A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
It amazing and somewhat depressing how many people are/have been blithe about lockdown when they don't live alone, haven't had their 20s smashed to pieces, don't have three toddlers and live on the 18th floor of a tower block, have their wages protected by their university while they work from their second home in Devon etc etc.
Meanwhile, a guy in a mask lugs produce and fine wines to their door from his Waitrose van.
A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
Anyone heard anything about the Chelsea v Liverpool game? Other than the 3 Covid cases earlier, has it been postponed?
Was looking at placing a bet and the markets been completely suspended with that bookie, still seems to be open at other ones though.
Not sure 3 cases is enough for a postponement. Or anywhere near. But it is certainly something a killing could be made on with proper, inside info. So more likely that.
A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
It amazing and somewhat depressing how many people are/have been blithe about lockdown when they don't live alone, haven't had their 20s smashed to pieces, don't have three toddlers and live on the 18th floor of a tower block, have their wages protected by their university while they work from their second home in Devon etc etc.
Meanwhile, a guy in a mask lugs produce and fine wines to their door from his Waitrose van.
I think a lockdown is ok if you have a seriously dangerous plague, like the omicrom plus Wuhan feb 2020 scenario mentioned earlier.
But many 'experts' have come to see it as a convenient tool of behaviour management, and a method of managing the pressure on the NHS. I am thinking about the casualness in which iSage just recommend a 'circuit breaker'. It has an implied normality to it, like calling for a road closure or something.
Those plants are old, were maintenance nightmares, and had appalling uptime levels (like sub 50% for the newer two, and something in the 20s for the one dating back to the 70s). Gundremmingen C in particular was a very old BWR model that RWE had long been begging for permission to close.
The timing on the other two, though, is poor. Although the electrical generation for both is modest, I would have (if possible) delayed decomissioning for a year or two, if only to make sure that Hamburg LNG was built and operational.
To me it would make sense to extend it for a few months until Nordstream 2 is resolved.
I'm reminded of the Churchill quote: "Safety and certainty in oil lie in variety and variety alone."
The same is true of natural gas. Every country - with a coastline - should have LNG import facilities.
With this, the threat of reducing energy supplies is massively reduced.
It reminds me of the 1970s: OPEC flexed their muscles, the price of oil went through the roof, and the world decided they didn't want to be utterly dependent on a few countries in the Middle East. Alaska and the North Sea were all developed in response to OPEC's price hike.
This time it's the Russians flexing their muscles with the gas price.
Two things will come out of this.
Firstly, energy companies will enter into long term supply agreements with a variety of providers. A number of the UK guys got fat, lazy and rich by selling electricity at a long term fixed prices, while buying energy spot. They then all went spectacularly bust.
Secondly, a metric shit tonne of LNG projects are going to be greenlighted. When I was running energy money, I would get gas companies in every week with plans for new LNG facilities. And you knew that 99% of them would never get funded: sure they had fields with gas, but who was going to fund the construction of LNG trains in Mozambique/Nigeria/PNG/etc without guaranteed long term sales contracts. Well... I think we know the answer to that now. I think there are a hundred energy companies across Europe who will be prepared to enter into multi-year guaranteed price contracts.
Happy New Year to you and your families. I am more a lurker than a poster, but this website is a great resource and hugely thought provoking. Best Wishes for 2022!
Anyone heard anything about the Chelsea v Liverpool game? Other than the 3 Covid cases earlier, has it been postponed?
Was looking at placing a bet and the markets been completely suspended with that bookie, still seems to be open at other ones though.
Not sure 3 cases is enough for a postponement. Or anywhere near. But it is certainly something a killing could be made on with proper, inside info. So more likely that.
Yeah the markets reopened now and managed to get my bet on. I'm guessing they're going to suspend it if there's any rumours etc of key players getting infected.
A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
Across my friend group, I would say there is a correlation between pro-Lockdown and size of garden.
Correlation is not coruscation, and all that, but I do find it gauging when friends with guardians big enough to have a tennis court in there garden tell me lockdown is not that bad and WFH is great.
Happy New Year everyone, hope each and every one of you has a wonderful New Year.
It’s been a rough ride these past few years, and no doubt there’ll be a lot more disagreement over the next 12 months, and beyond, about how best we go forward.
I think it’s important to remember that no matter how much we disagree with each other, really when it boils down to it we all want the world to be better. We may disagree stridently and vehemently as to how that will be achieved. And that is good, that has always happened, that’s humans.
But the vast majority of us just want the best for ourselves and our families. (Edit - and everyone else!) Fundamentally, I think, we’re all good people. We might be snarky and short-tempered. Bolshy and snarky. Sarcastic and withering. Whatever. None of it really matters.
A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
It amazing and somewhat depressing how many people are/have been blithe about lockdown when they don't live alone, haven't had their 20s smashed to pieces, don't have three toddlers and live on the 18th floor of a tower block, have their wages protected by their university while they work from their second home in Devon etc etc.
Meanwhile, a guy in a mask lugs produce and fine wines to their door from his Waitrose van.
I'm unconvinced that's absolutely true.
But if you're really worried about the former group of people, then there's something simple you can do to help them out without your concerns over lockdown:
A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
It amazing and somewhat depressing how many people are/have been blithe about lockdown when they don't live alone, haven't had their 20s smashed to pieces, don't have three toddlers and live on the 18th floor of a tower block, have their wages protected by their university while they work from their second home in Devon etc etc.
Meanwhile, a guy in a mask lugs produce and fine wines to their door from his Waitrose van.
I'm unconvinced that's absolutely true.
But if you're really worried about the former group of people, then there's something simple you can do to help them out without your concerns over lockdown:
Pay more taxes.
Not sure that's going to help poverty stricken delivery drivers. If the NI hike is anything to go by, the proceeds of any future tax rises will effectively be funnelled straight into the bank accounts of rich old people.
Those plants are old, were maintenance nightmares, and had appalling uptime levels (like sub 50% for the newer two, and something in the 20s for the one dating back to the 70s). Gundremmingen C in particular was a very old BWR model that RWE had long been begging for permission to close.
The timing on the other two, though, is poor. Although the electrical generation for both is modest, I would have (if possible) delayed decomissioning for a year or two, if only to make sure that Hamburg LNG was built and operational.
To me it would make sense to extend it for a few months until Nordstream 2 is resolved.
I'm reminded of the Churchill quote: "Safety and certainty in oil lie in variety and variety alone."
The same is true of natural gas. Every country - with a coastline - should have LNG import facilities.
With this, the threat of reducing energy supplies is massively reduced.
