Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
It is a channel that spreads antivax bollocks.
But there is a sane position which is anti-vax. Ie the more we vax the more we force the virus to evolve to evade immunity, creating evermore sinister variants
I don’t agree with it, but I can see the logic
Then there is the insane anti-vax stuff, Bill Gates and microchips and the rest, but that is different
Is there a single virus where mass vaccination has led to that outcome to the extent that the overall clinical outcomes were worse then they would have been without mass vaccination?
No idea
All I know is that I’ve seen apparently sane virologists and evolutionary biologists arguing this point: vaccines can be theoretically counter-productive
That’s strange; the only discussion on this subject I’ve seen from immunologists and virologists has been the exact reverse: vaccines aren’t antibiotics, after all (they’re simply a method of triggering the natural immune response by alerting and training the immune system) and the maximum risk of new variants comes about with the widest spread of the virus (as there are that many more reproducing viruses with that much more opportunities for mutation).
The fact that Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron have all come from regions of low/no vaccination (some predating vax) and no hints of any dangerous variants coming from regions of high vax would rather support them.
The immune system is complex. Autoimmunity is not fully understood, but can be brought on by priming to an antigen. I think there have been some cases in vaccine development historically where the candidate vaccines were associated with negative protection, effectively priming the immune system to overreact to an infection and cause more severe disease. IIRC, one of the first CCHF vaccine candidates was stopped for this reason.
I have previously posted here a link to this in the scientific literature, but cannot find it now and am currently on my way out to lunch. But it is a real thing. Not in relation to COVID, but in the bigger vaccination picture.
Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
It is a channel that spreads antivax bollocks.
But there is a sane position which is anti-vax. Ie the more we vax the more we force the virus to evolve to evade immunity, creating evermore sinister variants
I don’t agree with it, but I can see the logic
Then there is the insane anti-vax stuff, Bill Gates and microchips and the rest, but that is different
Is there a single virus where mass vaccination has led to that outcome to the extent that the overall clinical outcomes were worse then they would have been without mass vaccination?
No idea
All I know is that I’ve seen apparently sane virologists and evolutionary biologists arguing this point: vaccines can be theoretically counter-productive
That’s strange; the only discussion on this subject I’ve seen from immunologists and virologists has been the exact reverse: vaccines aren’t antibiotics, after all (they’re simply a method of triggering the natural immune response by alerting and training the immune system) and the maximum risk of new variants comes about with the widest spread of the virus (as there are that many more reproducing viruses with that much more opportunities for mutation).
The fact that Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron have all come from regions of low/no vaccination (some predating vax) and no hints of any dangerous variants coming from regions of high vax would rather support them.
Well, there are virologists who are worried about it and particularly about surface-targetting vaccines
“We believe that targeting internal antigens such as the nucleocapsid presents an advantage over surface antigens as they have a much lower mutation rate,” said Le Vert. He added that an immune T cell response against these internal antigens could protect against both current and future strains of Covid-19."
The importance of understanding SARS-CoV-2 evolution cannot be overlooked. Recent studies confirm that natural selection is the dominating mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, which favors mutations that strengthen viral infectivity. Here, we demonstrate that vaccine-breakthrough or antibody-resistant mutations provide a new mechanism of viral evolution. Specifically, vaccine-resistant mutation Y449S in the spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain, which occurred in co-mutations Y449S and N501Y, has reduced infectivity compared to that of the original SARS-CoV-2 but can disrupt existing antibodies that neutralize the virus. By tracking the evolutionary trajectories of vaccine-resistant mutations in more than 2.2 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes, we reveal that the occurrence and frequency of vaccine-resistant mutations correlate strongly with the vaccination rates in Europe and America. We anticipate that as a complementary transmission pathway, vaccine-breakthrough or antibody-resistant mutations, like those in Omicron, will become a dominating mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 evolution when most of the world's population is either vaccinated or infected. Our study sheds light on SARS-CoV-2 evolution and transmission and enables the design of the next-generation mutation-proof vaccines and antibody drugs.
