@BurdensomeCount's banner p

BurdensomeCount

Misinformation superspreader

6 followers   follows 0 users  
joined 2022 September 05 16:37:04 UTC

The neighborhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines and "The Kensington Horror," or "The Stabbing Woman," or "The Woman in Black." During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the neighborhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural as the favorite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to be the"bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular role at these al fresco performances.


				
User ID: 628


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
BurdensomeCount


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Misinformation superspreader

				
				
				

				

					6 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 16:37:04 UTC
				


				
					

					
The neighborhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines and "The Kensington Horror," or "The Stabbing Woman," or "The Woman in Black." During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the neighborhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural as the favorite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to be the"bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular role at these al fresco performances.



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 628


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
‎

			

				
				

					Hour
					Day
					Week
					Month
					Year
					
				

			


			
‎

			

	
	

	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Normally with airports you want to hit things like the command and control towers etc., but for Dubai airport there might be an exception where hitting the first class lounge leads to more long term damage...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It'll be interesting to see what the long lasting impacts are on the gulf states from this war. Missiles are landing in Tel Aviv and they've had years to build proper defenses against precisely this threat, if Iran throws its toys out of the pram there's a decent chance the whole "rich man's playground" trope for these countries permanently ends. Of course they'll still be rich given all their oil, but it would still be a different paradigm for how these countries are seen by the rest of the world.


(Kuwait for one has been declining for the last 20 years in a row, it would be interesting to see if this is the crisis that finally finishes them off and they get swallowed up by the peloton of the rest of the arab states that don't have serious oil money.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Combined with the war in Iran, which now will likely last until September according to the Pentagon




Anyone else reminded of the Special Military Operation?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


So we go from a world of the rich flaunting their wealth, to a world of the rich hiding it by putting scapegoats in nominal charge of it.




Ah, but then they are living for the rest of their life with a sword of Damocles over their head, because if it ever comes out what they did and what their true wealth is they'll be on the ballot for execution for next year, and I can't imagine the rest of the population will be feeling particularly merciful about them...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The best solution I've heard to this issue is that people are allowed to earn as much money as possible without interference (which avoids distorting incentives) but then at the end of each year there is a referendum on each of the top 10 richest people in the country and if they don't gain majority support in that referendum they get publicly executed. This way there's no distortion in incentives for the vast vast majority of people who are never going to end up being the 10 richest people in the country and for those where this is a real risk (top 500 or so richest people) it incentives them to stay on good terms with the rest of the population and not act with total impunity.


That, or the other solution is of course to bring back the Athenian Liturgy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yum, free cookie.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You don't need a notion of "counting" to be able to define the natural numbers. Upward Lowenheim-Skolem means that there are models of Peano arithmetic of every infinite cardinality, so the "rules" that give rise to the naturals also give rise to structures where you have "natural" numbers which are infinite and can never be arrived at by starting from 0 and taking the successor finitely many times. They're called the hypernaturals and are a fascinating object of study, completely divorced from the ordinary "counting" way people think about numbers, and yet they satisfy all the standard rules of arithmetic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Is Indonesia as wealthy per-capita as the UK?




No it's not, however this is a difference that in a perfect and efficient world should get arbitraged away, it's an imperfection that we should be working to get rid of, not for "fairness" reasons but for "efficiency" reasons.




Is the wealth of Indonesia roughly equivalent in terms of concentration within the population?




Similarly this is something which should over time get arbitraged away as groups and populations mix, however I admit the "failure" here is less important to correct than the first one in terms of deadweight loss.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I meant in the sense that I'm neither a lower class Indonesian or a lower class white British man so I don't have a direct dog in the race. No reason why Amelia in the UK who has a job making and serving mediocre coffee should get paid any more than Mehmet making and serving mediocre coffee in Ankara.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The 80% need to realize the boot on their necks imposed by the 19% (or 19.99%, although I suspect in reality it's just the 19.9%) is a good thing. Get rid of it to the point where the lower classes take charge and you'll find yourself in a very bad economic recession and once you get out of it it'll become very apparent that the position of countries like the UK on the new totem pole is one where Indonesia et. al. are now going to bully you instead of the other way around. That, I suspect, will be what truly ends up breaking the lower class western mind, and I look forward to seeing the day; of course, as a neutral third party there's no reason for a lower class Indonesian to be getting paid any less than a lower class Brit, the emergence of a more just world order will lead to squeals from westerners just like the squeals of the upper class westerners back in the 18th-19th centuries when their privileges were taken away.


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
  • 
										 
									
    • 
	
  • 
		
			
		
		-10
		
			
		

    • 


							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Fair enough, I agree "don't admit to your UK lawyer that you're guilty if you expect them to argue for your innocence" is a more accurate reading than what I said the lesson was. Merely lying to your lawyer and it coming out during the trial that you lied to your lawyer is actually (perhaps surprisingly) significantly less bad than the earlier situation because technically your barrister can still argue that the prosecution has not discharged the burden of proving your guilt "beyond reasonable doubt", however of course if you tell your lawyer that you're guilty you suddenly tie their hands significantly in what they can say to the court without breaching their professional duties.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, everything you say is correct. There's the high minded theory and then there's what happens in practice. In reality what happens a lot in Criminal cases specifically is that due to our split profession the barrister tries to minimize contact with the defendant and instead deals with the solicitor handling the case as much as possible and then the solicitor (who usually isn't present at the trial) makes sure the defense barrister is only told the minimum needed to run the clients case as favourably to them as possible so this whole professional embarassment issue never even props up because it's not a breach of the rules to lie to the court when you don't know what you're saying is a lie.