It reminds me of the 1970s: OPEC flexed their muscles, the price of oil went through the roof, and the world decided they didn't want to be utterly dependent on a few countries in the Middle East. Alaska and the North Sea were all developed in response to OPEC's price hike.
This time it's the Russians flexing their muscles with the gas price.
Two things will come out of this.
Firstly, energy companies will enter into long term supply agreements with a variety of providers. A number of the UK guys got fat, lazy and rich by selling electricity at a long term fixed prices, while buying energy spot. They then all went spectacularly bust.
Secondly, a metric shit tonne of LNG projects are going to be greenlighted. When I was running energy money, I would get gas companies in every week with plans for new LNG facilities. And you knew that 99% of them would never get funded: sure they had fields with gas, but who was going to fund the construction of LNG trains in Mozambique/Nigeria/PNG/etc without guaranteed long term sales contracts. Well... I think we know the answer to that now. I think there are a hundred energy companies across Europe who will be prepared to enter into multi-year guaranteed price contracts.
I wonder if we will keep a field or two onstream? Or start a new one?
As an aside, I found on Facebook this morning a video from one of those conspiracy theorists. Now, bear with me because apparently there is going to be a "global currency reset" on January 1st 2022. This is linked to storms in California, CNN turning on Joe Biden, the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, flooding in Malaysia and the Iraq National Bank closing for four days.
After about five minutes of this undiluted bollocks, I'd had enough.
It occurs to me those who swallow this unadulterated nonsense do so because, and I imagine the pandemic has intensified this, they are trying to make sense of the world. I get that - I consider myself a fairly rational person (my posts may not represent compelling evidence I grant you) and I appreciate there is almost a primal sense to try to understand what is going on and to make sense of it all but linking completely unrelated events into some vast global conspiracy - I think not.
Those who get lured into the nonsense that is QAnon and similar are just trying to make sense of a chaotic world and are looking for some balancing order - the trouble is, there isn't any or rather the attempts to make order out of chaos become chaotic themselves.
Easier to imagine some colossal shadowy elite manipulating events than to accept it's all just random chaos.
As Basil Exposition and Austin Powers reminded us when trying to resolve the time travelling paradox between the second and third movies, don't bother.
A colleague was telling me about his daughter last summer; she had gone through her first year of uni all online. She was doing really well and had won a scholarship to a summer school in Aalborg. So she was looking forward to going to Denmark for the summer and then the decision was made that it would be moved online. So she did summer school, as with the whole of the first year, from her bedroom in her parents house in Chester.
Another thing I saw on linkedin; someone who had spent the first year and a half of her career entirely online. She sent in pictures from her first 'in-person' event and described it as a 'treat''. A 'treat' to be in a room with real people.
It seems to me that this is at least partially being driven by an element of convenience on the part of employers and universities and driven by irrational fears about COVID on the part of older people. This is the trouble with the continuous waves of fear and panic, they will end up embedding this as the norm sweeping away everything that went before. The reality is that it suits older people who have had their 3-4 years of uni then a decade of partying or whatever.
Younger people are missing out but the danger is that they don't know what they are missing out on, they get so accustomed to doing everything on screen; that they cannot deal with any other way of doing things.
Well said. Us older people who realise this need to fight the fuckers that are happy to ruin the lives of the young from their fucking massive gardens
Yep.
Looks like we have a massive fight on our hands come next week and rest of 2022 to keep society and above all schools and universities open.
No lockdown.
Fuck lockdown, indeed. A new variant would have to be up there with bubonic plague before I will, personally, feel another lockdown is justified
Family anecdote. A cousin of mine in Somerset is one of these smug Work-from-Homers. Late middle age, big house, massive garden, job easy to do from one of her many spare rooms
For two years she has been blithe about more lockdowns, she positively enjoys them, and that is in part - if not mainly - because she has her three kids (and their partners) living nearby and so she has all the social life she needs, sees more of them than normal, hooray let's lockdown again
But, suddenly, and due in various ways to Covid, her kids are all moving far away
Suddenly lockdown is not so appealing when it is just going to be her and her spouse in a big empty house, and she has become anti-lockdown, because they are "wrong"
I know we are all motivated by degrees of selfishness, but this personal handbrake turn is quite something to witness
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
On a different subject; I am listening to music by 'at the end of times, nothing'. They are a post rock band in the vein of mogwai, sigur ros, explosions in the sky. I'd say that what they are producing is pretty much at the top end of this genre, which I like because it is just athmospheric and there are no lyrics, it is quite good for concentrating whilst WFH'ing, as well as to listen to in its own right. But for years they were completely anonymous. They just uploaded stuff and it got tens of thousands of listens and it was impossible to find out who they are. It is apparently a 43 year old guy in a town in Sweden. People keep saying that music has gone shit and no good records have come out for the last decade, but I take the view that lots of really good stuff has come out over the last few years. This is an example.
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
It amazing and somewhat depressing how many people are/have been blithe about lockdown when they don't live alone, haven't had their 20s smashed to pieces, don't have three toddlers and live on the 18th floor of a tower block, have their wages protected by their university while they work from their second home in Devon etc etc.
Meanwhile, a guy in a mask lugs produce and fine wines to their door from his Waitrose van.
Perhaps one of the benefits of the pandemic has been to highlight the continued and growing inequities in our society not that we have the political or cultural will to do anything about them.
The cost of housing is perhaps one place to start - if all you can afford is a small flat on the 18th floor of a tower block maybe we need to rethink the whole housing question but our imagination seems only to stretch to building more flats or little boxes.
It never mattered much before - the point of having your little box was it was just a place to sleep and hang your clothes. Life happened outside your four walls and with the pandemic that changed fundamentally.
Should the psychological consequences of restrictions have carried greater weight within policy making? Probably but the paramount consideration is and was the overall public health and that even trumped the economic health of the nation.
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
I said IN MY COMMENT that the tweet was needlessly "designed to provoke". I said it was race-baiting. FFS. But the reality is race-baiting enough. It is anti-white racism turned into health policy
The best fireworks display I ever went to was one at Alton Towers in around 1992. I *think* it was a staff-and-families only affair, and I got a ticket via a friend who had worked there in the summer. It was a beautiful autumn evening, clear skies, with the castle in the background. We stood by the lake, and the fireworks were coming from the other side. The noise from the explosions were so loud that they felt almost like a physical force. magnificent. It was not just the fireworks; it was the setting and atmosphere.
Second best was a wedding I went to in Shropshire, where both sets of parents were millionaires. Both families tried to outdo the other, and one had to organise a fireworks display. It ended up being a half-hour professional job.
It amazing and somewhat depressing how many people are/have been blithe about lockdown when they don't live alone, haven't had their 20s smashed to pieces, don't have three toddlers and live on the 18th floor of a tower block, have their wages protected by their university while they work from their second home in Devon etc etc.