I just listened to Joni Mitchell for the first time this millennium so assuming I'm not the only one her spat with Spotify wasn't all negative (Great voice. I'd forgotten)
Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
Quite.
I’ve also seen it linked to, by not-the-usual suspects. GBNews seems to be making an impact, after a terrible start
Good luck to them. The more independent voices the better. C4 News has been pumping out leftwing nonsense for decades
Anyway, if you want something different to talk about we could talk about women, Article 10 of the ECHR and what, if any, the police's role in this should be. It touches on Scotland, Wales, the police, law and Europe - as well as, of course, women. So pretty much a full bingo card.
Does it involve aliens, GPT4 and arguments about the best Goan fish curry recipes? I/f not, sorry. Not interested
No. Of course not. Such dreary geeky topics. I don't even know what the second one means.
Maybe someone else will bite.
Or I could do some work. Next door's cat is staring at me evilly. He/she is probably an alien, maybe even a GPT4 alien who likes fish.
There - that'll have to do.
You tried. Fair play
Believe it or not I AM interested in your garden!
You said it was REALLY big. How big? And you say you could happily spend all day gardening. Why do you think that is? How does it affect you? Is there an endorphin high at the end, is it the pleasure of seeing flowers, or growing your own veg?
Genuine questions. One day I will retire, at least a bit, and I wonder if I might like a garden….
OK - here goes. In a curious way gardening chose me. Oh I wanted a nice garden for the children.
But what I eventually realised was that I was drawn to it because it helped soothe & calm me whenever I was troubled or worried. It rooted me in a way. And then it made me feel good. It answered various needs in me I was only dimly aware I had.
How? It is sensuous - you use your eyes, you have to take the time to really observe & see & when you do you see such beauty & often in unexpected combinations: rain on a spider's web, bees burrowing into allium flowers, the light shining through canna leaves. My mind is a very visual one. I think in pictures. I try to paint pictures with words. I cannot draw. But gardening gives me the ability to create something beautiful & visual.
Then there is scent. A garden without scent is absurd.
Sound - water obviously but the sound of grasses moving in wind. In the Lakes we are on a hill. It can be very windy so I'm experimenting with grasses for just that reason.
Taste - an obvious one this. But I eat lemons, figs, apples, pears & blackberries I have grown myself. The sense of achievement is superb.
Touch - overlooked but real. The feel of different sorts of leaves or petals or running your fingers through lavender etc. Or having your hands in earth. Honestly it is lovely.
Yes - gardening is sensuous. And creative.
Plus the physical exercise & being outside in all weathers. It is tiring but so fulfilling & yes gives me a high. The sense of stretching my body, of being tired & dirty is good - together with a sense of achievement - of being able to look & say "I've done that".
It's unexpected. Whatever you plan it will never quite work out as you wanted. That is part of the joy. You have a partner - Mother Nature - who will do her own thing.
It is quiet. It puts my mind into a sort of suspended animation where whatever I'm thinking about goes into the back - like someone stuffing clothes into a cupboard without bothering to hang them up. But somehow when I switch my mind back on, it is all a bit clearer & more ordered than before.
The Lakes garden is big - about 1/3 of an acre I think. On a hill. On limestone. Windy. But very sunny with fabulous views & a mile from the sea. Front garden - largely done. Back garden: needs sorting. Then some additional land next to it which is a huge mess. Just wild. I am just beginning to think about this.
I need to draw it out on paper, work out what I want to do, how it relates to the house, the views of it & from it etc. I would like to have a formal French-style potager with veg, a greenhouse, a garden building to sit in with my books, maybe a hot tub & an area of large sweeping planted curvaceous beds. It needs mystery too.
So that's why I can spend all day. I am not a tidy lawn & small border sort of a girl.
Here are my roses from a few years back in London to give you an idea of the sensuous aspect.
