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"Truth Social" should be prefixed with "Un".

In the first Trump administration he lied over 35,000 times according to the Washington Post. Now that publication has been taken over By Amazon Billionaire Jeff Bezos it has become far less critical. There are now multiple organisations reporting and debunking his lies. In one 69 minute interview in 2024 he lied over 150 times.

This is the second major attempt by Bartlett/7 Spotlight to get misinformation and some disinformation across to try and improve ratings. The first was a few months ago when they went through Nickel mining in Indonesia claiming it was used in EV batteries. In fact none of it was, it was all used in the Stainless Steel industry & the highlighted poor working conditions for Indonesian miners were already being addressed by the new Indonesian government. 7 had to close comments on the program within days because almost all were very negative. Pandering to the dwindling numbers of right wing fossil fuel advocates & anti EV populists is a great way to see ratings drop.

What do you mean, "support one nation" - you've proudly told us many times that you don't vote!

The reason why Trump is into Iran, is because we as Aussies, fail to grasp just how important Israel and the Jews are, in the American Christian Fundamentalist psyche. Israel MUST be supported at every turn, according to the majority of God-fearing Americans (and there's a lot of them, and a lot in positions of great power). The Jews are Gods Chosen people in their view, and Fundamentalist Americans believe they alone have the greatest God-given power in the whole World, to ensure that the Chosen people survive the Great Evil of the End Days - and that great Evil is Iran, and the Islamic Empires. So every attack on Israel is an attack on every American Christian Fundamentalist. So when Netanyahu says he's under attack and needs to beat back the Evil Empire, the American can only reply with, "how much help do you need, and we'll provide it for as long as you want". Netanyahu knows full well the great benefit of having both a huge Jewish influence in America, backed by Christian Fundamentalists. Trump can only see huge Trump Inc gains in resorts and hotels in any of the "conquered" areas - so he's happy to go along with Netanyahu's aims. And Bibi's aim is to devastate anyone, or any organisation, or any country that is Islamic, and threatening Israel. Remember, Bibi's greatly loved brother was killed by Islamic terrorists at Entebbe, and he harbours a bigger and longer lifetime grudge against Islamics, than the grudge that GON harbours against politicians that favour conscription. Trump is an opportunist, constantly seeking adulation and personal glory and wealth gains, and anything that helps those agendas can only be good, in his feeble mind. Accordingly, he's happy to continue to support Netanyahu's adventures into killing multitudes of "nasty" Islamics, because Trump knows that's an agenda that's got a huge level of support in America - and any "wins" over nasty Islamic terrorists (who took a couple of hundred innocent Americans hostage, and who also tortured them in 1980-82, don't forget), is a huge win for Donald. But now, the American adventure into Eye-Ran is looking a bit messy - and besides, Donny just got told his military have just expended around 11,300 VERY expensive missiles, rockets and other hi-tech armaments - and that Damned Strait is STILL blockaded! - and he's also been told, it will now take about THREE YEARS to produce another 12,000 of those very expensive missiles and rockets, just to make up their basic ammo requirements - and American arms manufactures are RELIANT on that Straits being OPEN! - because American companies are now having problems acquiring the BASICS of many arms manufacturing materials - because quite a number of those basic supply-chain materials HAVE to come through those Straits! "Here is how materials passing through the Strait impact American manufacturing: Helium for Semiconductors: Qatar, which exports through the Strait, supplies nearly one-third of the world's helium. This is crucial for cooling in semiconductor wafer manufacturing, affecting the production of computers, vehicles, and electronics. Petrochemical Inputs: The Gulf region is a hub for petrochemicals, supplying a significant share of raw materials used in plastics, polymers, and single-use packaging. Disruptions affect production and increase costs for manufacturers in these sectors. Sulfur and Fertilizer: Nearly half of all global seaborne sulfur trade passes through the Strait. Sulfur is essential for producing sulfuric acid, which is used in processing critical minerals like copper and cobalt (for batteries and jet engines). Aluminum and Steel: The Middle East accounts for a significant portion of primary aluminum production, with Gulf smelters supplying material for construction, transport, and renewable energy industries. Energy Prices: About 20% of global oil and LNG flows through the Strait. A closure causes a dramatic surge in energy prices, impacting the cost of manufacturing and transporting goods in the U.S." So....... right about now, Donny is in a BIG bind! That AWE and SHOCK attack on Iran ain't working! Those GODDAM Islamic terrorists are still beavering away, and still controlling important things like the Straits!! I reckon Donny must be looking for a quick and easy way out, and expecting some of his LOYAL associates to come up with the ANSWER! But it ain't forthcoming, and things are getting to be a little too wild for him!! This being a World Hero ain't the easy ride, he thought it would be!!