Meanwhile, a guy in a mask lugs produce and fine wines to their door from his Waitrose van.
Perhaps one of the benefits of the pandemic has been to highlight the continued and growing inequities in our society not that we have the political or cultural will to do anything about them.
The cost of housing is perhaps one place to start - if all you can afford is a small flat on the 18th floor of a tower block maybe we need to rethink the whole housing question but our imagination seems only to stretch to building more flats or little boxes.
It never mattered much before - the point of having your little box was it was just a place to sleep and hang your clothes. Life happened outside your four walls and with the pandemic that changed fundamentally.
Should the psychological consequences of restrictions have carried greater weight within policy making? Probably but the paramount consideration is and was the overall public health and that even trumped the economic health of the nation.
One reason that in both April 2020 and January 2021 we locked down far later than would have been optimal virologically was precisely because Johnson and several of his advisers thought it would be impossible for people to cope with lockdown unless it was kept as short as possible.
So I’m not convinced that it needed to carry ‘greater weight.’ Just that only bad options were left and this was the least damaging at the time.
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
The Covid "meds" are definitely not outwith consequence with all the teratologic disclaimers on them. Which is ironic really given antivaxxers complaints about the vaccine, fertility and all.
My cat would entirely agree. Fireworks by anybody are always second best to none from his point of view.
A few years ago we had a violent torrential typhoonlike bout of weather and my neighbor's cat (that had adopted me) rushed into my house and went limp (catatonic?) state. Holding it, it took some time to call it back.
My cat would entirely agree. Fireworks by anybody are always second best to none from his point of view.
A few years ago we had a violent torrential typhoonlike bout of weather and my neighbor's cat (that had adopted me) rushed into my house and went limp (a catatonic state?). Holding it, it took some time to call it back.
If it was in a catatonic state, surely the correct course was to be gin with a lemon?
My cat would entirely agree. Fireworks by anybody are always second best to none from his point of view.
A few years ago we had a violent torrential typhoonlike bout of weather and my neighbor's cat (that had adopted me) rushed into my house and went limp (catatonic?) state. Holding it, it took some time to call it back.
My cat would entirely agree. Fireworks by anybody are always second best to none from his point of view.
A few years ago we had a violent torrential typhoonlike bout of weather and my neighbor's cat (that had adopted me) rushed into my house and went limp (catatonic?) state. Holding it, it took some time to call it back.
The best fireworks display I ever went to was one at Alton Towers in around 1992. I *think* it was a staff-and-families only affair, and I got a ticket via a friend who had worked there in the summer. It was a beautiful autumn evening, clear skies, with the castle in the background. We stood by the lake, and the fireworks were coming from the other side. The noise from the explosions were so loud that they felt almost like a physical force. magnificent. It was not just the fireworks; it was the setting and atmosphere.
Second best was a wedding I went to in Shropshire, where both sets of parents were millionaires. Both families tried to outdo the other, and one had to organise a fireworks display. It ended up being a half-hour professional job.
I love fireworks.
They used to do a firework competition over the lake near Brno, called Ignis Brunensis. I went one year, it was brilliant, if a bit poncy.
The best one I ever went to was in Newcastle. They were celebrating the anniversary of Newcastle NSW, it was the middle of summer, over Exhibition Park I think. It was summer so light until late, they just made it loud. Very loud. The rich folk of Gosforth complained and they never did it again.
The New Year's Eve fireworks by the Tyne Bridge can be good, both Newcastle and Gateshead slope significantly down to the River so it reverberates. London, in contrast, is relatively flat.
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
I said IN MY COMMENT that the tweet was needlessly "designed to provoke". I said it was race-baiting. FFS. But the reality is race-baiting enough. It is anti-white racism turned into health policy
And a happy new year to you too. You should unplug from your deranged rightwing outrage machine twitter feed every so often.
So often you want people to "follow the science" and accept there are significant genetic differences between the races. Here is New York doing exactly what you ask and identified a racial risk factor and suddenly you are predicting race war.
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
I said IN MY COMMENT that the tweet was needlessly "designed to provoke". I said it was race-baiting. FFS. But the reality is race-baiting enough. It is anti-white racism turned into health policy
And a happy new year to you too. You should unplug from your deranged rightwing outrage machine twitter feed every so often.
So often you want people to "follow the science" and accept there are significant genetic differences between the races. Here is New York doing exactly what you ask and identified a racial risk factor and suddenly you are predicting race war.
Odd that.
How are you going to prove there are genetically different races, you deluded leftwing microdicked halfwit?
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
...again.
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
...again.
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
I think that’s unfair. He’s only right wing when he’s drunk. That’s why he gets progressively more Trumpian as the evening progresses.
The Edinburgh Festival Fireworks has the best backdrop in the Country, with the fireworks being fired from the Castle and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra playing the music live below
The musical coordination is superb. It is so often done really badly (like at the Battle Proms for example)
It gets a bit sketchy when they try and do something 'clever' like use real church bells during the 1812, but they don't try that too often...
The Edinburgh Festival Fireworks has the best backdrop in the Country, with the fireworks being fired from the Castle and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra playing the music live below
The musical coordination is superb. It is so often done really badly (like at the Battle Proms for example)
It gets a bit sketchy when they try and do something 'clever' like use real church bells during the 1812, but they don't try that too often...
They must be pretty damn clever to play upside down. I’ve been a professional musician for thirty years and I’ve never even attempted that.
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
...again.
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
I think that’s unfair. He’s only right wing when he’s drunk. That’s why he gets progressively more Trumpian as the evening progresses.
You're quite quite wrong
I more often lapse into pathetic leftwing sentimentality when drunk, and say nice things about the NHS, social welfare, those poor migrants, open the borders! O I miss the EU, give me a hug bruv, etc etc
It's when I am sober, dry-eyed, and ruthlessly careerist, logical and sensible (ie before about 6pm) that I am more likely to be a hard-arsed rightwinger
But that piece of Woke Lunacy from NYC is so outstandingly mad it cannot be ignored. Rationing of life-giving medicine by race. Insane. And it seems to be true. Trump is going to win, at a canter, if this continues
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
I said IN MY COMMENT that the tweet was needlessly "designed to provoke". I said it was race-baiting. FFS. But the reality is race-baiting enough. It is anti-white racism turned into health policy
And a happy new year to you too. You should unplug from your deranged rightwing outrage machine twitter feed every so often.
So often you want people to "follow the science" and accept there are significant genetic differences between the races. Here is New York doing exactly what you ask and identified a racial risk factor and suddenly you are predicting race war.
Odd that.
