Tax Dodge Tice.

Did Tax Dodge Tice resign yet.

Apparently no vetting is required of politicians. But as an ambassador Mandelson officially became a civil servant, who are held to higher standards.

The UK's economy has performed better than expected, but the reason for the change is that India's GDP has declined in dollar terms due to depreciation of the Rupee.

This conflates two different technologies. The experiments in Finland have been conducted indoors, use ultrasound waves, and are for short range power transmission (centimetres) initially in indoor environments. Emrod is using microwave technology and will be testing in Germany and New Zealand.

That's why it is only being proposed for situations where wired transmission is impractical or too expensive. They claim weather won't affect it.

No, the transmission shuts down as soon as an object gets in the way. The next stage of testing will determine how safe it is.

Yes, that's an AI image and has nothing to do with the technology

That's why it is being proposed to provide energy to remote locations that it is too expensive or impractical to run electricity cables

On Scotland’s nationalist fringes, a new Tartan intolerance rises A rally in Aberdeen reflects a growing anti-immigrant mood

And some Economist articles on the issue:
www.economist.com/britain/2026...
www.economist.com/britain/2024...
www.economist.com/britain/2023...

Scottish independence has become a long game Where does that leave the SNP?

Here's a link to polling on Scottish independence, showing that support has varied between 45% and 50% over the past 5 years:
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/sc...

That Economist video is 4 years old, so it is hardly breaking news. Or was that just a pun? Currently, the Economist claims that support for independence is at 45-50% and 'the path to a second referendum lacks clear political momentum'.

Yes, I agree. We actually got the calculation wrong in our first game. It could certainly be simplified, making it easier for the French player to avoid the worst attrition through careful planning and maneuver.

The attrition is a key focus of the game, possibly making it more difficult to play the French (we really struggled, in our two games, to make sufficient progress with Napoleon).

There is another article in The Critic called 'What has Brexit done for us?'. It claims there are 'Brexit benefits' in the form of new regulations. But wasn't the point of Brexit to reduce regulation? It claims the UK economy is performing better than France and Germany, without giving evidence.

You cannot avoid churches when going for a walk in Modica Bassa (Lower Modica, the core of the old town) in Ragusa Province, Sicily. It is known as the city of 100 churches and they are packed into a narrow valley.

The Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio was the first permanent seat of the University of Bologna, the oldest in Europe. The building dates from the 1560s and now houses a municipal library. The Anatomical Theatre was built in 1637 with wooden wall and ceiling decorations completed in 1649.

Furthermore, the best gig I've had in over a decade was a couple of years training LLM and genAI applications. I got that because of my skills in linguistics, so not directly related to translation.

I have been a translator for 15 years and have not noticed a significant negative impact from AI. Translation work has been stagnating, at least in terms of the fee I can charge, for a number of years. On the other hand, the opportunities in post-editing of machine translation are increasing.

Whereas Tolkien himself sold the film and merchandising rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings back in 1969. These are now owned by Middle-earth Enterprises, in turn owned by Embracer.

Because the Tolkien Estate has not sold the film/TV rights to The Silmarillion and other related works. Apparently this is to respect Tolkien's wishes. Not even the book was published in his lifetime.

Woman, 74, tells of pain and fear after arrest at Liverpool pro-Palestine rally Exclusive: Video shows veteran campaigner being dragged and handcuffed and she says bail conditions effectively confine her to her house

74-year-old Audrey White tells of pain and fear after arrest at Liverpool pro-Palestine rally.

Video shows veteran campaigner being dragged and handcuffed and she says bail conditions effectively confine her to her house

In full: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

St Peter's Day celebrations in Modica. We had a view from beside the Duomo di San Pietro.

First swim of the summer at Marina di Modica in Sicily.

Just keeping you on your toes.

Ah, I jumped the gun on announcing actual publication. It will be available in September.

An Impossible War - bellica3g Step into the heart of the First Carlist War (1834–1838), a pivotal yet often overlooked conflict in Spanish history. An Impossible War recreates the main theater of operations while expanding the act...

bellica3g.com/en/product/u...

Spanish board game publisher Bellica 3rd Generation has just published 'Una Guerra Imposible' on the 1st Carlist War in northern Spain. The designer is David Gómez Relloso of 'Crusade and Revolution' fame. If you like chrome-heavy block games such as 'This War Without an Enemy' then this is for you!