Eloquent as ever and also pretty persuasive. And enlightening. Much to think about. Thankyou
Maybe I should get a garden. I can see the enormous pleasure of growing your own fruit and veg and I totally get the reward of proper physical work - it is good for you, AND you earn your appetite
I have just one more question. You’ve spoken of your Neapolitan background. Don’t you miss the Campanian sun? Are you totally adjusted to British weather?
When I think about the next Act in my life I do yearn for real warmth and sun. Mediterranean, but tempered. Maybe Portugal. Or go the whole hog and go tropical, like Sri Lanka. The sweet soft evenings are so seductive….
Yes and no. Naples is not famous for its gardens. That level of heat is not really good for gardens. Where I am we get sun all day and when it is there - being near the sea - it can get beautifully warm. Also I like mist and cold weather too. I don't like very hot humid weather.
Campania is very humid and the sun is fierce so it is something to be enjoyed but also something to be avoided as well: the rush to the sea in summer, the closing of shutters to keep the heat out etc.
Husband and I talked in the past (ie before Covid hit and we'd moved into our house) of spending part of the winter abroad - in the Mediterranean, exploring different places, then further afield, maybe even renting for 3 months. That was the vague plan. It still is.
Grazie, again
If you - or any other PB'er - wants advice on gardening and gardening design DM me. I will even come and plant for you for those living nearby (so Lakes and North London). Anywhere else you have to ask nicely.
Maybe my final career will be as some sort of freelance gardener-cum-investigator.
That sounds like something for Sunday evening TV with somebody like Harriet Walter in the lead role.
I have started writing a drama series - but there is no gardening in it it all. Only investigations.
Rosemary & Thyme was execrable.
The plotting is the hardest part and I am not a screen writer so will see how far I can take it before I throw it in the bin or sell to someone to finish.
Good luck with that. Yes, plot is the hardest thing. Then dialogue. Then prose. Or to be more accurate, not so much hardest but a rarer skill. More people can do good prose than can do good dialogue than can do good plot. That's my view anyway.
Indeed. "Show" rather than "Tell".
I have the outline of the plot. And the characters. Some of their names as well. And some scenes. The dialogue and style - not yet.
And so much is in the acting. So much communication is non-verbal. So how the hell do you write a script for that?
I have probably jinxed it now by revealing even this much.
Sweet Jesus. And WaPo isn’t half as mad as the NYT
I am sure the WaPo editorial team thought what a great cartoon, hits the nail right on the head.
In fairness I think most people who make or share political cartoons think they are much more clever and insightful than they think they are.
Which is not as big a slam as it sounds, it's just that a good political cartoon is hard, much harder for instance than a moderately smart or insightful piece of writing.
I fail to see how anybody can think writing fascist down the side of a lorry is clever or insightful.
And obviously in this case, the truckers are protesting against being forced to be vaccinated. Now I don't have a huge amount of time for anti-vax stand point, but truckers in North America, of all jobs, seems the miles down the totem pole in terms of risk. A job where you spend days / weeks sitting alone in a cab only interacting with people to fill up for gas.
Matt manages brilliant cutting cartoons without ever resorting to this kind of stuff.
Matt is brilliant. Mrs J has started getting me his annual book each Christmas, and there is rarely a miss. He also avoids - mostly - getting personal about people and characters.
It's a real skill.
Matt is the only reason I still subscribe to the Telegraph.
Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
It is a channel that spreads antivax bollocks.
But there is a sane position which is anti-vax. Ie the more we vax the more we force the virus to evolve to evade immunity, creating evermore sinister variants
I don’t agree with it, but I can see the logic
Then there is the insane anti-vax stuff, Bill Gates and microchips and the rest, but that is different
Is there a single virus where mass vaccination has led to that outcome to the extent that the overall clinical outcomes were worse then they would have been without mass vaccination?