Its not about genetic or any other biological differences though. The policy is justified by reference to 'longstanding health and social inequalities' contributing to an 'increased risk of serious illness or death from COVID 19'. Presumably the reasoning is that you are more likely to be poor, have bad housing, smoke, be unhealthy, have a bad diet etc because of your race and experience of historic racism, and thus more likely to die of COVID.
It is as Leon says a recruiting sargeant for D Trump or his successor. They can portray their mission to white people as being about tackling racism.
The best fireworks display I ever went to was one at Alton Towers in around 1992. I *think* it was a staff-and-families only affair, and I got a ticket via a friend who had worked there in the summer. It was a beautiful autumn evening, clear skies, with the castle in the background. We stood by the lake, and the fireworks were coming from the other side. The noise from the explosions were so loud that they felt almost like a physical force. magnificent. It was not just the fireworks; it was the setting and atmosphere.
Second best was a wedding I went to in Shropshire, where both sets of parents were millionaires. Both families tried to outdo the other, and one had to organise a fireworks display. It ended up being a half-hour professional job.
I love fireworks.
They used to do a firework competition over the lake near Brno, called Ignis Brunensis. I went one year, it was brilliant, if a bit poncy.
The best one I ever went to was in Newcastle. They were celebrating the anniversary of Newcastle NSW, it was the middle of summer, over Exhibition Park I think. It was summer so light until late, they just made it loud. Very loud. The rich folk of Gosforth complained and they never did it again.
The New Year's Eve fireworks by the Tyne Bridge can be good, both Newcastle and Gateshead slope significantly down to the River so it reverberates. London, in contrast, is relatively flat.
You get good, cheap rifles from Brno still. It's also where Mendel studied his bees or whatever it was he studied. Sweet peas?
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
...again.
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
I think that’s unfair. He’s only right wing when he’s drunk. That’s why he gets progressively more Trumpian as the evening progresses.
You're quite quite wrong
I more often lapse into pathetic leftwing sentimentality when drunk, and say nice things about the NHS, social welfare, those poor migrants, open the borders! O I miss the EU, give me a hug bruv, etc etc
It's when I am sober, dry-eyed, and ruthlessly careerist, logical and sensible (ie before about 6pm) that I am more likely to be a hard-arsed rightwinger
But that piece of Woke Lunacy from NYC is so outstandingly mad it cannot be ignored. Rationing of life-giving medicine by race. Insane. And it seems to be true. Trump is going to win, at a canter, if this continues
So you only become Trumpian when you’re so drunk you forget what you’ve said?
Youngest sent home from his bar job at 9 pm. Lack of customers.
I went for after work drinks at the hospital pub with a colleague. Not even double figures of customers. I asked the (Scottish) landlady about her Burns Supper plans, but she thinks she might have to cancel.
This is totally unacceptable. Perhaps, if the government wanted to do something worthwhile to restore its faded popularity in 2022, a crackdown on abuse and threats, which a minority appear to have.grown accustomed to resorting to as their "right", could be one? Would have to be without fear or favour, mind, so probably not.
This might illustrate both sides of the mental health problem, in a vicious circle.
The best fireworks display I ever went to was one at Alton Towers in around 1992. I *think* it was a staff-and-families only affair, and I got a ticket via a friend who had worked there in the summer. It was a beautiful autumn evening, clear skies, with the castle in the background. We stood by the lake, and the fireworks were coming from the other side. The noise from the explosions were so loud that they felt almost like a physical force. magnificent. It was not just the fireworks; it was the setting and atmosphere.
Second best was a wedding I went to in Shropshire, where both sets of parents were millionaires. Both families tried to outdo the other, and one had to organise a fireworks display. It ended up being a half-hour professional job.
I love fireworks.
They used to do a firework competition over the lake near Brno, called Ignis Brunensis. I went one year, it was brilliant, if a bit poncy.
The best one I ever went to was in Newcastle. They were celebrating the anniversary of Newcastle NSW, it was the middle of summer, over Exhibition Park I think. It was summer so light until late, they just made it loud. Very loud. The rich folk of Gosforth complained and they never did it again.
The New Year's Eve fireworks by the Tyne Bridge can be good, both Newcastle and Gateshead slope significantly down to the River so it reverberates. London, in contrast, is relatively flat.
You get good, cheap rifles from Brno still. It's also where Mendel studied his bees or whatever it was he studied. Sweet peas?
It's quite a pleasant city (as are most Czech cities to be honest, although a Czech friend once warned me off Ostrava as a "shithole" ). It was a good base to explore the battlefield of Austerlitz.
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
I said IN MY COMMENT that the tweet was needlessly "designed to provoke". I said it was race-baiting. FFS. But the reality is race-baiting enough. It is anti-white racism turned into health policy
And a happy new year to you too. You should unplug from your deranged rightwing outrage machine twitter feed every so often.
So often you want people to "follow the science" and accept there are significant genetic differences between the races. Here is New York doing exactly what you ask and identified a racial risk factor and suddenly you are predicting race war.
Odd that.
Its not about genetic or any other biological differences though. The policy is justified by reference to 'longstanding health and social inequalities' contributing to an 'increased risk of serious illness or death from COVID 19'. Presumably the reasoning is that you are more likely to be poor, have bad housing, smoke, be unhealthy, have a bad diet etc because of your race and experience of historic racism, and thus more likely to die of COVID.
It is as Leon says a recruiting sargeant for D Trump or his successor. They can portray their mission to white people as being about tackling racism.
It is also because black/Hispanic people are more likely to be obese and unvaxxed because whatever. So a white New Yorker who stayed thin and got the vaccine, like a good citizen, is now to be deprioritized for life-giving medicine because they did the right thing
I am still trying to get my head around it, as it is so mad. I thought it was bollocks at first, but - unlike idiot PB lefties - I did some research. It appears to be true. Fuck me the American Left REALLY wants to lose
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
...again.
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
I think that’s unfair. He’s only right wing when he’s drunk. That’s why he gets progressively more Trumpian as the evening progresses.
You're quite quite wrong
I more often lapse into pathetic leftwing sentimentality when drunk, and say nice things about the NHS, social welfare, those poor migrants, open the borders! O I miss the EU, give me a hug bruv, etc etc
It's when I am sober, dry-eyed, and ruthlessly careerist, logical and sensible (ie before about 6pm) that I am more likely to be a hard-arsed rightwinger
But that piece of Woke Lunacy from NYC is so outstandingly mad it cannot be ignored. Rationing of life-giving medicine by race. Insane. And it seems to be true. Trump is going to win, at a canter, if this continues
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
...again.