Coincidentally, I just came across this. I will post a link but here are some highlights. https://reneweconomy.com.au/wild-attack-on-batteries-and-renewables-by-7s-spotlight-program-falls-over-at-the-first-fact-check/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRSvLRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeRENsgXVWg03njVcjEv25LrV4q7XUJEVAYcOkDfurOU4zO3LDDzae9NSaOn8_aem_LVPR3uKcuhqbLOHAX9gfnA Spotlight, the so-called flagship current affairs program on the 7 network, dedicated more than an hour on Sunday evening on a report into the supply chains feeding into the renewables and EV industries, with a particular focus on cobalt mines in the Congo, and also activities in Australia. It was amplified on Murdoch and social media. It fell over at the very first fact-check. “Every battery, every electric vehicle, every piece of so-called clean energy technology today” uses cobalt, reporter Liam Bartlett claimed at the start of the program. Wrong. Nearly every big battery installed in Australia these days uses (LFP) lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which means no cobalt, and no nickel (that’s relevant because Bartlett did a similar hit job on the nickel industry last year, using that as a platform to attack EVs and renewables). Tesla, the biggest supplier to big batteries in Australia, now uses only LFP batteries for grid scale batteries. No cobalt. The two big batteries at Liddell and Tomago being built for AGL Energy by Fluence are LFP. No cobalt. A spokesperson for Fluence said all its batteries in Australia use LFP. “We don’t use cobalt.” Finland-based Wartsila, which is building the country’s biggest grid battery at Eraring for Origin Energy, also uses only LFP for its battery projects in Australia. No cobalt. It’s a similar story with EVs. Tesla, for instance, uses only LFP chemistry for most of the variants of its best selling Model Y and the Model 3. No cobalt. It uses NMC chemistry (which does include cobalt) only in “performance” variants, which amounts to about 10 per cent of sales. Home batteries, which are now being installed at record rates in Australia, are the same. New market leader Sigenergy uses only LFP chemistry, so no cobalt, as does another market leader Sungrow, and most others. Bartlett claims to be appalled by the conditions in some cobalt mines in the Congo, and the nickel mine in Indonesia. And so he should be. So should everyone. But the inconvenient truth is that these mines have been operating for decades, and cobalt has been used widely in many industries. The mineral is essential for the iPhone that Bartlett presumably uses, for the laptop he writes his stories on, for the jet engines that flew him from Australia to Africa, and for widespread use in medicine (hip and knee replacements), the petroleum industry, the manufacture of tools, for construction, for cosmetics, and even ceramics. The use of cobalt in EV and grid batteries is relatively new, and is already moving on. Where it is used, most EV makers are at pains to point out that the mineral does not come from such mines, and they produce blockchain style tracking reports to underline their claims. But Bartlett did not seem particularly interested in balance, or inconvenient detail. His story had three major themes – he doesn’t like the Chinese, he doesn’t like renewables and EVs, and he doesn’t like federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen. “Bowen’s fanatical approach, aided and abetted by a conga line of true believers and latte-sipping Teal supporters is now set to send the country into bankruptcy,” Bartlett wrote in an op-ed also published on 7’s website. Bartlett – was global head of TV, creative visual at oil giant Shell in London from 2013-2015

