It's interesting you mention that. Even Obamas detractors admit he spoke well. True, but i find JFKs speeches are on a different level from that. And it's not just him, but the contrast is particularly striking.
Now in the UK all we get are monotonous robots or people who have clearly had intensive coaching in how to speak in a clear. Decisive. Direct. Way, to inspire confidence and project competence. The two qualities entirely absent in most of our politicians.
The less said about the other side of the pond the better.
> Even Obamas detractors admit he spoke well. True, but i find JFKs speeches are on a different level from that. And it's not just him, but the contrast is particularly striking.
My off the cuff observation is that there is a lot less mastery of language than there used to be in America. I'm not really sure why, but compare the grand language used by the early political leaders to, say, Obama, and it's striking. And that's not saying Obama is a bad speaker! He has a ton of charisma and makes you want to like his ideas by the way he presents them. But he's never given something on the level of Lincoln's Gettysburg address (in my opinion at least).
> never given something on the level of Lincoln's Gettysburg address (in my opinion at least)
I’m arguing he couldn’t have. Until America regains a literary tradition, the complexity and imagery gained with heavy words is lost against the conciseness soundbites demand.
> I'm not really sure why, but compare the grand language used by the early political leaders to, say, Obama, and it's striking.
IMO that's a direct consequence of becoming a real democracy: can't just target those rich enough to get a fancy education.
IIRC, the land ownership requirements had already gone by the time of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, but I expect them to have still been writing with such an audience in mind.
Not just America. But it's partly a cultural thing. If someone would imitate the style of a century ago, he would be mocked for it and considered a self indulgent show off. The best example i can bring is Jacob Reese Mogg, otherwise known as The Rt Hon Gentleman from the 18th century.
One thing that is thankfully unique to America is that rudeness as a debating tactic can win elections.
I’m no expert in other country’s politics, but it would be pretty surprising if that was unique to America. Boris Johnson? Nicolas Sarkozy? Silvio Berlusconi?
Not even close. The nearest equivalent is Prime Ministers Questions which is a regular staged event.
Look at the debates from 2015 where Trumps opponents are rendered speechless by his overbearing personality. He makes himself the centre of everything and is completely shameless about it. He's an American phenomenon. BUT,
the reason it works is because he means what he says and does what he says he'll do. America has always appreciated straight talkers more then
Europe.
Jacob Reese Mogg isn't only mocked for being anachronistic, but also extreme poshness. That he went canvasing with someone he called his nanny is one such noteworthy oddity.
I'm convinced that the win10 Start Menu was the single worst thing microsoft inflicted upon us in that OS. I imagine that particular discussion went like this:
Exec1:"We have a semi decent os with a refreshingly updated UI that should stay relevant for a decade. How can we make it better?"
Exec2: "why not replace the perfectly good start menu we have with an ugly, oddly proportioned rectangle with animated ads for our products."
Exec3: "Sounds
great! Just make sure
it has a quarter of the information density of the old one and takes up twice the screen space."
I haven't used Win11 enough to discover how they have managed to further degrade the experience, but at least it looks nicer.
It also starts instantly every time (that requires removing Edge and web results from there). I use it as an app launcher only. The only missing touch is a fuzzy search but I can live without it.
I've spent too much time on it. There are tools that do it for you if you trust them (like Windhawk).
>>I haven't used Win11 enough to discover how they have managed to further degrade the experience, but at least it looks nicer.
It's an anti-pattern over anti-pattern over anti-pattern. There is a trap waiting for you at every corner. At this point it's hard to imagine them not losing the whole consumer PC market to Apple and maybe some gaming friendly Linux distros. It will take a decade or so but once the snowball starts it will not turn back.
I don't think it's only about power users only. They forced S0 sleep but didn't are about making sure it doesn't crash the system because of some misbehaving driver or failed Windows update. Normal users don't like seeing everything gone and the computer restarting when they open the lid. That doesn't happen on Macs. It won't happen on Valve sponsored Linux distro either.
Was the original menu so bad? Your one has zero discoverability, which is the main feature of the old menu, and something which was degraded, but not completely killed off on the newer versions.
I don't need discoverability. I know what I have on my computer. I need it to be reliable, fast and not distract me with junk.
Maybe most people need discoverability, the problem is that with the new design all they will discover is ads for Microsoft's products :)
>>Was the original menu so bad?
The original has ads, flashy banners and opens with lag half the time. Yes, it's that bad.
They never made sense for desktop interfaces with a keyboard and mouse. Information density is usually preferred, because we have big screens and precise, fast input.
I have to agree. People moan that the ai summary is rubbish but that misses the point. If i need a quick overview of a subject i don't necessarily need anything more then a low quality summary. It's easier then wading through a bunch of blogs of unknown quality.
> If i need a quick overview of a subject i don't necessarily need anything more then a low quality summary
It's true. I previously had no idea of the proper number of rocks to eat, but thanks to a notorious summary (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11gzejgz4o) I have all the rock-eating knowledge I need.
In my experience Google's AI summaries are consistently accurate when retrieving technical information. In particular, documentation for long-lived, infrequently changing software packages tends to be accurate.
If you ask Google about news, world history, pop culture, current events, places of interest, etc., it will lie to you frequently and confidently. In these cases, the "low quality summary" is very often a completely idiotic and inane fabrication.
The airlines deserve no money above the price of a ticket. The way i see it the hold comes free with the rest of the plane. I see no reason why i need to pay another 40 pounds to bring a case, so i will shamelessly abuse my allowance. (if it was a reasonable amount like a tenner, that would be a different story, as it stands it's a cash grab)
What makes you say that? To me it's clearly Japanese (the "-chan" by itself is a dead giveaway) and there's way too many open syllables to feel Korean.
My username does not have anything to do with Korea. It is a reference to a Japanese anime Giji Harem—it is really good and funny if you are into anime, I recommend.
>Why not have
dedicated facilities that handle raising children professionally?
Because to even contemplate that means dismissing the entire notion of a parent child bond. Of course socialism, with it's inherent disdain of existing social structures have tried collective living, famously some kibbutzim in israel tried it, but most sensible people are horrified by such an idea.
I want to let it go but i can't. The suggestion that trained professionals would somehow do a better job of raising a child then parents would is terrible. It's one of the worst ideas i've ever seen here.
Now in the UK all we get are monotonous robots or people who have clearly had intensive coaching in how to speak in a clear. Decisive. Direct. Way, to inspire confidence and project competence. The two qualities entirely absent in most of our politicians.
The less said about the other side of the pond the better.
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