Best Of

If this statistic is true it's a bit of an eye-opener.

"In 1978 for example, about a third of people in the UK had no natural teeth."

https://www.uniquesmiles.co.uk/blog/brits-really-bad-teeth/

Your statisitic is not implausible. My grandparents had full dentures, my mother partial ones, my father with many missing, and if my tooth loss continues (see previous posts) I'll end up with them. Lack of health and money takes its toll, and two years of Covid isolation didn't help.

Pre-NHS, a common wedding present was to have all your teeth removed.

That and the vaccination discussion shows how much of an impact the NHS made. I'm not its biggest fan, but it was an enormous improvement on what went before.

Noticed a couple of houses in the Highlands with a slightly mad solar setup. They've put two steel supports at the northern corners of the house and extended their array from the south facing roof into the air, so it's double the size and across the whole footprint of their house. Heatpumps attached to the supports too.

Looks dreadful tbh. Not sure why it wasn't cheaper to just create a big standalone array in the garden. Something to do with a planning loophole? Gardeners trying to preserve space?

Any sort of solar setup that far north is more than a little mad.

Why?

To expand on this - a solar panel in my hometown would generate 90% of the energy of one in central London. In the north of Scotland, 3/4 of homes are not on the gas grid, so require heating oil or electricity.

Approx. 50%* of non-gas properties this bit of Scotland are heated by electricity, which explains the mass proliferation of solar panels in an attempt to keep costs down. Heating oil costs also went through the roof (geddit) during the Ukraine invasion.

*Much higher than non-gas properties in England and Wales, oddly enough.

‪@washingtonpost.com‬

A second child has died of measles amid an outbreak in west Texas, sparking a rare rebuke of the Trump administration’s top health officials from a Republican senator on Sunday.

https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com/post/3lm62afvrm22w

RFK should really be locked up for criminal negligence. That is just awful.

He has been in post since Jan. These kids will have been unvaccinated for a lot longer than that and often for stupid sky fairy reasons. There’s a lot to lay at his door, but these deaths are probably not the thing, unless they contracted it at an RFK themed measles party.

He's culpable for the people hurt by vit. A overdoses: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/health/measles-kennedy-vitamin-a.html

To an extent but people also need to do their own research. Perhaps ask a health care professional?

Extra bit - would you trust ANYTHING a U.K. minister advocated on health without checking?

I don't think it's fair to criticise people for believing in health advice from the Secretary of Health of their nation. It is fair to criticise that Secretary of Health for spreading harmful lies.

As do I. He is an idiot who doesn’t understand science.

For context though we saw lots of people not believing what our elected officials said during covid, for instance (often with good reason).

I'm lost what point you are trying to make. But, even if we can't agree on RFK Jr's exact degree of culpability, I'm glad we agree that he is at least somewhat culpable for causing harm to people now overdosing on vitamin A and for failing to contain a measles outbreak that has killed 3.

The point I am (badly) making is that the measles outbreak is not laid solely at RFKs door, but a lot of haters of the current regime will want to suggest it is.
I hold no candle for Trump or any of his cronies, but PB has become, once again, an echo chamber of outrage, with hardly any realistic analysis. Take the plane crash meme, that many were all too wiling to blame on Trump. Or these selected immigration cases, such as the working on a holiday visa case etc. These things would have happened under Biden too.

I'm sure horror stories of European tourists being harshly treated by US immigration have happened in the past, but it's just not true that all recent cases were of people "working on a holiday visa".

When Trump signs an executive order on day 1 instructing everyone "to ensure that all aliens seeking admission to the United States, or who are already in the United States, are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible" it is at least plausible to speculate that it has had an effect.

As for RFK Jr, his Children's Health Defense has been spreading anti-vax lies for years. Last month they published an interview with the grieving parents of a child that died in the Texas outbreak where the mother says

"Don’t do the shots,“
"measles is not as bad as they’re making it out to be.”

His response as health secretary to the outbreak has also been poor.

Plus the guy is a lying shit. Eg telling senators that he isn't really against vaccines and using the fact that his own children are vaccinated as proof of this. But there is recording of him telling antivaxxers that if he had a time machine the one thing he would do is go back and save his children from being vaccinated.

So yeah lock the repulsive con artist up.

‪@washingtonpost.com‬

A second child has died of measles amid an outbreak in west Texas, sparking a rare rebuke of the Trump administration’s top health officials from a Republican senator on Sunday.

https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com/post/3lm62afvrm22w

RFK should really be locked up for criminal negligence. That is just awful.

He has been in post since Jan. These kids will have been unvaccinated for a lot longer than that and often for stupid sky fairy reasons. There’s a lot to lay at his door, but these deaths are probably not the thing, unless they contracted it at an RFK themed measles party.

He's culpable for the people hurt by vit. A overdoses: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/health/measles-kennedy-vitamin-a.html

To an extent but people also need to do their own research. Perhaps ask a health care professional?

For the educated middle classes, fine, but for red neck trailer dwellers they are likely to be more reliant on advice given by the Surgeon General.

A bit condescending, no?

What’s condescending given there’s a strong correlation between thick trailer trash who think God will save them and those not vaccinating their children . Those people aren’t interested in doing their own research , they’ll just swallow any old conspiracy theories .

The assumption that someone who lives in a trailer is thick. Would you say the same about a U.K. council house resident?

No because Brits aren’t very religious and don’t think God will save their children ! The USA clearly has a large section of voters who are complete imbeciles and should be sterilised . Instead they’re popping out babies at an alarming rate who are then brainwashed by their moronic parents .

And we talk about hate speech. Just wow.

Wow indeed ! So it’s okay for Leon to come out with outlandish comments but suddenly I shot Bambi !

I’d suggest neither, tbf. I think you made a rather nasty unfounded generalisation.

What’s nasty about stating facts . Trump supporters are more likely to believe conspiracy theories , that’s why Covid killed more GOP supporters than Dems .

Which side is more likely to believe that Trump is a Russian plant?

Is there anyone who still thinks Trump isn't a plant? As in, needs watering?

Wasn't that what that nice lady in Moscow did?