I don’t see people with rooftop solar as part of the problem—I see generating your own clean electricity as a positive. If we zoom out a bit, the real issue looks different. The electricity grid we use today was largely designed and built from the 1950s through to the 1990s. It was built as a one-way system: electricity flowed from large, centralised generators—coal, gas, and hydro—out to consumers. That made perfect sense at the time, because generation technology dictated that structure. But generation technology has changed. We now have distributed energy—rooftop solar being the most obvious example—where electricity is produced at the edges of the grid, not just at the centre. I think this is where we differ. You seem to be saying (correct me if I’m wrong) that generation methods should be limited by what the existing grid can handle. I’d argue the opposite: the purpose of the grid is to distribute electricity as efficiently as possible, and that means adapting it to modern forms of generation, not restricting those forms to suit legacy infrastructure. A useful comparison is telecommunications. In the 1990s, the copper phone network was sufficient for voice calls. Then the internet arrived, and we initially squeezed it through that same copper using dial-up. As technology advanced, the limitations became obvious. We didn’t respond by saying “we must limit internet use because the network can’t cope.” We upgraded the network—eventually rolling out systems like the National Broadband Network. Electricity is no different. Rooftop solar isn’t a flaw in the system—it’s a signal that the system needs to modernise. The system was built for one-way, centralised generation. Now we’ve got distributed generation changing demand patterns. That’s an engineering and market design problem, not a reason to limit a cheaper, cleaner energy source.

This is where you lose me, with the kind of thinking that enables a fascist regime. It's the "yes Trump is bad, BUT..." thing. It's like saying "Yes Hitler was bad, but goddam it, real Germans could get a job." Trump is actively dismantling democracy in the USA. He doesn't have a single thought for the people of the US, except how to continue deceiving them so Donald J Trump and his dynasty can profit from them. The only reason Trump ever mentions immigrants (in Minnesota, which has less than most states but has a governor he hates) is to dog-whistle his white nationalist base and sow hatred and division. We don't need a Trump or any version of him. Democracy is not supposed to be exciting. It's meant to be calm, boring and safe. We are an immigrant nation, just ask the original inhabitants. If you can show me actual statistics that show that crime rates are higher among recent immigrants than those whose ancestors moved here between 40 years to 60,000 years ago, then go ahead. (Statistics does not mean sensationalist crap from Sky News or any Murdoch rag).

It's not so much "immigration", but "mass immigration" created by the conjoined major parties. They ignored public opinion and went ahead with it anyway. Immigration was no longer included in the democratic process, and still isn't. You can have your say, but it inevitably falls on deaf ears. Things might be changing though, with the high cost of living and shortage of housing, the pig-headed major party politicians can't help but hear rumblings from nearly every sector of the broader community. Mass immigration drove me to support One Nation, that's how it affected me. I will not support or vote for parties who find it convenient to gang up against the Public for selfish reasons. They promise sweeteners at election time, but the issue of immigration is completely off the table. As the major parties lose their influence over the general public, as is happening now, we'll get a chance to gain power over them and tell them what we want, not what they want all the time. Mass immigration is not doing what it is intended to do, making us stronger, no, it is making us weaker in every respect you can think of. Why do we have a trillion dollar debt? Why do we have so much drug crime? Why is the nation split into 200 different groups with 200 different flags? Why did we have an anti Semitic "Bondi", and blocked streets full of River to the Sea people? We shouldn't go around with blinkers on. Take them off and look around.

I see this making it expensive for large users who unfortunately are the employers of people. the hatched lines are the constraints for the last couple of days and I have seen it worse. By the time we add enough generation to cover the bad times, the good times are going to have a lot of oversupply. Are the generators going to just accept this or make their energy more expensive. Also shows how much smore storage we need. (SA grid)

Well there's Plenty of them around, so it could be said you are not Robinson Crusoe, there. Nev

As yet they don't have a a candidate they can throw their weight behind. This video identifies two possible candidates and gives reasons for the favouring of one of them.

Our politicians should take note of that

Musk could probably pay the dollar bit from his pocket change, but doubt he could fix the international respect bit.

