this proud of my country for a long time!
How about concentrating on reading comprehension, mathematics, and basic sciences, or if one does go into "trades", go into real trades that have proven to be durable careers...
No doubt you haven't read the article, and wouldn't let something like that get in the way of a good rant anyway.
But the plans also include improvements to mathematics and science (I can't comment on reading/writing).
FTA: Mathematics: five-year-olds to be taught fractions for the first time, for a solid grounding at an early age in preparation for algebra and more complex arithmetic. The new curriculum states that nine-year-olds must be taught times tables to 12, with more emphasis on the skills of mathematical modelling and problem-solving.
Science: evolution will be taught to primary school pupils for the first time, with the new curriculum having a greater focus on scientific knowledge, practical work and mathematical requirements. In secondary school, pupils will study biology, chemistry and physics in greater depth, with greater emphasis on mathematical modelling and problem-solving.
Without speculating about the political motivation for it, this looks like an improvement to me.
I don't think Google could be legally compelled to lie
I'm not so optimistic, but in any case there's plenty of scope for carefully hiding the truth.
"we do not provide any government, including the US government, with access to our systems. Nor do we allow goverments to install equipment on our networks or property that gives them access to user data."
What about equipment "just outside" their networks, or accessing whatever Google considers non-user data?
I'd be surprised if (unknown to Google) they aren't employing some people who also work for the NSA.
"Third, we provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law."
Through a secret court?
Hopefully we can get more transparency, and it's good that Google are pushing for that.
Well, the earlier /. story mentioned that GCHQ (UK) stores *three days* worth of data flowing through Britain (where almost all the high-speed cross-Atlantic cables terminate), and the metadata from that for 30 days.
A shadow copy of all the text in email or Facebook is easy. Adding the media is more costly, but not that much.
Trains should also be very safe, which may well make the Canadian accident the more interesting story.
I read some of the RAIB (British railway accident investigation) reports, as they're published. They're usually things done during maintenance (workers putting a trolley on the wrong track that's still in use; letting a piece of rail-wheeled equipment runaway) and rarely about normal freight or passenger trains -- the routine stuff is very safe.
http://raib.gov.uk/publications/current_investigations_register.cfm
Autoland systems were developed in the 40s and perfected in the 60s by the Brits.
Yeah, and it wasn't until the 90s that passenger jets started rolling off the lines with them;
That's not what the Wiki page says. It says British Airways had it on their Trident aircraft in the 1970s, and it implies it was regularly used in foggy NW Europe -- 12 equipped runways just in Britain back then!
"In 2006 most airlines operating into Heathrow already had autoland-equipped aircraft" (and that's airport's a mix of everything, full-service long and short, and budget long and short-haul).
Europe / not America might not be relevant for yesterday's crash, but it certainly is if you're talking in general.
Ryanair (budget, short-haul) pilots write on forums that they have autoland on their planes, and use it when necessary or to keep the plane certified for it (~monthly).
I wondered what the regulation was like here in London.
The number of taxis isn't restricted. To drive the type you can hail on the street you must pass an extensive test of streets, junction and landmarks ("...at the north end of Kennington Road, SE1. In the terminology of The Knowledge, from here the rider can go "left - Westminster Bridge Road, forward - Baylis Road or right - Westminster Bridge Road". But as well as knowing the road names, they will be expected to know that in front is Lambeth North tube station, the stone building on the right is Christ Church and Upton Chapel and further back on the right is Kennington Police Station." here). There is a one-off fee of a few hundred pounds to do that exam, the license fees are lower (less than £500, I'm not sure which fees are necessary). There are also criminal records checks.
To drive the type you can only book in advance (by phone, or from a man with a clipboard and a radio outside a nightclub) is similar, but with a much easier test and lower fee. These drivers tend to use GPS, and IME have no idea where they're going.
https://www.gov.uk/driving-licences-private-hire-taxis-london/overview
The EU's the only thing with a chance of preventing further erosion of British citizens' working rights, civil liberties, environment, etc.
Obligatory civics note: The EU is not the authority behind the European Convention on Human Rights, which in turn motivated the UK's Human Rights Act. Leaving the EU and leaving the ECHR are different actions.
