Messages

16

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: March 19, 2019, 04:11:01 pm »

Tiki, you said it was at the cost of the US. It's not, it's simply the US share decreasing as the overall market value increases. US tech didn't lose value in that period, it's just that Asian firms grew faster.

The graph shows the market value and regional/national affiliation of the 60 biggest tech platform companies in the world (title/description is in German but is fairly easy for even a beginner to translate). Unsurprisingly Oceania etc don't feature. Graph itself tells you it's attributed to Dr Holger Schmidt at TU Darmstadt/Handelsblatt/Netzoekonom.de/etc. Basically he's a digital economist who uses metrics like this to track the performance of the global tech sector. 

17

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: March 17, 2019, 09:55:42 pm »

You honestly think the UK is going to out-race the US and Asia to the bottom of the barrel?

'bottom of the barrel' is very revealing as to the EU mindset, as if you guys can get away with opting out of the race by being some kind of economic island. You tried that approach for years and it didn't get you anywhere, so you entered 'jealousy mode' and started taking punitive measures against US big tech.

Yes, we'll certainly become much more competitive against the US and Asia. Despite EU membership the UK still attracts more tech investment than any other European country (in fact we've extended our lead since the Brexit vote).

In the field of healthcare for example, particularly with things like genomic prediction, the UK is well placed to beat the US and China because we have decades worth of publicly-owned NHS data which is an asset no other country really has. The trick is in how to leverage that for commercial use.

18

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: March 17, 2019, 02:36:42 pm »

I genuinely don't understand your point with the graph. Do you think that those companies only operate in the country/continent they originate from? Besides that, the graph just shows growth in Asia at the cost of the US market.

No they don't, but I think Europeans might want to be owners rather than simply customers of big tech. And no it doesn't show growth in Asia and the expense of the US.

Not that any of that will change post-Brexit anyway, they'll still need to comply with EU regulations and there are still cheaper places to operate from than the UK.

In tech it's not really about operational costs. Silicon Valley is an extremely expensive place to set up/run a business from. It's rather mainly to do with whether you can attract the talent, obtain seed money and have the right regulatory environment in place.   

But obviously muh oppressive EU overlords stop me accessing Google, I'll be so grateful to leave the EU and have more personal data stripped.

The EU Copyright Directive hasn't been passed yet so Google is fine for now. When it comes to personal data that's the price you pay for having a product that's a) free (or much cheaper than it otherwise would be) and b) personalised and responsive to you. All GDPR is doing is stifling EU start-ups whilst Asia and North America extend their lead over the 'little Europeans'.

19

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: March 14, 2019, 08:13:33 pm »

That the EU tech industry is minuscule compared to international rivals, has been totally fucked over by successive bouts of EU policy (the latest being GDPR), and will be even smaller once Britain leaves (that graph also includes Russia's Yandex). The EU is poorly prepared for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and hasn't even learned any of the lessons as to why it's so far behind.

20

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: March 14, 2019, 03:49:48 pm »

Even if there's a delay we're still leaving. Good luck without us.

21

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: March 04, 2019, 08:31:39 pm »

Lol, that piece.

Muslims of my generation, growing up in the 70s and 80s, were inspired by radical ideas derived from secular humanism.

My brain hurts after reading that.

22

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: March 03, 2019, 01:43:16 pm »

Excellent news. Hopefully the Dutch will take one for the team.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/isis-bride-shamima-begums-jihadi-husband-yago-riedijk-says-he-wants-them-to-return-to-netherlands-to-a4081236.html

23

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 23, 2019, 05:19:16 pm »

Thank the media industry's lobby for this. This will become a fucking joke. I really hope this will turn into some internet insurgency

It's utterly outrageous. The EU Commission won't get re-elected if it carries on like this.

24

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 21, 2019, 08:36:17 pm »

Okay, well you did say income inequality. Even in terms of regional inequality the UK is still very average. Almost all countries have geographic economic divides (West Germany vs East Germany, Sun Belt vs Rust Belt, Wallonia vs Flanders etc).

Most of the 48% accept the result and just want to get on with Brexit. Parties that supported the Brexit result got c.90% of the vote at the last general election. If there was some kind of 'culture war' backlash then why didn't the Lib Dems/Greens/SNP do better than they did?

The difficulty with grandfathering is uncertainty over future UK-EU trading arrangements, since much of it hinges on that. Sure some already completed have been done with irrelevant countries, but others (USA, Aus, NZ, Swiss) are our biggest partners after the EU27.

25

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 21, 2019, 03:35:19 pm »

While we're at it we could make the same argument about many countries, especially ones with very polarised politics and high income inequality, including the UK.

Polarised politics? Not really. The British Social Attitudes survey consistently shows that political opinions on things like homosexuality, immigration, environment (etc) is fairly uniform throughout the UK. That's not the case in the USA. As to the EU issue I wouldn't take a small but very vocal group of hardcore Europhiles as representative of all those who voted to remain.

Also high income inequality? UK is only slightly above the European average according to the latest Eurostat data.

26

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 18, 2019, 08:10:48 pm »

Why would it? What would it gain? The logic 'we pay more than we get' is barely valid as you could literally continueing seceding richer parts away from poorer parts right down to the micro-level. Looking at you, Catalonia.

I think it's more about arguments of nationhood. Texas was an independent republic that won its own war against Mexico before it joined the USA.

27

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 16, 2019, 06:36:50 pm »

Fair cop, got it wrong on executive orders. I thought they were the sum total of executive action rather than simply one category (there's also presidential memorandums, agency guidance, executive agreements, etc). Obama used those executive powers far more extensively than any other modern US President, which is understandable because he had a big legislative program and a Republican Senate/HoR that opposed him, but was also probably against the spirit of the Constitution.

28

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 16, 2019, 12:35:28 pm »

So Trump's gone full dictator. Not hugely surprising considering his idols but anyway.
Sets an interesting precedent for future Democratic presidents. One could very easily argue national emergencies on school shootings (even if they wait until the next one that won't be far off) or those lacking health insurance.

Presidential power has expanded rapidly in the last 25 years, every incumbent has abused the office in one way or another.  For example Obama did so via the prolific use of executive orders. I don't blame Trump-he has a clear mandate to build the wall.

29

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 15, 2019, 09:34:35 pm »

That is the point of pressure with which Europe Germany will whip the Brits back in submission.

It's more likely than not that Berlin will back down over the NI/Eire border.

It's what happens when you trust G*rmanics in the first place.

Of course. Angela Merkel is extremely untrustworthy for a start.

30

Off Topic / Re: The General Political Thread

« on: February 15, 2019, 06:40:13 pm »

Unamed 'senior EU diplomat': "In a no-deal scenario, Ireland would have to choose between setting up a physical Border with Northern Ireland and de facto leaving the single market. If there is no physical Border, the customs checks would have to take place on all goods coming from Ireland."

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/editorial/editorial-eu-cannot-allow-us-to-burn-as-may-fiddles-over-brexit-37818812.html


Oh, so it's not about peace then?