The USA people will pay for Trumps folies Big time in the future. Not Just democrats who shouldn't have to at all by rights ,as they didn't Vote for him. Nev

Pity the Democrats, whether you like them or not. They are going to be stuck with the cost of repairing all the damage the Republicans have done, as trying to restore sone semblance of respect for the country and the rest of the world. And there will be some expectation for them to contribute to rebuilding some of the infrastructure destroyed in Gaza and Iran by Trumps indiscriminate bombing.

Something often mentioned is that whilst those of us who have installed solar may be doing fine regarding electricity bills, this is somehow at the expense of people who can't afford solar or who can't install solar because they live in apartments or rent. This is true, and we should do everything we can to ensure equity. Many other countries are a little ahead of us in this respect. I have mentioned a few times the so-called "balcony solar (it could also be in your back garden. Although many European countries, as well as some US states, allow balcony solar. This will also soon be made legal in Britain and Australia. This technology is relatively cheap and "plug and play", no electrician required.

A Vain Mans Erection. Nev

Why bother developing anthropomorphic weapons when we have seen how effective simpler machines like drones have been in carrying the battle? Am I being over-cynical in thinking that by releasing a story such as the one above, the releasers are creating a diversion from what is really being developed?

The maximum I have seen on the wholesale market is 25 cent/kWh at between 6:30 & 7:00pm. There is no solar being produced then so it is only export from batteries that can get that much. For most of the day the wholesale export price is 5 cents maximum to negative 3 cents. The best retail solar export plans I have seen are 10 cent/kWh & that is only for the first 10kWh per day then it reduces by half but this is countered by their high kWh charges when importing.

So why do you have panels on your roof? If you are actually getting 50 cents a kWh, then your retailer is making a loss with every kWh you export. Who is paying for this?

Sorry, Siso, but that statement is a contradiction in terms. I cannot see any facts to support this. The generating market has always been volatile. Speaking in terms of prior to the new solar and wind contribution, It was mostly predictable on the demand side, but unpredictable on the generation side. With all the generators involved, every day there is a combination of planned outages and unplanned outages (breakdowns). The National Market regulator just deals with it. Sometimes i saw the wholesale price rocket from $30 to thousands of dollars whilst an extra power station got up to speed. All part of the way the grid works. Renewables are simply another source of electrons. Sure, there are more things to consider now. But the management is evolving to cope with each change. Renewables are not causing much trouble. Nor are they parasitic.

Those kinds of scripts - short sentences, lots of padding, trying to build up drama are common in many internet videos. Unless I've missed something in the link, if all he said was "Let's call it what it is", then I've just wasted a few minutes.

That's another evil Minion, Pete Hegseth

When I was a kid collecting stamps, Magyar Posta was the Hungarian post office. Magyar meant Hungarian. So how come their new guy has that name? Did he change his name to win votes?

Well the Iran war seems to have gone quiet. Has the news cycle got this short? Or has Iran actually been bombed back into the stone age? Maybe donold has finally shredded the last of the Epstein files?

I'd better read back through the thread and see where it went from the Hungarian prime Minister to pubs and beer.

Interesting article regarding feed in tariffs. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-16/australian-solar-feed-in-tariffs-have-plunged-99-per-cent/104986534

That is pretty lucky for you. I would suggest that the majority of systems are on a much worse deal. The fact is that in early days of roof top solar the grid really needed as much as could get. Now there is more rooftop solar than often is required. This is where batteries or EVs come in. My electricity bills are kept low by utilizing solar electricity during the day. Dishwasher, washing machine, hot water are all scheduled for day time. Next year I intend to get an EV so my excess will go into the vehicle and also I can draw back with V2L. Back to your main point. Because I and most recent rooftop installations are only getting a few cents a kWh and have export limits I would suggest that these people are paying the network costs. If you are getting 50 cents a kWh then you are an example of the problem you illustrating.

