Enda

http://adnautic.xyz/387/YTozOntzOjEwOiJyZXF1ZXN0X2lkIjtzOjIyOiI1ODEyYTI3MmEwMDgzNzUzMDQ1MDA2IjtzOjEzOiJ0cmFja2luZ19saW5rIjtzOjg5OiJodHRwOi8vdHJhY2UuNjgyLmNvL3RyYWNlP29mZmVyX2lkPTMyMjg1NyZhZmZfaWQ9MjAzNjYmYWZmX3N1YjY9aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saWZlaGFja2VyLmNvbSI7czo5OiJ0aW1lc3RhbXAiO2k6MTQ3NzYxNjI1Mjt9

Hi briny_ear, To cheer you up, I ordered a copy of Dr Xia's dissertation. It's a sexy little number called An Object-Oriented Approach To Integrated Dynamic Geographical Decision Support System. To explain what the dissertation is about, the abstract states that the "major goal of the thesis is to use the object-oriented approach to build an integrated dynamic geographical decision support system." Err, thanks. He dedicates it to his "parents and family, for their endless support and encouragement that enabled me to pursue my dreams" and to his wife Cong Liu, "for her tireless and selfless efforts on behalf for her love and warmth." Bless. Here's a picture: (As you can see, he's also not very good at typesetting the copyright symbol.) Hope this clears it up, Prof. Enda, Ph.D.

Was just redirected to http://midnightad.xyz/967/YTozOntzOjEwOiJyZXF1ZXN0X2lkIjtzOjIyOiI1ODBlMTEwYTA4YjM4ODU3NzcyMTM4IjtzOjEzOiJ0cmFja2luZ19saW5rIjtzOjIwOToiaHR0cDovL3RyYWNraW5nLmNyb2JvLmNvbS9hZmZfYz9vZmZlcl9pZD0yMDkwNyZhZmZfaWQ9MTU0MzcmY3JvYm9fc3JjPTEmYWZmX3N1YjM9MzIweDUwJmFmZl9zdWI1PXdlYi9hcHAmYWZmX3N1YjY9VkVSVElDQUwmYWZmX3N1Yj01ODBlMTEwYTA4YjM4ODU3NzcyMTM4JmFmZl9zdWIyPVREX1VTJmFmZl9zdWI1PWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuY2JzbmV3cy5jb20lMkYiO3M6OToidGltZXN0YW1wIjtpOjE0NzczMTY4ODQ7fQ== while signing in. Excuse the long URL. Posting it in case there's any doubt.

To be fair, for me the five hours were between 6am and 11am on a Sunday morning!

I can get around it by blocking ads as well, which isn't necessarily the best approach for VT. Might be worth asking GoogleAds (or whoever is running them) to exclude these redirect companies. Midnightad.xyz is one of them, and other similarly named sites are coming up as well.

I was posting from home on my laptop. In the pic above I was connecting to my regular home wifi; now I am out and about and the problem persists. So it appears it's not a connection issue My workaround to is to 'stop' the page loading before the redirect takes effect. There's a delay of 5 seconds or so before the ad kicks in. I don't know if that's a set time limit or just how long it takes for the ad to load. I'm not going to download a new browser on mobile data, but will do so if I remember when I get home.

I've only the one browser on my phone, but it makes no difference in "private mode" or regular. Mobile data vs wifi makes no difference.

I'm using an iPhone 6, with its standard browser, cache cleared, and ios 9.

Serious problem with the ads on my iPhone in the last week or so. It automatically redirects (no clicking needed) to download some dodgy looking app. Makes the site unusable. This is probably geo-based, so it's worth mentioning that i'm in the US.

With an inflammatory post like that, clearly you're just a sycophant taking a pop at Sir Boris.

Yep, good example of EU's health and safety regulations not being good enough. (Or an example of a fairly big hubhub over nothing, "it's only a small bit of horse meat", "we need less red tape", depending on your view.)

Briefly: the EU has a long and sordid history with bananas. As far back as 1975 the European Commission were enforcing higher competition standards to bananas because of the importance of their soft texture to "the young, the old, and the infirm." In short, they failed to apply standard economic measures (cross-price elasticity) to define relevant products markets, and used bananas' shape (!) as a distinguishing characteristic of the product, to argue bananas were not substitutes of apples or oranges. The 1994 regulation of the marketing of bananas was (imho) a decent example of unnecessary meddling in rather trivial matters, and this is evidenced by the Commission's effective repeal of the 1994 regulation by introducing more lax standards in 2011.

Washington Post: Now yer man there with his organic kale-fed chickens is too extreme for my liking, and we all know of the EU losing the run of itself with the likes of the banana regulations. But I'll say three things for the EU: 1. As stupid as the banana regulations are, when was the last time you heard of seriously dodgy imports in the EU? In terms of consumer safety, I'd rather play it safe and have the Daily Mail complaining about over-regulation than under-regulation. 2. There's a lot to be said for having one large body making these regulations instead of replicating the process twenty or thirty times. 3. It's one thing to critique the level of EU bureaucracy (I'd be in that camp on a number of issues, not least DG Competition swanning in with notions of monitoring tax enforcement), but it's another thing to pretend this bureaucracy can be simply swept away and glorious unabashed free trade can magically come flying-in in its stead.