No idea
All I know is that I’ve seen apparently sane virologists and evolutionary biologists arguing this point: vaccines can be theoretically counter-productive
That’s strange; the only discussion on this subject I’ve seen from immunologists and virologists has been the exact reverse: vaccines aren’t antibiotics, after all (they’re simply a method of triggering the natural immune response by alerting and training the immune system) and the maximum risk of new variants comes about with the widest spread of the virus (as there are that many more reproducing viruses with that much more opportunities for mutation).
The fact that Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron have all come from regions of low/no vaccination (some predating vax) and no hints of any dangerous variants coming from regions of high vax would rather support them.
Well, there are virologists who are worried about it and particularly about surface-targetting vaccines
“We believe that targeting internal antigens such as the nucleocapsid presents an advantage over surface antigens as they have a much lower mutation rate,” said Le Vert. He added that an immune T cell response against these internal antigens could protect against both current and future strains of Covid-19."
There are potential pitfalls to the current mRNA vaccines, but they have allowed us to confront alpha, delta and now omicron with vastly reduced mortality. All those infections will have engendered antibodies to the whole virus, and is one of the reasons behind our ‘success’ with omicron. Ultimately we are all going to catch Covid, lots of times. The key event is almost always the first time. Make it past that and you’ll most likely be fine in future. You may still get ill and feel rough, but you probably won’t die. Vaccines allow us to face the first infection in far better shape than anyone did in 2020.
Never live near professional footballers. A friend of mine lives opposite what was Reading’s training ground. The club bought the house next door to my friend to use for loan/new signings to use. One player - Dutch Guy, it was when Stam as in charge - held parties on Monday nights. Absolute nightmare when you have to be up early for work.
Completely off-topic but frankly rather disturbing...
The complete cultural disconnect between under 25s and millenials + older is v interesting. My kids + friends have no engagement with music/TV or film. Their heroes are all YouTubers that no one my age has even heard of.
Obviously there's been youth culture for a long time but I think a culturally literate adult would have been aware of who was famous etc... in previous decades.
Also means they get a weirdly reversed version of mainstream culture. They've never seen Squid Games but know about it from YouTube. They only know songs that appear on computer games + aren't really intetested in who made them.
I'm not at all convinced that a future cultural landscape dominated by gaming and shitty homemade YouTube videos is something to be welcomed. But then again I'm 45 and therefore an old fossil who'll be dead soon, so who cares?
Sweet Jesus. And WaPo isn’t half as mad as the NYT
I am sure the WaPo editorial team thought what a great cartoon, hits the nail right on the head.
In fairness I think most people who make or share political cartoons think they are much more clever and insightful than they think they are.
Which is not as big a slam as it sounds, it's just that a good political cartoon is hard, much harder for instance than a moderately smart or insightful piece of writing.
I fail to see how anybody can think writing fascist down the side of a lorry is clever or insightful.
And obviously in this case, the truckers are protesting against being forced to be vaccinated. Now I don't have a huge amount of time for anti-vax stand point, but truckers in North America, of all jobs, seems the miles down the totem pole in terms of risk. A job where you spend days / weeks sitting alone in a cab only interacting with people to fill up for gas.
Matt manages brilliant cutting cartoons without ever resorting to this kind of stuff.
Matt is brilliant. Mrs J has started getting me his annual book each Christmas, and there is rarely a miss. He also avoids - mostly - getting personal about people and characters.
It's a real skill.
Matt is the only reason I still subscribe to the Telegraph.