Managed inverters do contribute to the stability of the grid as it is the inverter that manages the battery and decides when to charge or discharge and whether to import or export. I signed up with Amber a few weeks ago and it has been interesting watching what the software is telling my system to do as it uses algorithms to check the spot price which changes every 5 minutes and how much energy I am using and whether my battery is charging or not and what the current export price is. I had run the EV battery down to 20% with a few longish drives over 3 days & decided to charge it today. I have the car set to charge only between 10am & 2.30pm. By 10 am my battery that was depleted overnight as it exported during the peak time from about 5.30pm & 7pm had regained about 55% of charge. The charger consumes 7kWh & the solar now is generating about 6kWh. In January this would have been 9kWh. So the solar was used to power the charger & the rest of the house & the balance supplemented by the battery. When the battery depleted to 29% the system stopped drawing from it & began importing energy and the solar then was all used for charging the battery. At that time the spot price was 11c/kWh & the export price was -1cent. My charger does not have OCCP (Open Charge Point Protocol) so cannot be managed except manually. I changed the charger via its app to charge at 20 amps when it had been charging at 32 amps. The inverter then stopped importing power and supplied the charger & house & began recharging the battery with the surplus. For the last few days the inverter has used its curtailment function to reduce solar output once the battery is full to prevent export at very low or negative export prices The Amber software is in learning mode for the first 30 days so gets more accurate over time. The Amber App today shows that in the past 18 days I am $31.03 in credit. Ambers charge is a flat $25.00 a month so that is covered. The daily supply charge from Essential Energy of $1.92 has already been included. It will be different as the seasons change and if we get a lot of cloudy weather or rain.

Crikey it's wet. Anybody been looking at the synoptic maps lately? The southern lows are coming through close together, and the highs are sort of centering on Tassie.

It would be a BIG Mistake to think that Those running IRAN are stupid.. It's clear where the Bulk of the stupidity resides. Nev

I'm not. I hope this doesn't hurt our relationship.

Midsomer.

I can't see AI doing this sort of job.

Gee Jerry. Thanks for the update. I think we are in for an interesting rollercoaster ride. My attempt to digest all the implications is like trying to predict what chump is going to say or do next.

I maintain that we produce a higher grade of bullshit than AI could.

And here is the chat gpt version: I’ve been saying for a while now that hardware has finally caught up to the point where AI is reaching a real inflection point. We’re moving toward something close to large-scale automation of cognitive work—not just coding, but a significant portion of white-collar jobs. Think about roles like: Accountants Psychologists Actuaries / quantitative analysts Traders, risk managers, compliance and settlements staff Sales and customer support Real estate agents Copywriters, editors, and even parts of journalism Engineers and product designers Architects Legal professionals Healthcare professionals Even scammers, hackers, and other bad actors The list goes on. A large portion of the analytical and process-driven work in these fields is increasingly within AI’s capabilities. That said, AI still doesn’t really have “lightbulb moments” in the human sense. It works by identifying patterns in data, not by suddenly inventing ideas from pure intuition. You won’t get the classic “what if this bus were moving at the speed of light?” moment. But what AI can do is automate a huge amount of the groundwork needed to get from idea to theory. If reports about systems like “Anthropic Mythos” are even partially accurate, we may be edging closer to that kind of capability as well. What this could mean for the workforce Mass displacement of many white-collar roles Jobs requiring physical dexterity (trades, hospitality, fine arts, etc.) remain safer for now—robotics isn’t quite there yet Research roles will persist, though increasingly AI-assisted Management may shrink to a smaller, more senior/executive layer A small, highly skilled workforce will oversee and direct AI systems—domain experts who are also technically capable and entrepreneurial A shift from the gig economy to a “side hustle” economy Economic implications Short term: Cost savings (e.g., the hypothetical $40m) will mostly go to company profits Long term: As adoption spreads, competition increases Lower barriers to entry mean more players → margin compression Over time, this could reduce costs across industries However: If large parts of the population lose income, who can afford to buy anything? Governments will likely be forced to respond—possibly through wealth redistribution mechanisms or similar policies In theory, we could end up with better, cheaper products—but controlled by fewer, more powerful organisations. And as we’ve seen before (e.g., with CRM systems), technology often gets used to cut costs rather than improve user experience. Bigger societal questions 1. Psychological impact Work gives people structure, identity, and purpose. What happens when that disappears for millions? We could see major increases in anxiety, depression, and social instability if this isn’t managed carefully. 2. Education The current model won’t hold. Beyond basic literacy and numeracy, we’ll need to prioritise: Critical thinking Creativity Entrepreneurship We’ll still need professionals and trades—but far fewer of them. So what happens to everyone else? 3. Health and lifestyle If traditional work disappears, what motivates people day-to-day? Do governments start encouraging—or even mandating—physical and mental health routines at scale? 4. Living wage / universal income Two broad paths: Economic contraction (if people can’t afford to spend) Some form of income redistribution to sustain demand This raises bigger questions about whether we’re approaching the limits of traditional capitalism and need hybrid or alternative systems. 5. Migration and demographics Birth rates are already falling in developed countries. AI could accelerate that trend. At the same time, economies still need consumers—so migration may increase significantly, bringing major cultural shifts. 6. Military implications This one speaks for itself. It won’t be “robots vs robots”—it’ll be people using advanced systems against other people, with potentially rapid and devastating consequences. Final thoughts This isn’t just another wave of innovation—it’s a genuine societal shift. It creates enormous opportunity, but also serious risk: Greater concentration of wealth and power Increased dependence on governments and large corporations Potential exclusion from economic life if you’re “locked out” of key platforms And critically, this isn’t something any one country can handle alone—it likely requires global coordination, which historically hasn’t been our strong point. There are very few truly forward-thinking or benevolent governments out there, so realistically, we should expect a turbulent transition.