Sorry. I'm aware of that (and often correct people), but it's easy to forget when British MPs get it wrong. There are some EU civil liberties things. For example, I doubt we'd get stronger data protection laws without the EU.
I think you're being overly optimistic about the EU's role in protecting various things within Britain as well. Between the opt-outs and special cases, a lot of the intended protections under EU rules get watered down here anyway.
In some respects, the most compelling argument for leaving might be that it simplifies our political system and thus makes it harder for our national government to avoid taking responsibility for unpopular actions.
You make a good point, but I'd be concerned that the Daily Mail, Sun etc support the wrong side of the argument. Isn't the working time directive a good thing, and our opt-out a bad thing? Many people here seem to disagree, although few (if any) in my social circle.
At present, it's far too easy for our administration to be saying something popular at home, while simultaneously negotiating for an opposing position at European level, and then when the European version goes through because there's little real accountability at that level, the folks back home can mumble something about the EU making us do it.
This is the fault of the British media -- in other EU countries the press report on what MEPs are doing. I don't know why The Guardian doesn't point out the hypocrisy, it should make some very easy anti-Tory headlines.
The British are not the EU, in fact they are viewed by most as an US shill inside the EU. In the area of surveillance they are ahead US by quite a bit.
We need another De Gaulle. He gave the finger to the US and to NATO in the sixties, and he absolutely didn't want the UK in the CEE (later to be known as the EU). We don't need Turkey nor Israel in the EU and we certainly don't need the 51st american state either (aka the UK).
Please don't make us (the UK) leave! The EU's the only thing with a chance of preventing further erosion of British citizens' working rights, civil liberties, environment, etc.
Unfortunately, many of the uninformed voters here want to leave :-(
My car is 15 years old and showing no signs of dying or being replaced.
A 15 year old car might not have a CD player.
Is it possible to replace the entertainment system? I'm sure it used to be, but I don't have much interest in cars (I don't own one) so I don't know.
Alternatively, once the portable device is otherwise obsolete, keep it just for use in the car.
In fairness, London did have those bendy buses for a while, which had an unfortunate habit of catching fire.
Three of them. The (design?) fault was fixed, and there were no further problems.
Boris' withdrawal of bendy buses now means several affected routes are overcrowded, and more buses are needed to run the routes (a bendy bus carries more people than a double-decker bus).
Most (all?) British banks still charge business accountholders for electronic transfers. Published figures on websites are around 15-50p, depending on the service. No doubt large companies can negotiate a better deal, if they make enough small transfers that it becomes worthwhile.
I'll counter your anecdote.
My father was sometimes in, sometimes not in one of the big British teacher's unions. In his final job, when he was about three years away from retirement, the head teacher essentially wanted to get rid of him -- he was one of about five remaining older staff whom the previous headteacher had employed. Unfortunately, the children he taught all got excellent results, and he ran a couple of high-effort after school clubs.
Anyway, the headteacher accused him of cheating the result on exams, which was untrue. The union helped my dad prove that this wasn't true, and helped negotiate that he'd retire at the end of the school year with a good pay-off. (This was a private school, no taxpayer money involved.)
FWIW, "but everyone did it" is usually an excellent legal defence for workplace issues of lower-paid staff in the UK. It reflects the problem onto managers, who should have made sure everyone didn't do it. With a union, everyone should have been safe to say "I did it" to support your friend without losing their jobs too. Clearly, there's something wrong with the American implementation.
The system of prepaid cards with fees is not the perfect solution for poor workers. But it is better than the old system of paying them with checks. Free checking is not available in most banks.
Then why not fix that problem? You also enable poor people to pay bills electronically, buy things online, etc.
British banks have to* offer a "basic bank account", which has no fees (as normal in the UK) but doesn't allow any borrowing, and so doesn't require a credit check. If you have a valid identity document, and don't have "multiple convictions for fraud", you can get one: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts
It's not that well publicised. For a while, I lived with some Eastern European immigrants in a cheap flatshare in London. They were keeping cash under the bed, but they all were able to open a basic account.
*As is often the case in the UK, instead of a law or regulation the industry is doing something on the understanding that if they didn't, there'd be a regulation, and it'd be worse for them.