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
I think that’s unfair. He’s only right wing when he’s drunk. That’s why he gets progressively more Trumpian as the evening progresses.
You're quite quite wrong
I more often lapse into pathetic leftwing sentimentality when drunk, and say nice things about the NHS, social welfare, those poor migrants, open the borders! O I miss the EU, give me a hug bruv, etc etc
It's when I am sober, dry-eyed, and ruthlessly careerist, logical and sensible (ie before about 6pm) that I am more likely to be a hard-arsed rightwinger
But that piece of Woke Lunacy from NYC is so outstandingly mad it cannot be ignored. Rationing of life-giving medicine by race. Insane. And it seems to be true. Trump is going to win, at a canter, if this continues
So you only become Trumpian when you’re so drunk you forget what you’ve said?
Are believers in the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy theorists?
Which bit of it? The efforts of Fawkes, the inspiration of Percy or the involvement of Salisbury?
Well, there's three separate conspiracy theories right there. My point is 1. I am not a conspiracy theorist (except for not falling for the NASA moon landing hoaxes obv) 2. I think on balance Epstein was murdered 3. It gives a free pass to people who want to murder people like Epstein if those suggesting that that is what they have done have to get over a "conspiracy theory" hurdle. The princes in the Tower were either murdered, or not. Why should one case vs the other be hampered by a silly label?
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
...again.
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
I think that’s unfair. He’s only right wing when he’s drunk. That’s why he gets progressively more Trumpian as the evening progresses.
You're quite quite wrong
I more often lapse into pathetic leftwing sentimentality when drunk, and say nice things about the NHS, social welfare, those poor migrants, open the borders! O I miss the EU, give me a hug bruv, etc etc
It's when I am sober, dry-eyed, and ruthlessly careerist, logical and sensible (ie before about 6pm) that I am more likely to be a hard-arsed rightwinger
But that piece of Woke Lunacy from NYC is so outstandingly mad it cannot be ignored. Rationing of life-giving medicine by race. Insane. And it seems to be true. Trump is going to win, at a canter, if this continues
So you only become Trumpian when you’re so drunk you forget what you’ve said?
Isn't that the definition of a Trumpian?
Alarmingly, although all of them are extremely pissed, a large proportion appear to be sober.
Are believers in the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy theorists?
Which bit of it? The efforts of Fawkes, the inspiration of Percy or the involvement of Salisbury?
Well, there's three separate conspiracy theories right there. My point is 1. I am not a conspiracy theorist (except for not falling for the NASA moon landing hoaxes obv) 2. I think on balance Epstein was murdered 3. It gives a free pass to people who want to murder people like Epstein if those suggesting that that is what they have done have to get over a "conspiracy theory" hurdle. The princes in the Tower were either murdered, or not. Why should one case vs the other be hampered by a silly label?
The difficulty here is that for Epstein to have been murdered the camera footage has to have been faked. Otherwise, it’s difficult to explain how access to actually kill him was achieved. Therefore, a conspiracy is needed to explain it.
The fact that the two overworked guards who cocked up and failed to follow procedure have now in effect been given a slap on the wrist will lend weight to the idea that there is something fishy going on.
Princes in the Tower is a bad counter example because a conspiracy theory is needed to explain how they were *not* murdered on Richard’s orders in July/August 1483 - either by their secret survival, or by somebody else gaining access to them.
The best fireworks display I ever went to was one at Alton Towers in around 1992. I *think* it was a staff-and-families only affair, and I got a ticket via a friend who had worked there in the summer. It was a beautiful autumn evening, clear skies, with the castle in the background. We stood by the lake, and the fireworks were coming from the other side. The noise from the explosions were so loud that they felt almost like a physical force. magnificent. It was not just the fireworks; it was the setting and atmosphere.
Second best was a wedding I went to in Shropshire, where both sets of parents were millionaires. Both families tried to outdo the other, and one had to organise a fireworks display. It ended up being a half-hour professional job.
I love fireworks.
They used to do a firework competition over the lake near Brno, called Ignis Brunensis. I went one year, it was brilliant, if a bit poncy.
The best one I ever went to was in Newcastle. They were celebrating the anniversary of Newcastle NSW, it was the middle of summer, over Exhibition Park I think. It was summer so light until late, they just made it loud. Very loud. The rich folk of Gosforth complained and they never did it again.
The New Year's Eve fireworks by the Tyne Bridge can be good, both Newcastle and Gateshead slope significantly down to the River so it reverberates. London, in contrast, is relatively flat.
You get good, cheap rifles from Brno still. It's also where Mendel studied his bees or whatever it was he studied. Sweet peas?
It's quite a pleasant city (as are most Czech cities to be honest, although a Czech friend once warned me off Ostrava as a "shithole" ). It was a good base to explore the battlefield of Austerlitz.
It has a genuinely world class art gallery (Cranach, Van Dyck, Brueghel, etc etc) hidden in an aristo estate just out of town/. Poignantly, many of the best paintings come from the collection of Charles 1 of England, sold by Cromwell. They should be in London
Reply to you both together for convenience. It's in the rural NE. And it is the golf club. So not the youngest clientele imaginable. They had all ticket sold out 60 booked for dinner. That was down to 20 from cancellations, but the chef's got Rona. So that was off. However, there is only one other place to drink in the village so they thought they'd open anyway. Many fewer than a normal Friday night apparently... Desperate times as Foxy observes.
Youngest sent home from his bar job at 9 pm. Lack of customers.
I went for after work drinks at the hospital pub with a colleague. Not even double figures of customers. I asked the (Scottish) landlady about her Burns Supper plans, but she thinks she might have to cancel.
Rough times for the hospitality industry.
One gains the impression that it may be very patchy. I know it's just one more anecdote, but I was going through town with a group from my running club about 7pm last night and went past one of the local restaurants, which has big plate glass windows so one can see the whole interior from the street. It was full. And the duty manager at our favourite place also suggested they'd been busy over Christmas when we went there for lunch earlier in the week.
Perhaps things simply haven't been so bad in little towns like ours as they have been in the cities? I don't know.
Would have more weight if she hadn't called for lockdown and restrictions continually for the last 20 months. She has also wanted face masks in schools. She is not a teacher trying to teach kids. Her followers are for the most part sychophantic to a high degree. A psychologist would wonder if she gets off on the adulation.
I call shenanigans on that until positively confirmed by a reliable source. And if it is true I would expect Kathy Hochul to stop it immediately.
The screen shot they've put in the tweet says that being african american or Latino is an identified risk factor.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
I said IN MY COMMENT that the tweet was needlessly "designed to provoke". I said it was race-baiting. FFS. But the reality is race-baiting enough. It is anti-white racism turned into health policy
And a happy new year to you too. You should unplug from your deranged rightwing outrage machine twitter feed every so often.