Yes, I remember stamps with Magyar from my childhood stamp-collecting phase. According to AI: Magyar is a relatively common surname in Hungary, acting as an ethnic name that means "Hungarian". It is frequently found across the country, particularly in regions with mixed historical ethnicity. As a surname, it is sometimes the result of historical "Magyarization," where families changed foreign-sounding names to more patriotic ones. Key Facts About the Name "Magyar" Meaning: The word magyar is the autonym for Hungarians and means "Hungarian". Origin: The name stems from the ancient Megyer tribe, which was a dominant clan among the Hungarian tribes in the 9th century. Commonality: It is a common surname in Hungary. Related Names: Similar to other ethnic surnames in Hungary, such as Horváth (Croat) or Német (German). Distribution: Data shows high concentrations of individuals with the surname Magyar in areas like Budapest and regional centers such as Hajdúszoboszló and Kecskemét. While it means "Hungarian," it is important to note that the country itself is called Magyarország (literally "Land of the Magyars") by its inhabitants.

Is it all about nulear capability, or is that the magician's diversion from the real reason - profiting from the oil that the USA has under its own land? This video raises that question. The presenter is pretty level-headed and fair. I suggest that you hear what he says and then form your opinion one way or the other. The idea presented heremakes more sense, based on what we know of the economic behaviour of the USA for over 100 years, than political or military security reasons.

At this early stage that is what will happen I would expect concentration in the AI market and costs to go up a bit, too