The sysadmins at work manager the existing servers, but not as well as they could: a UAT environment has a different version of Java, a development server somehow gained a non-GNU tar, one of the two production web servers had a manual quick-fix applied and forgotten about. (They're the best sysadmins we can afford -- we're a charity in London, and it's difficult to compete with the salaries the financial industry can pay.)
By using Puppet, I hope we'll have standardised environments. So far nothing's in production, but already there's one good benefit: the Puppet scripts serve as some minimal documentation, and by version controlling them we can define a process (no changes except by Puppet from the VCS).
(There may be better options than Puppet. I've tried using it, and I very much like the principle, but Puppet itself seems pretty awkward to use seriously. The sysadmins say I'm doing it wrong, YMMV.)
These foods are naughty.
Twink is British slang for a young gay man. (It might mean 'not hairy', I'm not sure -- not my scene.)
Much of Europe has no dangerous wild animals, but that's because people hunted them to extinction.
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_Great_Britain (Britain is pretty boring when it comes to natural danger. No fires, no earthquakes, no volcanoes, no dust storms, no hot, no cold, no animals. Places flood occasionally, sometimes drowning people.)
In response to finding a better way to defend against polar bears, I would suggest the first step is to choose not to live with polar bears.
The place is called Svarlbard, high in the Arctic. Hardly anyone lives there (2600), mostly scientists, research students and some miners. Last time I read about it, bears weren't a problem in the 'town', so it's less than 600 people that need to carry a shotgun.
According to the Guardian, Snowdon is not on the plane to Havana.
I won't try and compare to your particular examples, but in London they upgraded a suburban (sort-of) line with poor service (only every 30/60 minutes, peak/offpeak) with new trains, refurbished stations and a frequent service (12-20 minutes). The service went from being hardly used to overcrowded for much of the day.
(I'm also not sure what your examples have to do with the distinction between light and heavy rail. Isn't that more about the construction of the track, vehicles and stations than the frequency of the service?)
Google would have rather paid a fine and been able to keep the data me thinks. Maybe that is how we punish Google for being evil, make them delete the data...
They are not supposed to keep the data, fine or not.
If they don't delete the data this time, the summary says they will be held in contempt of court. That's bad.
if teaching computer programming in schools or not teaching it has no discernable effect, why bother wasting time on lessons on it when they could be devoted to something else?
AIUI, they're replacing what's called IT, but TFA refers to as 'secretary skills' (using MS Word).
Anyone want to comment on the connection between this gap, and the low salaries for software developers in London? (I'm basing this on the advertised salary ranges in jobs for London vs. jobs for other cities.)
Compared to other British cities, or compared to cities where you live?
I live in London, and I understand the salaries here to be higher than in most of Britain for most jobs, including software development.
Salaries in the US might be higher, but I don't think software development is different to any other highly skilled job in this respect.
I think public education itself here is a major problem. Most children are being force fed knowledge and asked to regurgitate it on command.
Except this is the UK, where it isn't that bad. (The current government is trying to make it worse, to go back to the "good old days" of learning lists of kings and queens, but anyway... they haven't yet done so.)
The final programming exam (for a 16 year old) should look something like this (PDF). The earlier questions are simple facts, but only getting those correct won't get a decent grade. Later questions require understanding.
I can tell you why WWII happened, why Hitler had broad public support, show you pictures of him kissing babies, and not just say what happened, but why it happened.
GCSE History, Unit 1 (PDF). Topic 3:
"Which was more important as a cause of the Second World War:
- the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, 1936,
- the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939
You must refer to both causes when explaining your answer. (10 marks)"
Half the marks for the paper are for these longer questions, the other half are easier to get.
(Feel free to disagree -- we now have two primary sources on which to base the discussion!)
In the hacker community, the self-taught hacker is often better respected than his academically-shaped peer, and the reason has nothing to do with a disrespect of education, but rather an implicit understanding that you just don't learn as well unless you're interested in the material and follow your own path through it.
A hacker who goes to university, and chooses courses they're interested in (which I assume is also normal in the US?), will be better than the one who didn't.