So often you want people to "follow the science" and accept there are significant genetic differences between the races. Here is New York doing exactly what you ask and identified a racial risk factor and suddenly you are predicting race war.
Odd that.
Its not about genetic or any other biological differences though. The policy is justified by reference to 'longstanding health and social inequalities' contributing to an 'increased risk of serious illness or death from COVID 19'. Presumably the reasoning is that you are more likely to be poor, have bad housing, smoke, be unhealthy, have a bad diet etc because of your race and experience of historic racism, and thus more likely to die of COVID.
It is as Leon says a recruiting sargeant for D Trump or his successor. They can portray their mission to white people as being about tackling racism.
It is also because black/Hispanic people are more likely to be obese and unvaxxed because whatever. So a white New Yorker who stayed thin and got the vaccine, like a good citizen, is now to be deprioritized for life-giving medicine because they did the right thing
I am still trying to get my head around it, as it is so mad. I thought it was bollocks at first, but - unlike idiot PB lefties - I did some research. It appears to be true. Fuck me the American Left REALLY wants to lose
Many educated people never let go of their reflexive sense that the left are essentially good and right, and continually give them the benefit of the doubt. But the reality is that they make mistakes, and this appears to be a pretty bad one.
She has always called for longer and harder lockdowns on the basis of her mathematical models showing huge numbers of fatalities if we don’t.
The snag is the only one of her models that we can compare to real world data - the one on the effects of removing restrictions last July - was wrong by the small matter of 130%.
Youngest sent home from his bar job at 9 pm. Lack of customers.
I went for after work drinks at the hospital pub with a colleague. Not even double figures of customers. I asked the (Scottish) landlady about her Burns Supper plans, but she thinks she might have to cancel.
Rough times for the hospitality industry.
One gains the impression that it may be very patchy. I know it's just one more anecdote, but I was going through town with a group from my running club about 7pm last night and went past one of the local restaurants, which has big plate glass windows so one can see the whole interior from the street. It was full. And the duty manager at our favourite place also suggested they'd been busy over Christmas when we went there for lunch earlier in the week.
Perhaps things simply haven't been so bad in little towns like ours as they have been in the cities? I don't know.
Just patchy everywhere I think. Mrs Foxy has been down on the Island visiting family, and had booked for 25 persons on the 27th at a popular dining pub. On the night they were the only party.
Are believers in the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy theorists?
Which bit of it? The efforts of Fawkes, the inspiration of Percy or the involvement of Salisbury?
Well, there's three separate conspiracy theories right there. My point is 1. I am not a conspiracy theorist (except for not falling for the NASA moon landing hoaxes obv) 2. I think on balance Epstein was murdered 3. It gives a free pass to people who want to murder people like Epstein if those suggesting that that is what they have done have to get over a "conspiracy theory" hurdle. The princes in the Tower were either murdered, or not. Why should one case vs the other be hampered by a silly label?
The difficulty here is that for Epstein to have been murdered the camera footage has to have been faked. Otherwise, it’s difficult to explain how access to actually kill him was achieved. Therefore, a conspiracy is needed to explain it.
The fact that the two overworked guards who cocked up and failed to follow procedure have now in effect been given a slap on the wrist will lend weight to the idea that there is something fishy going on.
Princes in the Tower is a bad counter example because a conspiracy theory is needed to explain how they were *not* murdered on Richard’s orders in July/August 1483 - either by their secret survival, or by somebody else gaining access to them.
OK you got me there. Any theory which requires camera footage to be faked in 2017 can be laughed out of court, the technology doesn't exist. Dunno how you'd even start.
Would have more weight if she hadn't called for lockdown and restrictions continually for the last 20 months. She has also wanted face masks in schools. She is not a teacher trying to teach kids. Her followers are for the most part sychophantic to a high degree. A psychologist would wonder if she gets off on the adulation.
Are believers in the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy theorists?
Which bit of it? The efforts of Fawkes, the inspiration of Percy or the involvement of Salisbury?
Well, there's three separate conspiracy theories right there. My point is 1. I am not a conspiracy theorist (except for not falling for the NASA moon landing hoaxes obv) 2. I think on balance Epstein was murdered 3. It gives a free pass to people who want to murder people like Epstein if those suggesting that that is what they have done have to get over a "conspiracy theory" hurdle. The princes in the Tower were either murdered, or not. Why should one case vs the other be hampered by a silly label?
Ditto "lab leak"
The phrase "conspiracy theory" is now wielded by anyone who is frightened of a perfectly plausible theory which upsets their political beliefs. It is exactly the phrase used in the original Daszak letter to the Lancet which tried - successfully, for a year - to squash any discussion - literally any debate - about the idea the virus might have come from the Wuhan labs. For at least a year Facebook and Twitter deleted any debate that mentioned this possible explanation. Quite astonishing. And we still think we have Free Speech? We do not
FWIW I have pondered the Epstein case quite hard, and looked at all the evidence (in an amateur way) and my conclusions are this, in order of likelihood
1, He committed suicide, but he was intensely pressured to do so (threats to family? friends?) and he was told there would be a couple of hours when he was able: guards "asleep", cameras "turned off", suicide watch "suspended" (it was meant to be 24/7)
2. He was murdered (as you believe, and fair enough)
and at a long long distance
3. The supposed version we are meant to believe: he killed himself without any intervention from the authorities and it is all just coincidence that the guards went into a coma as he did it
Are believers in the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy theorists?
Which bit of it? The efforts of Fawkes, the inspiration of Percy or the involvement of Salisbury?
Well, there's three separate conspiracy theories right there. My point is 1. I am not a conspiracy theorist (except for not falling for the NASA moon landing hoaxes obv) 2. I think on balance Epstein was murdered 3. It gives a free pass to people who want to murder people like Epstein if those suggesting that that is what they have done have to get over a "conspiracy theory" hurdle. The princes in the Tower were either murdered, or not. Why should one case vs the other be hampered by a silly label?
Would you like to guess approximately how many conspiracy theorists identify themselves thus?
Are believers in the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy theorists?
Which bit of it? The efforts of Fawkes, the inspiration of Percy or the involvement of Salisbury?
Well, there's three separate conspiracy theories right there. My point is 1. I am not a conspiracy theorist (except for not falling for the NASA moon landing hoaxes obv) 2. I think on balance Epstein was murdered 3. It gives a free pass to people who want to murder people like Epstein if those suggesting that that is what they have done have to get over a "conspiracy theory" hurdle. The princes in the Tower were either murdered, or not. Why should one case vs the other be hampered by a silly label?