Claude.io from Anthropic is considered the bee's knees for coind. They have just released Mythos, it's next gen.. except they haven't released it to the general public. Apparently, without specific training, it identified zero day and other vulnerabilities. It is claimed to exceed the capability of all but the best developers: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/04/08/what-is-claude-mythos-and-why-anthropic-wont-let-anyone-use-it/ The software development industry is already being turned on its head. I used claude.io to quickly develop a prototype app that is fully industrlalised (i.e. uses all the correct data, application, user iunterface, security, distributed, and scaling techniques, complete with application and server health monitoring and the like). On the free version, it took my about two months because they have much stricter usage limits than ChapGpt. But, it was exceptionally well written code - and I didn't have to tell it what technoogy to use.. I basically said this is what I need, and it did the rest. Many companies are turning to AI.. a lot of Intergrated Development Environments (IDE's), which are th programs where you write code, debug, ibuild, etc, have AI already integrated. However, Claude is next level stuff already. Mythos basically will make the software development industry almost entirely automated. We are currently hiring a lot of software developers for a big new program of work - it is huge. I won't go into numbers, but from about September/October last year, I have increased my analysts fby a factor of 10. We have been hirign developers (we already have a reasonable number) - looking quadruple our developer count. Despite it being a buyers market, we are finding ti tough to find quality candidates and we are paying decent rates for London. So, I will be proposing to our AI team adopting an AI dev tool for our project. We have to deliver a shed load in a year, which is why we are looking to hire an army of people. But, for literally a few hundre dollars per user per month, we can get exceptional throughput. And here's the interesting thing: It can write the code and a separate AI bot will review the code and suggest improvements. If they are accepted, the improvements are fed back intoi the code writing bot as well. So, what does this do to the industry? It doesn't kill it entirely... The first thing I predict will be a virtual removal of programming languages.. Of you think about it, programming was originally writing a bunch of 1's and 0's in a specific way and took an eternity. And then, Assembler/Assembly (depending on which side of the tracks you were born) was developed as a human readable extraction of the CPU instructions. You had to learn Assmbler for each processor family (and sometimes individual chips). That saved a lot of time compared to the binary coding and the instruction set was somewhat standardised for standard operations. This is effectively a second generation language. Then came 3GLs - these were BASIC. fortran, COBOL, C, and these days Java, C#, Python and the like. They are general purpose langiages that are feature rich and provide a programmer all of the control needed, but the difference is that the language applied to any computer (wlell, almost).. as a compiler or interpreter to convert that code to binary code (executable code). So, in theory, if I wrote a COBOL program on an IBM Mainframe, it would compile and run on a PC with a COBOL compiler. The truth is there are extensions and platform specific functions. Although, Java, C# and Python have fixed that by being interpretative, and the use standard library extensions. 4GLs made a relatively brief appearance, in that they were higher level 3GLs - an attempt to make programming more English like and democratise development to the users. Ironically, langiages like Python, which are modern 3GLs have done more for that than the 4GLs. There are 5GLs, but they are largely obscure. But AI - especially such as Claude will, IMHO, replace computer languages as we know it. They will become English (or other human language) builders. At the moment, they are code generators.. I asked Claude to develop my app using Java and specific frameworks (though it suggested some better ones than I requested, so I went with its suggestion). When it did create a bug, a quick prompt fixed it. The article above talks about usign humans for reviewing the code, but I would suggest once there is critical mass of confidence in the technology, code will no longer be required. For example, you have your series of prompts to build an application. Claude (or other AIs) can generate the executable (or interpretive bytcode, a sort of executable) direct - no production of human readable code required. It will be tested and if it works, it can be deployed; if not, adjust the prompt, rebuild and retest. Back to my team; about 1/2 of my analysts are ex developers/software engineers - like myself. We have very good business domain knowledge and reasonably good, if outdated software development knowledge. My idea is that we are given a system architecutre (data lake, data frameworks, service platform, user interface platforms - e.g. desktop, tablet, phone), asd we start crafting the prompts to build the system. The first will be the data model, of which there are industry standards we can tweak. I would suggest we will have the data model done, say, in two days. We can use AI to populate the database and then write tests to ensure it works property. Say 2 - 3 days. Within 5 days I can have something that would take as maybe a month to get what we think is right and would probably take 2 analysts and some database admin support. The I can start building the individual functional services asnd UI, as well as integration to other systems. Let's say 2 months to build, system test, performance test, and have the users acceptance test it. The it is a deploy to the production environment. In fact, we could easily automate the testing, as well as for updates, any regression testing. Say add 2 months, maybe with a lead tester/QA person, an architect part time, a senior dev part time to review stuff, and maybe a database administrator part time. Otyherwise we would use analysts - probably between 3 and 5 because of the number of functions we have to deliver. And the best thing is, even if it produces spaghetti code (which it doesn't), I don't care, because what is important to me is the promtps that build the system. And you don't need to be a linguist or an expert in the coding or the specific language, database, user interface technology to use it. In fact, in my little home experiment, Clause inferred much of what it had to do without me needing to even hont at it. As I said, I can't give you exact numbers, but our non-AI plans are close to 100 people all up, with a minimum viable product at about a year, and then the full enchilada in two years.. and there will still be kinks to iron out, performance issues, regressions in releases, etc. But with maybe 5 analysts and a smattering of other support, I cam have the whole enchilada within 6 months. Now work out the man days. In the UK, there are about 220 working days for professionals.. 100-ish people * 220 days * 2 years = 44,000 working days. And my business has a cost of using manual processes and elevated operational controls from day 1, but reducing as more is delivered over a two year period. Now I have, say all my staff in an AI world on it full time (which I doubt, but let's go with it) = 110 days * 9 (5 analysts, 1 developer, 1 QA, 1 DBA, 1 Architect): 990 days. Assume $1000/Day per person. Without AI, $44m; With AI: $990,000. Assume $500/mo per user (that is what a company a friend of mine is paying Anthropic for Claude): $27,000 gives a total with AI of $1,017,000. Even if I am really, really optimistic, and we quadruple the estimates, that is $4,068,000, noit quite 10% of the costs of doing it the old way. It is going to be a bumpy ride, but in theory, all services should get cheaper once widespread AI adoption kicks in.