Of course a lot of the time this goes totally lopsided because the client runs their mouth off during cross examination and gets utterly caught out by the prosecution and it transpires that the story which had been told to Counsel has next to no relation to what actually happened, but handling situations like these gracefully is part and parcel of the job of a defense barrister and doesn't leave you facing regulatory sanctions, after all, you believed and ran with what you were told by your instructing solicitor.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Massive difference here between the UK and the US. Here in the UK if your client confesses to you that he is guilty you don't have to explicitly say that to the court but if he then tries to even imply during the trial that he isn't guilty you are professionally obligated to withdraw immediately (it's called being professionally embarrassed), otherwise you risk getting struck off. You don't have to explain that you're withdrawing because of the client lying but if you don't provide a different (truthful reason) the court judge, who is likely a former barrister themselves, will immediately put 2 and 2 together and your client's credibility will be utterly shot, at which point the case is as good as over.


Lesson: Don't lie to your lawyer in the UK, you may be paying them, but their primary duty is to the court, not to you (applies to both civil and criminal cases). I'd argue it works better than the US and is a good middle ground between them and China, which doesn't even have proper legal professional privilege.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Great video, I second watching all of it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Here in the UK at least defense counsel would breach their own professional duties to the court if they were challenged on the existence of such documents and ended up giving the impression (in any way whatsoever) that such documents didn't exist when defense counsel knew they existed. They don't have to volunteer over the fact that they exist but once identified must respond in a fully truthful manner. It's a good thing that keeps parties honest overall I think.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Also, this is a priesthood ruling that entities who are not ordained priests are not allowed to function as priests. Zero surprise there.




The UK bar does something very similar. If you're a company being sued in the high court it's a criminal offense + contempt of court if you don't hire a barrister to represent you, regardless of your size or financial position. Fortunately you can recover costs if you win, but they are rarely 100% of the actual costs (more like 60-70%).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Agreed. LLM conversations should not be admissible for the same reason that a schedule of events that you make on Google Sheets to help you track the events of your case and save on Google Drive isn't admissible, even though it's a conversation with a third party. The US discovery process is absolutely cooked if you ask me, no sensible person would come up with what they have if starting from scratch.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Don'y you have something like Litigation Privilege in the US where general communications made for the primary purpose of assistance with ongoing or reasonably contemplated (a wide net) litigation is protected regardless of who the parties in the conversation are? That would solve the whole problem.


Alternatively: use an open source local model. They are getting good enough these days for litigation tasks.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, this whole "waitresses are supposed to be hot" is an American "Hooters"-esque derived observation that doesn't carry over to the UK at least. Here waitresses (and secretaries for that matter) aren't judged on their looks at all. Some of the biggest and most prestigious UK companies I've visited will have a woman very visibly in her 50s manning the front desk. The only time I see things where it explicitly looks like the person was selected for their looks for a front desk job is when I visit the offices of a US firm, it's very very obvious and stands out: yet another sign we aren't like them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


One of the criteria for who to lay off was "enthusiasm for AI".




In the UK this can genuinely be argued to be indirect age discrimination as older people are naturally going be less enthusiastic over a new technology, meaning the burden now falls on the company to justify their actions as being a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, which is hard to do here in front of a tribunal of law, or else they get done in for discrimination. Finally something good coming out of the UK's regulatory system!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't normally watch anything related to the superbowl. I've now seen this "display". It is so bad it should be a crime against good taste. That's the reason to be against it, not any "evil globohomo wants to send eleventy gorillion migrants to our country". It's not like there aren't any good Latin dances either, some proper Tango and Cha would have been much more dignified.


To be honest I don't have any higher expectations for the Trump 250 Years of the US celebration coming up. It'll likely be just as gaudy, just from the other side of the aisle.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Agreed. AI is amazing if you ask me. AI can write code extremely well right now but its "research taste" still leaves a lot to be desired. I should have a few more years of a secure job in me at least, and by then hopefully I should have enough money that I don't need to work and can focus on what I genuinely want to do myself, for which AI is a massive force multiplier. I'm not one of those people who competes with others based on the size of my bank account, to me money is what I use to ensure I can have and keep my time for myself doing what I want.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, if I've worked hard for a £250k bonus all year and I genuinely expect to get it and then I get stiffed with £100k I will be so so so pissed off (new job time basically).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you're expecting to gain £10,000 but then you gain £10 instead that very much feels like a loss, it's like getting a bad bonus for the year, nobody is happy even if they're still making money they didn't have yesterday.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't know: "Trump settles legal claim for 1/50,000th of the amount he said it was worth" sounds like a pretty big loss to me, much like how if I'm bringing a claim that I think is worth £2mn but then I win £2000 at trial or through settlement that looks very much like a loss even though I may technically have won.