The difficulty here is that for Epstein to have been murdered the camera footage has to have been faked. Otherwise, it’s difficult to explain how access to actually kill him was achieved. Therefore, a conspiracy is needed to explain it.
The fact that the two overworked guards who cocked up and failed to follow procedure have now in effect been given a slap on the wrist will lend weight to the idea that there is something fishy going on.
Princes in the Tower is a bad counter example because a conspiracy theory is needed to explain how they were *not* murdered on Richard’s orders in July/August 1483 - either by their secret survival, or by somebody else gaining access to them.
OK you got me there. Any theory which requires camera footage to be faked in 2017 can be laughed out of court, the technology doesn't exist. Dunno how you'd even start.
You’re missing the point. The point is that faking the camera footage of an empty corridor requires a conspiracy. On the part of the camera operators, guards, technicians…
And such conspiracies are explained by ‘conspiracy theories.’
Doesn’t mean it’s impossible it happened. It’s just somewhat less likely than the obvious - that Epstein strangled himself and an awful lot of time was wasted and confusion caused by the guards trying to cover up that they were asleep on duty.
Reply to you both together for convenience. It's in the rural NE. And it is the golf club. So not the youngest clientele imaginable. They had all ticket sold out 60 booked for dinner. That was down to 20 from cancellations, but the chef's got Rona. So that was off. However, there is only one other place to drink in the village so they thought they'd open anyway. Many fewer than a normal Friday night apparently... Desperate times as Foxy observes.
Ta. And, yes, troubling
The British pub is such a fundamental part of our culture. I hate to see them empty
She has always called for longer and harder lockdowns on the basis of her mathematical models showing huge numbers of fatalities if we don’t.
The snag is the only one of her models that we can compare to real world data - the one on the effects of removing restrictions last July - was wrong by the small matter of 130%.
Comments
I like it. This is our cri de coeur for 2022!
Meanwhile, a guy in a mask lugs produce and fine wines to their door from his Waitrose van.
Happy New Year everyone!
Here's hoping 2022 is distinctly better.
But it is certainly something a killing could be made on with proper, inside info. So more likely that.
But many 'experts' have come to see it as a convenient tool of behaviour management, and a method of managing the pressure on the NHS. I am thinking about the casualness in which iSage just recommend a 'circuit breaker'. It has an implied normality to it, like calling for a road closure or something.
Lockdown has to come completely off the agenda.
The same is true of natural gas. Every country - with a coastline - should have LNG import facilities.
With this, the threat of reducing energy supplies is massively reduced.
It reminds me of the 1970s: OPEC flexed their muscles, the price of oil went through the roof, and the world decided they didn't want to be utterly dependent on a few countries in the Middle East. Alaska and the North Sea were all developed in response to OPEC's price hike.
This time it's the Russians flexing their muscles with the gas price.
Two things will come out of this.
Firstly, energy companies will enter into long term supply agreements with a variety of providers. A number of the UK guys got fat, lazy and rich by selling electricity at a long term fixed prices, while buying energy spot. They then all went spectacularly bust.
Secondly, a metric shit tonne of LNG projects are going to be greenlighted. When I was running energy money, I would get gas companies in every week with plans for new LNG facilities. And you knew that 99% of them would never get funded: sure they had fields with gas, but who was going to fund the construction of LNG trains in Mozambique/Nigeria/PNG/etc without guaranteed long term sales contracts. Well... I think we know the answer to that now. I think there are a hundred energy companies across Europe who will be prepared to enter into multi-year guaranteed price contracts.
I'd recommend all of that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KhU75RkbYQ
A new future awaits.
Happy New Year PB!
Correlation is not coruscation, and all that, but I do find it gauging when friends with guardians big enough to have a tennis court in there garden tell me lockdown is not that bad and WFH is great.
It’s been a rough ride these past few years, and no doubt there’ll be a lot more disagreement over the next 12 months, and beyond, about how best we go forward.
I think it’s important to remember that no matter how much we disagree with each other, really when it boils down to it we all want the world to be better. We may disagree stridently and vehemently as to how that will be achieved. And that is good, that has always happened, that’s humans.
But the vast majority of us just want the best for ourselves and our families. (Edit - and everyone else!) Fundamentally, I think, we’re all good people. We might be snarky and short-tempered. Bolshy and snarky. Sarcastic and withering. Whatever. None of it really matters.
Happy New Year! 😀😀😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KhU75RkbYQ
But if you're really worried about the former group of people, then there's something simple you can do to help them out without your concerns over lockdown:
Pay more taxes.
* Any time before I go to bed isn't January.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1044522/20211231_OS_Daily_Omicron_Overview.pdf
Or not
As an aside, I found on Facebook this morning a video from one of those conspiracy theorists. Now, bear with me because apparently there is going to be a "global currency reset" on January 1st 2022. This is linked to storms in California, CNN turning on Joe Biden, the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, flooding in Malaysia and the Iraq National Bank closing for four days.
After about five minutes of this undiluted bollocks, I'd had enough.
It occurs to me those who swallow this unadulterated nonsense do so because, and I imagine the pandemic has intensified this, they are trying to make sense of the world. I get that - I consider myself a fairly rational person (my posts may not represent compelling evidence I grant you) and I appreciate there is almost a primal sense to try to understand what is going on and to make sense of it all but linking completely unrelated events into some vast global conspiracy - I think not.
Those who get lured into the nonsense that is QAnon and similar are just trying to make sense of a chaotic world and are looking for some balancing order - the trouble is, there isn't any or rather the attempts to make order out of chaos become chaotic themselves.
Easier to imagine some colossal shadowy elite manipulating events than to accept it's all just random chaos.
As Basil Exposition and Austin Powers reminded us when trying to resolve the time travelling paradox between the second and third movies, don't bother.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1yLRK2M8YQ
http://www.mssnyenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/122821_Notification_107774.pdf
You know what? A combination of an inflation-ravaged American economy plus a Woke anti-white racist ideology in DC is the perfect petri dish to breed Trump 2.0
Fuck, if I was a white American, looking at that (presuming it is true), I'd likely vote for Trump
They are a post rock band in the vein of mogwai, sigur ros, explosions in the sky. I'd say that what they are producing is pretty much at the top end of this genre, which I like because it is just athmospheric and there are no lyrics, it is quite good for concentrating whilst WFH'ing, as well as to listen to in its own right.
But for years they were completely anonymous. They just uploaded stuff and it got tens of thousands of listens and it was impossible to find out who they are. It is apparently a 43 year old guy in a town in Sweden.
People keep saying that music has gone shit and no good records have come out for the last decade, but I take the view that lots of really good stuff has come out over the last few years. This is an example.