Sure, if you'd like to lower standards but with the risk of e.g. chicken that is washed in chlorine, or beef that is pumped with hormones (two real world, US examples), or have cars with different coloured headlights (EU example), then that's not unreasonable. However it is not in any way puzzling or "odd" that the EU places restrictions on such imports.

Awol you're half-right. Do you want free trade of pharmaceuticals from China, or do you want pharmaceuticals imported in the UK to be generated under the same safety standards that you'd expect UK firms to produce? Cars with different colour headlights are alright by you? Happy to have free imports of hormone-laden Texan beef? No checks on food standards coming in from other countries? The point of the single market is to overcome these barriers, facilitating trade without worry about health or safety of something you import. So, speaking as an EU citizen, I do insist that the UK needs to follow the single market rules if it wants free trade and, no, I don't find such a position "odd".

I presume this rhetoric, but do you actually need someone to explain why Europe wants the single market as opposed to an 1800s-style FTA?

Too many fingers, think it's Photoshopped.

Talk about a Panglossian view, Awol! Just a few points. "WTO tariffs average about 2.5%, the £ has depreciated by about 15% since the vote. Our exports are already vastly more competitive as a result, hence the IMF ripping up their pre-vote predictions of doom and confirming the UK as the fastest growing developed economy in the world." 1. Exports are more competitive, but by definition this makes your imports more expensive. The only point of exports is to pay for imports. Your imports just became 15% more expensive, so everything from your wine to your petrol just increased from £6 to £7. And that's before your start adding the extra tariffs, further devaluations, and non-tariff barriers to trade that will come. (PS, so much for Farage's claim that the sterling drop was a market over-reaction and would return to its old levels. How's that working out, Nige? Talk about an optimistic forecast.) 2. It's not the fastest growing developed economy in the world. It's the fastest growing out of the G7. So seven countries, not the forty or OECD countries. But this is a false equivalence; growth would still have been even higher absent Brexit. "Those companies that export to the EU are already compliant with all EU legislation so only have to maintain that position and stay up to date with changes as they would have done anyway had we remained members." So what you're saying is that the single-market regulations aren't all that taxing? Glad to hear it, it's not said enough. "Given the overwhelming significance of the UK market for their exports, Ireland may have to consider leaving the EU too to achieve tarrif free access, of Brussels rejects free trade." Any suggestion that Ireland will leave the EU to get a free trade deal with the UK indicates a serious misunderstanding of Irish public opinion and economic reality. We will not leave the EU, even for a united Ireland. "Agricultural subsidies will continue (confirmed) as will R & D grants to universities." Do you really think post-Brexit UK (i.e. the Tories) will offer the same subsidies as the CAP over the medium term? As for universities, I'm an academic -- UK universities are uniformly against this. It will damage higher education in the UK, no question. Higher education is the most international industry in the world, and so isolating the UK from its largest trading partner is a significant blow. I know a handful of brilliant researchers - previously happy to teach, research, and pay taxes in the UK, and provide free advice to policymakers - who are figuratively packing up their bags already. Universities will not be able to attract international talent, and Oxford/Cambridge/LSE will no longer take a disproportionate share of H2020, like they did with EU FP7. Limiting the number of foreign students, who pay full fees, is an absolute boon to universities in Dublin. "The next few years will definitely be uncertain, but difficulties will be balanced with new opportunities - not least free trade deals with major economies that are actually growing." The EU is the largest market in the world, larger than the US, with 200 million citizens (Poland, etc.) primed for considerable growth, and is right on your doorstep. Yet you're banking on 30 year stable growth in China and India, countries that aren't exactly stable democracies. And omitting that the EU will likely match any deals the UK strikes with China/India/Russia/Brazil/Indonesia/whoever. Imagine Canada saying they relish removing free trade with the US to make a move in India, and casually overlooking that the US also has an eye on that market. Madness.

Word coming out that the UK has "red lines" of no free movement, no contribution to EU budget, and no jurisdiction of ECJ. So the Swiss deal is off the table. I think it's going to be an awkward WTO-type deal, with tariffs (and UK companies having to comply with single market bureaucracy to successfully sell into the EU), no free movement of services, and maybe some complex arrangement to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland. Swiss deal much more economically advantageous than that. Loss of passporting will be a big dent to the City, and to the tax revenues derived from there. Simultaneously restricting your export market by limiting the number of foreign students is more self-imposed damage. The loss of CAP subsidies to farmers will rear its ugly head. You lot are in trouble.

Switzerland accept free movement of labour; pay about half a billion points EU's coffers without any anything back in terms of CAP etc., have no seat at the negotiating table, and must in practice abide by ECJ judgments (see their recent referendum on free movement for a case in point). If the UK want that deal, no worries.

Not in the squad tonight. Injured?

You wouldn't be saying that had Aly made a clean tackle with 5 minutes to go. Di Matteo made a mistake by not shoring things up sooner, but there has been a huge improvement in the quality of play compared to last season. It's of course literally true, it's madness to be insinuating "not getting results" after six matches.

Fantastic finish from a half-chance. "If Ronaldo had done that", etc. I think he's a good player in the squad, definitely worth a few million. Put away more chances than McScoremack so far this season. Well done, Rudy. Was it me or did he grab the player's neck during Aly's little scrap? Lucky to have avoided attention for that one.

That's his, what, second game for us? Tell us how you really feel!

I often don't even recognise Westwood as a CM.