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Bug Fixing

The latest version of wordpress is incompatible with the theme the site uses (its 10 years old). Were making some bug fixes and should be back to normal (whatever that is) soon.

Rich

No

Theatres have to turn a profit of course but shouldn’t they aspire to do more than that?

From our ever popular series, Questions in The Times We Can Answer

In more detail, we already have a subsidised theatre sector. The point of which is to do the stuff that the seeking a profit sector doesn’t have to.

Not sure they’ve quite got this

“The Royal Family respect and understand the wish of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex to live a more independent life as a family, by removing the supposed ‘public interest’ justification for media intrusion into their lives.

There are rules about what the British press will do to get a story about the Royals. There are no rules elsewhere, no rules about non-Royals.

Well, OK, there’s that EU right to privacy stuff but no one takes that seriously over the Pond.

Royal status rather protects them.

After all, they’re not going to be not-famous once they’ve gone, are they?

Tim Worstall In Numbers

I have just been doing some manual backups of the site and decided to go into some of the numbers around the site.

The year with the most posts was 2008 followed by 2017
2008: 3554
2017: 2913

The most commented article was: “Broadly my view although she’s going to get into so much trouble over this”

The month with the most comments has January 2020 storming ahead with double the previous highest.
January 2020: 13,080
January 2016: 6590

Top Commenters…
So Much For Subtlety: 12,912
Deary Me: 8,964
John77: 8,931
Mr Ecks: 8,446
IanB: 7,876

Updating TW

-UPDATE-

Evening,

Just updating on the post below.

I have added SSL Certificates (As recommended by some here)
Moved to a VPS (As recommended by some here)
Removed dead links from Vainglory and Blog Roll (As recommended by some here)

We have a staging site of what we would like to move to HERE

We listened to what was said last time and kept things such as the comment counter on posts and decreased the margin on the mobile comments section. Each post should display on the homepage fully unless its over 1000 words and then it will require “read more” to be clicked.

I do understand that the commenting system is a little different (we can enable nested posts too). If the commenting system is not right or changes need to be made i’m happy to address them. (Including moving back to the default system).
The new commenting system has:
-Nested comments
-Direct reply to comments
-Up and down votes (does not affect order shown)
-User Following – This allows you to be notified when a user comments on a post even if you haven’t engaged with the post yet
-See who commented on what (this only applies inside Tim Worstall and nothing like Disqus)

I quite like the changes but as always i’m willing to put it to the users.

The current template used was last updated in 2012 and technology has moved on massively and does create some security issues for us (not necessarily the end user). Were currently getting somewhere in the region of 25,000 brute force attempts daily because of unpatched security holes. We can block the IP’s but it’s like whack-a-mole. We need to move to an updated system but we want to make sure its right, first.

(PS. I did honestly try to make it green again but my interior design skills aren’t the best…)

Rich

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Me again!

As i have said previously the theme used on TW is out of date and full of holes. We also need to add things like an SSL certificate os makes sense to do it all together.

You can check out the new site: here

Its just on a temporary server for the moment. Take a look around and let me know any suggestions, changes and all that.

Rich

Site Problems

On Tuesday we added an SSL certificate so you get the green lock (nearly wrote cock!) symbol in your browser meaning TimWorstall.com is now secure. We just want to steal your data, cash and voting intentions…

We also doubled the ram and processing power of the server so hopefully it’s quicker to access.

If the site still looks a bit broken clear you browser cache.

 

 

Deepfake videos

So here’s a question.

Apparently these deepfake videos are easy – easier perhaps – to produce these days.

So, how tough is it to do something like Max Headrooom? Or, perhaps and rather, get Angela Rippon, or Boris, The Donald, whatever, reading the news.

Can it be as simple as writing the script then running it through an engine? Or are we still at a much more complex level than that?

Well, yes Leo

Boris Johnson’s plan to build a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland is worth examining but the UK should pay for it, the Irish Prime Minister has said.

It is fairly normal that the domestic government pay for domestic infrastucture, yes? NI and GB being eh same country, with the one government, which pays?

Rant Of The Day: Units Of Measurement

Honestly, it’s the constant imperial / measurement changes that piss me off as a Brit.

Liquids are Metric unless it’s Milk or Beer (Which can and often are sold as both… in the same shop, you will find 1pt, 2pt, 4pt and 6pt milk right next to 0.5L, 1L and 2L bottles of pop. And you’ll see in some places 660ml beers being sold alongside 2 litre ciders)

Distances in Metres when it’s swimming pool length, running tracks & fields. Yard, Foot and Inches when it’s Height, Football, Snooker Cues, Carpets and pretty much anything else you can think of

Weight is Metric when it’s food, unless it’s a steak or a burger. Imperial when it’s a persons weight.

Car efficiency is measured in Miles Per Gallon, but the Fuel is sold in Litres.

Recipes for cooking food can and will contain both measurements as well as cups, which is even more confusing.

Trying aviation is just crazy (I used to fly occasionally from Cambridge to various places around the UK). Fuel uplift is in litres. Fuel gauges in kgs. Runway length in meters. Altitude in feet. Pressure in hectopascals. Wind & speed in knots …

I was trying to help my brother with some maths homework where they wanted him to poor different liquids into different container to see what was larger 1/2 pint or 330ml.

I had to explain to him why we used different measurement for liquids, it was impossible to explain besides its just how it is as we’ve never moved on.

The worksheet needed a measuring jug in both pints and mils and cups. I had to convert fluid ounces into pints so I could do that homework it’s stupid, as he’s six!

Honestly, I was nearly wanting to go metric!

Probably a GM floating around here

Footage taken by a passersby has revealed the sheer instinctive guts and determination of those who confronted Usman Khan in the moments after he carried out his murderous attack inside Fishmongers’ Hall.

Two men can be seen cornering the terrorist on London Bridge armed only with the nearest objects which came to hand – a five-foot antique Narwhal tusk and a fire extinguisher.
…
As the fight spilled out onto London Bridge, and despite being stabbed three times by Khan, Lukasz used the tusk to prod and push him against a railing to prevent him escaping and causing further injury.

A man alongside him sprayed fire extinguisher foam over Khan to disorientate him further.

Amy Coop, a director of the TV soaps Hollyoaks and Doctors who attended the event, wrote on Twitter: “A guy who was with us at Fishmongers’ Hall took a 5ft narwhal tusk from the wall and went to confront the attacker.

“You can see him standing over the man with what looks like a white pole in the video. We were trying to help victims inside but that man’s a hero.”

I think a GM there is likely, no?

Passerby Thomas Gray, 24, leapt out of his classic Mini and helped wrestle Khan to the pavement before stamping on his wrist to release the knife from his hand.

Mr Gray described how the attacker brandished an eight inch knife in each hand.

“One thought was going through my mind – stop the dude. I’ve played rugby for most of my life and the rule on and off the pitch is ‘one in, all in’,” he told The Telegraph.

“I was just a Londoner doing my bit.

“Hats off to the six or seven guys who were there before me, they’re so brave. They were chasing him down the street with a silver fire extinguisher and that’s what drew my attention to him. He was being sprayed with foam.

“We could see it was something serious and we should try to fix it.”

After the attack, he said he “did the British thing and went to the pub” with his friend Stevie.

“We had a pint and shook it off then came back and let the police know I was here with the keys for the cars in case they wanted me to move one of them.”

And yes, very British.