It doesn't say white people should not apply. It is classic race baiting presentation beloved of race baiting shit stirrers that Leon "falls for" every time.
The cost of housing is perhaps one place to start - if all you can afford is a small flat on the 18th floor of a tower block maybe we need to rethink the whole housing question but our imagination seems only to stretch to building more flats or little boxes.
It never mattered much before - the point of having your little box was it was just a place to sleep and hang your clothes. Life happened outside your four walls and with the pandemic that changed fundamentally.
Should the psychological consequences of restrictions have carried greater weight within policy making? Probably but the paramount consideration is and was the overall public health and that even trumped the economic health of the nation.
Background reading
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/new-york-is-using-race-to-determine
Do more research before commenting, you moron
Second best was a wedding I went to in Shropshire, where both sets of parents were millionaires. Both families tried to outdo the other, and one had to organise a fireworks display. It ended up being a half-hour professional job.
I love fireworks.
Correlation != causation, but I don't feel like trying it again ...
So I’m not convinced that it needed to carry ‘greater weight.’ Just that only bad options were left and this was the least damaging at the time.
Where's the corkscrew?
The best one I ever went to was in Newcastle. They were celebrating the anniversary of Newcastle NSW, it was the middle of summer, over Exhibition Park I think. It was summer so light until late, they just made it loud. Very loud. The rich folk of Gosforth complained and they never did it again.
The New Year's Eve fireworks by the Tyne Bridge can be good, both Newcastle and Gateshead slope significantly down to the River so it reverberates. London, in contrast, is relatively flat.
So often you want people to "follow the science" and accept there are significant genetic differences between the races. Here is New York doing exactly what you ask and identified a racial risk factor and suddenly you are predicting race war.
Odd that.
If there was ever a winter when pubs, bars, caffs, hotels and restaurants need our custom, this is that winter
This should be WET January. In fact it is our patriotic, economic, and Britannic duty to be drunk from now until Easter
This may not be obvious, but I have already begun the task
Why do we have such an unerring ability to choose the wrong future?
Peter Hitchens"
https://unherd.com/2019/12/the-world-we-lost-will-never-return
Jeffrey Epstein: Charges dropped against prison guards who falsified records
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59839724
We all know you're a right-wing nutter. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.
Lack of customers.
The musical coordination is superb. It is so often done really badly (like at the Battle Proms for example)
It gets a bit sketchy when they try and do something 'clever' like use real church bells during the 1812, but they don't try that too often...
Accompanied by this outstanding Malbec
https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/ar-flechas-de-los-andes-gran-malbec/w/1136991?year=2015
Turns out a spicy fish curry with a thumping Malbec just roCKS
I more often lapse into pathetic leftwing sentimentality when drunk, and say nice things about the NHS, social welfare, those poor migrants, open the borders! O I miss the EU, give me a hug bruv, etc etc
It's when I am sober, dry-eyed, and ruthlessly careerist, logical and sensible (ie before about 6pm) that I am more likely to be a hard-arsed rightwinger
But that piece of Woke Lunacy from NYC is so outstandingly mad it cannot be ignored. Rationing of life-giving medicine by race. Insane. And it seems to be true. Trump is going to win, at a canter, if this continues
It is as Leon says a recruiting sargeant for D Trump or his successor. They can portray their mission to white people as being about tackling racism.
That is sad. Camden is also eerily quiet
Normally at this time on this evening it would be hammering, punchy and loud
Let this be the last melancholy Christmas/New Year
Rough times for the hospitality industry.
I am still trying to get my head around it, as it is so mad. I thought it was bollocks at first, but - unlike idiot PB lefties - I did some research. It appears to be true. Fuck me the American Left REALLY wants to lose
Her thread is interesting if sombre. Safe to ignore or somehing to ponder?
https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1476616293822390280?s=20
The fact that the two overworked guards who cocked up and failed to follow procedure have now in effect been given a slap on the wrist will lend weight to the idea that there is something fishy going on.
Princes in the Tower is a bad counter example because a conspiracy theory is needed to explain how they were *not* murdered on Richard’s orders in July/August 1483 - either by their secret survival, or by somebody else gaining access to them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olomouc
It has a genuinely world class art gallery (Cranach, Van Dyck, Brueghel, etc etc) hidden in an aristo estate just out of town/. Poignantly, many of the best paintings come from the collection of Charles 1 of England, sold by Cromwell. They should be in London
https://www.zamek-kromeriz.cz/en/tours/chateau-gallery/
Reply to you both together for convenience.
It's in the rural NE. And it is the golf club. So not the youngest clientele imaginable.
They had all ticket sold out 60 booked for dinner. That was down to 20 from cancellations, but the chef's got Rona. So that was off.
However, there is only one other place to drink in the village so they thought they'd open anyway.
Many fewer than a normal Friday night apparently...
Desperate times as Foxy observes.
Perhaps things simply haven't been so bad in little towns like ours as they have been in the cities? I don't know.
Her followers are for the most part sychophantic to a high degree. A psychologist would wonder if she gets off on the adulation.
But the reality is that they make mistakes, and this appears to be a pretty bad one.
Happy New Year to all PB participants 👍
The snag is the only one of her models that we can compare to real world data - the one on the effects of removing restrictions last July - was wrong by the small matter of 130%.
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2504
The phrase "conspiracy theory" is now wielded by anyone who is frightened of a perfectly plausible theory which upsets their political beliefs. It is exactly the phrase used in the original Daszak letter to the Lancet which tried - successfully, for a year - to squash any discussion - literally any debate - about the idea the virus might have come from the Wuhan labs. For at least a year Facebook and Twitter deleted any debate that mentioned this possible explanation. Quite astonishing. And we still think we have Free Speech? We do not
FWIW I have pondered the Epstein case quite hard, and looked at all the evidence (in an amateur way) and my conclusions are this, in order of likelihood
1, He committed suicide, but he was intensely pressured to do so (threats to family? friends?) and he was told there would be a couple of hours when he was able: guards "asleep", cameras "turned off", suicide watch "suspended" (it was meant to be 24/7)
2. He was murdered (as you believe, and fair enough)
and at a long long distance
3. The supposed version we are meant to believe: he killed himself without any intervention from the authorities and it is all just coincidence that the guards went into a coma as he did it
3 is about as likely as the Wet Market
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/germany/
And such conspiracies are explained by ‘conspiracy theories.’
Doesn’t mean it’s impossible it happened. It’s just somewhat less likely than the obvious - that Epstein strangled himself and an awful lot of time was wasted and confusion caused by the guards trying to cover up that they were asleep on duty.
The British pub is such a fundamental part of our culture. I hate to see them empty
I wish all of PB a Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.