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Party had justified plan to hang flags in Nottinghamshire on basis that local businesses would foot £75,000 bill

A £75,000 scheme by a Reform-led council to hang union flags at sites across the county, which the party said would “not cost the taxpayer a single penny” as it would be sponsored by local businesses, has failed to attract a single sponsor, it has emerged.

The plan to attach the flags to brackets on about 180 lamp-posts and other places was agreed in the autumn by Nottinghamshire’s council, won by Nigel Farage’s party in last year’s May elections.

Andy Burnham needs the Treasury to serve devolution, raise living standards and renew the economy. The energy secretary meets that test

There are few things on which this column would agree with George Osborne. Voting to remain in the European Union was one. Backing Labour’s Ed Miliband to be the next chancellor is another.

Mr Osborne, whose austerity programme redistributed pain downwards while protecting privilege at the top, had only a week ago on his podcast, Political Currency, dismissed Mr Miliband as too difficult a sell to business and the press. He now recognises what should have been obvious: if Andy Burnham is serious about governing differently, he needs a chancellor with the authority, knowledge and political relationship with the prime minister to bend the Treasury to the project.

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Transcription, the winner of the Orwell prize for political fiction, and Toy Story 5 show life before smartphones and screen time

In the opening pages of Ben Lerner’s novel Transcription, the unnamed narrator mentions his mobile phone more than 25 times. He is on a train to Providence in the US to visit a German intellectual called Thomas, who has just turned 90. The narrator worries that he will fail to record the interview on his phone; he texts his wife; the guard scans his ticket; he takes a photo; he FaceTimes his daughter; he uses Google Maps for directions to his hotel. He even dreams about his phone. Then he accidentally drops it in the sink.

The novel is set during Covid, but there is no mention of Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Last month Transcription was awarded the Orwell prize for political fiction. “The question of how certain forms of media flatten or monetise our attention – I do think that’s political territory,” the author said of his win. With its shiny black cover and stark white typeface, this slim novel is designed to remind to us that the book is also a handheld portable device. It invites us to consider the relationship between art and technology. The smartphone has rewired us. “I was glitching, craving my cellular phone on a cellular level,” the narrator confesses.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Когда компания планирует инфраструктуру для виртуализации — например, в рамках создания новой площадки, решения задачи по замене устаревшего железа или по какой-либо другой причине — рано или поздно встает вопрос архитектуры. Что это будет — классическая схема с выделенным хранилищем, конвергентная или гиперконвергентная? Ведь у каждой из них свои сильные сценарии и свои ограничения.

В этой статье разберем, из чего складывается реальная экономика гиперконвергенции, какие сценарии она закрывает действительно хорошо, а какие лучше оставить классической схеме. И отдельно расскажем, как с гиперконвергенцией работает VMmanager.

• Ferrari driver qualifies first ahead of Kimi Antonelli

• Hamilton: ‘I love this place, I love this crowd’

Lewis Hamilton gave the home crowd reason to roar as he took pole position for the sprint race at the British Grand Prix for Ferrari, beating the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli into second, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third.

The pole for the short format race to be held on Saturday morning at Silverstone must be considered somewhat against the odds, as Ferrari had been expected to be somewhat on the back foot to Mercedes, at the power dominated track.

Party had justified plan to hang flags in Nottinghamshire on basis that local businesses would foot £75,000 bill

A £75,000 scheme by a Reform-led council to hang union flags at sites across the county, which the party said would “not cost the taxpayer a single penny” as it would be sponsored by local businesses, has failed to attract a single sponsor, it has emerged.

The plan to attach the flags to brackets on about 180 lamp-posts and other places was agreed in the autumn by Nottinghamshire’s council, won by Nigel Farage’s party in last year’s May elections.

В предыдущей главе мы рассматривали ситуацию, когда данных слишком много: большое количество признаков затрудняет их анализ, увеличивает вычислительные затраты и приводит к различным негативным эффектам, связанным с высокой размерностью. Для решения этой проблемы мы изучили понятие понижения размерности.

Теперь перейдем к совершенно другой ситуации. Предположим, что с данными все в порядке: признаков достаточно, они хорошо описывают объекты, однако отсутствует целевая переменная (target). Мы не знаем, к каким классам принадлежат объекты, а значит, привычные алгоритмы обучения с учителем применять уже нельзя.

Возникает вопрос: можно ли, имея только сами объекты и их признаки, автоматически обнаружить в данных закономерности и выделить группы похожих объектов? Именно эту задачу решают алгоритмы кластеризации.

A leading light of American TV comedy, directing sitcoms such as Friends, Frasier and almost every episode of Cheers

James Burrows, who has died aged 85, was one of the most influential figures in US television sitcoms for more than four decades. He was the co-creator and primary director of Cheers, one of America’s most beloved and successful sitcoms, which ran for 11 seasons between 1982 and 1993 and won 28 Primetime Emmy awards. Its final episode was second only to that of M*A*S*H as the most-watched of all time.

However, unlike producer/writers such as Nat Hiken, Norman Lear or Larry Gelbart, who had stamped their marks on previous generations, Burrows’ influence came entirely as a director. As such he was intimately involved in the creation of many shows, and enjoyed long runs on sitcoms such as the Cheers spin-off Frasier, Friends, and Will and Grace. For years he was the first-choice director of pilot episodes, used to sell programmes to the networks; he did almost 100 of them, including two versions of some, if the first produced only a lukewarm response.

Thomas Tuchel’s side have problems aside from the altitude: defeat in a Mexican haze would be no embarrassment

It’s a warm June afternoon in 2009. The teams look uneven. At 30, I am the second-oldest player in our lineup. Lloyd, Nathan and Ben are early 20s – they can all play. Micky the German isn’t in top condition, and at 34 is past his peak. But at a conservative estimate every member of the opposition has two more decades in their legs. A couple of them might be pushing 70. We’re in kit. They are in jeans. We have trainers. They’re in boots – working boots, not “cleats”. And yet after an hour we have been beaten to a pulp. The final score evades my memory, but it might be the only six-a-side I’ve ever played in where “next goal wins” wasn’t a vaguely justifiable way to end things.

How had this team of old men beaten us? A word you may have heard more often than usual in the last three days: altitude. In a village somewhere near Lake Titicaca, just shy of 4,000m above sea level, a motley selection of Bolivian farmers had toyed with us. As someone who lets the ball do the work, even a five-yard burst left me breathless. It was not a neutral venue.