Interesting Links for 25-11-2018
Nov. 25th, 2018 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewducker- I'm occasionally bemused when I remember I have friends who support an appointed House of Lords
- (tags: houseoflords politics uk )
- Remember how easy a Brexit deal was going to be?
- (tags: UK europe fraud )
- Scotland set to be first country in UK to recognise third gender (and make changing recognised gender easier)
- (tags: Scotland lgbt transgender GoodNews )
- I love the idea of lasers and diamonds powering drones remotely so they don't need batteries. But I'm sceptical about the technology being anywhere near ready
- (tags: lasers drones diamonds )
- Poorest dying nearly 10 years younger than the rich in deeply worrying trend for UK
- (tags: inequality death UK OhForFucksSake )
- Brexit: May gives way over Gibraltar after Spain's 'veto' threat
- (tags: Gibraltar Spain UK europe doom )
- Dear Theresa May, Thank you for your letter.From the very first sentence to the very last, it is a tissue of revisionism, wilful misdirection, false equivalences, and downright lies
- (tags: UK europe fraud Conservatives )
- Just another school run in Palestine
- (tags: school israel palestine )
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- lgbt,
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Laser Diamond Drones
Date: 2018-11-25 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-25 01:38 pm (UTC)The article begins by acknowledging Hayes as a worthy time-server of the sort who'd normally get a knighthood; it's only the timing which makes this dubious. But then it turns to undercutting his record, depicting him as a right-winger who was laughably painted as a Cameron loyalist.
OK, but then it contrasts Hayes as Cameron's political advisor with Whitelaw as Thatcher's, quoting the author's earlier piece as incredulous at the time that Hayes could be like Whitelaw: "they don’t want to be a player. They retain the trust of their master because they have no agenda, no ambition and don’t gossip."
But has it been forgotten that being a player, having an agenda and ambition is exactly what Whitelaw gave up in order to be Thatcher's lieutenant? His agenda as a Tory had been as far removed from Thatcher's as Hayes's from Cameron's, and he actually stood for the leadership against her. Only afterwards did he become a loyal soldier, valued particularly for his independent standing.
I have no idea if Hayes behaved similarly when he became Cameron's advisor, though the piece does say that as an education minister he had done the PM's bidding. But the idea that it's inherently ludicrous for him to have been a Willie is itself ludicrous.
Re: Laser Diamond Drones
Date: 2018-11-25 01:39 pm (UTC)Re: Laser Diamond Drones
Date: 2018-11-25 02:08 pm (UTC)I'm not seeing how it improves a system of drones doing X task beyond having them tag in and out and recharge their batteries.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-25 02:54 pm (UTC)If it had worked that way, one wonders if Britons would be better off today.
Re: Laser Diamond Drones
Date: 2018-11-25 04:41 pm (UTC)Re: Laser Diamond Drones
Date: 2018-11-26 09:48 am (UTC)Super-light drone are good. The way of making the drone super-light is to reduce the battery size. This reduces range and persistence. We solve that by energising them with lasers beamed from a ground-station. I think we lose many of the cost benefits of having reduced the battery needs by having the ground stations.
Unless there is some other benefit from having the batteries reduced. Are we swapping batteries for payload?
Re: Laser Diamond Drones
Date: 2018-11-26 10:20 am (UTC)Re: Laser Diamond Drones
Date: 2018-11-26 12:34 pm (UTC)