Vance should be known as Kiss of Death Vance. This week, JD Vance had two jobs: get an Iran deal and keep Hungary's Viktor Orban in power. Neither happened for the US vice president. Then there was his visit with Pope Francis, who died a few days later. And he's the default President if Chump carks it?

I didn't realise Kharg Island (red pin) was almost 850 km from the Strait of Hormuz.

Well he didn't impress the Hungarians neither did Just Dumb Vance. The UK & the EU have a collectively larger economy by some margin than the US & Trump has alienated the rest of Nato and pretty much everyone else. The only thing the US has is a bigger military with the biggest most sophisticated weapons and some excellent technology though no better than Europe, China or even Australia. The problem is the country is run by the billionaires with Trump as their figurehead. The US has never been invaded but they are always at war with someone as well as themselves. They haven't invented many things on their own but have exploited most of the inventions from elsewhere, mostly the UK & Europe. The UK & Europe have some very large armament companies but have been happy to play second fiddle while the US has provided most of the defence hardware. Not any more. The invasion of Ukraine and Trumps re election has changed everything, The US is an empire in decline, it is already technically bankrupt and Trump is costing the county dearly. I don't know when it will eventually implode but I am sure it will eventually. There are companies that have been deemed to big to fail like GM but there is nothing that will save a country when it all turns to custard/

I don't think trump gives a flying fark about the damage he does to Japan, Australia, Malaysia, etc. Nor about the wellbeing of American citizens.

Yes the US has been in the Middle East for decades ‘helping’ the Arabs extract their oil and gas reserves. I’m sure they would like to get their hands on the Iranian oil too but the regime there doesn’t want their help, Iran is a disruptor in the region, and a threat to Israel and US interests, especially if they get nuclear weapons. I don’t think the oil is a reason for this war starting. It is about the threat to Israel generally with or without nuclear weapons but especially with them. That’s Trump’s stated aim for getting involved but he’ll grab anything else he can get.

I agree with that. He certainly didn't go into it for Netanyahu or Israel. He went into it for himself because he thought the Iranian leadership would fold in a couple of days and he'd be famous as the President who had the nerve to take on the Iranians and show the world how weak his predecessors were. He wanted the world to applaud how smart and amazing he is. All he's managed to do is demonstrate how vain and stupid he is.

Yes, I would agree with that, too. But I would suggest that is also how most of these relationships work. The question is, when Chump achieves his aims, will be still be distracted into being Netanyahu's pawn? And vice versa? My guess is Chump would be the first to drop Net rather than the other way around.