The importance of understanding SARS-CoV-2 evolution cannot be overlooked. Recent studies confirm that natural selection is the dominating mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, which favors mutations that strengthen viral infectivity. Here, we demonstrate that vaccine-breakthrough or antibody-resistant mutations provide a new mechanism of viral evolution. Specifically, vaccine-resistant mutation Y449S in the spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain, which occurred in co-mutations Y449S and N501Y, has reduced infectivity compared to that of the original SARS-CoV-2 but can disrupt existing antibodies that neutralize the virus. By tracking the evolutionary trajectories of vaccine-resistant mutations in more than 2.2 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes, we reveal that the occurrence and frequency of vaccine-resistant mutations correlate strongly with the vaccination rates in Europe and America. We anticipate that as a complementary transmission pathway, vaccine-breakthrough or antibody-resistant mutations, like those in Omicron, will become a dominating mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 evolution when most of the world's population is either vaccinated or infected. Our study sheds light on SARS-CoV-2 evolution and transmission and enables the design of the next-generation mutation-proof vaccines and antibody drugs.
The default issue is that the more vaccination you have, the more immunity you get in your population. The more immunity you get in your population (from whichever route), the less transmission you have. The less transmission you have, the less opportunity the virus has of hitting on a useful mutation.
Completely off-topic but frankly rather disturbing...
The complete cultural disconnect between under 25s and millenials + older is v interesting. My kids + friends have no engagement with music/TV or film. Their heroes are all YouTubers that no one my age has even heard of.
Obviously there's been youth culture for a long time but I think a culturally literate adult would have been aware of who was famous etc... in previous decades.
Also means they get a weirdly reversed version of mainstream culture. They've never seen Squid Games but know about it from YouTube. They only know songs that appear on computer games + aren't really intetested in who made them.
I'm not at all convinced that a future cultural landscape dominated by gaming and shitty homemade YouTube videos is something to be welcomed. But then again I'm 45 and therefore an old fossil who'll be dead soon, so who cares?
'Twas ever thus. Jane Austen satirises the new obsession of young ladies reading novels.
Does anyone know any more than Wiki about the etymology of Scot-? Here's what I found there -
"The etymology of Late Latin Scoti is unclear. It is not a Latin derivation, nor does it correspond to any known Goidelic (Gaelic) term the Gaels used to name themselves as a whole or a constituent population-group. The implication is that this Late Latin word rendered a Primitive Irish term for a social grouping, occupation or activity, and only later became an ethnonym.
Several derivations have been conjectured but none has gained general acceptance in mainstream scholarship. In the 19th century Aonghas MacCoinnich proposed that Scoti came from Gaelic Sgaothaich, meaning "crowd" or "horde".
Charles Oman derived it from Gaelic Scuit, meaning someone cut-off. He believed it referred to bands of outcast Gaelic raiders, suggesting that the Scots were to the Gaels what the Vikings were to the Norse.
More recently, Philip Freeman has speculated on the likelihood of a group of raiders adopting a name from an Indo-European root, *skot, citing the parallel in Greek skotos (σκότος), meaning "darkness, gloom".
An origin has also been suggested in a word related to the English scot (as in tax) and Old Norse skot; this referred to an activity in ceremonies whereby ownership of land was transferred by placing a parcel of earth in the lap of a new owner,[15] whence 11th century King Olaf, one of Sweden's first known rulers, may have been known as a scot king" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoti#Etymology
Which seems to leave us with Hordeland, Outcastland, Gloomland or Taxland as the somewhat less than inspiring etymological options.
I think the Gloom might be a good name for the currency
In modern perspective the Scots were the Gaelic speaking people of Dál Riata a kingdom straddling Ulster and Western Scotland who eventually prevailed over the Picts and Brythonic Celts in the 9th to 10th centuries. They and their rivals would not have referred to these people as Scots at the time. I think they would have understood Alba as a geographic concept corresponding to modern Scotland, which I also believe is the modern Gaelic for Scotland. So the question is when did the inhabitants and non-inhabitants start referring to the country as Scotland? I am guessing quite late in the Middle Ages.
Never live near professional footballers. A friend of mine lives opposite what was Reading’s training ground. The club bought the house next door to my friend to use for loan/new signings to use. One player - Dutch Guy, it was when Stam as in charge - held parties on Monday nights. Absolute nightmare when you have to be up early for work.
There were three Dutch players under Stam, Joey van den Berg who played a fair bit over both, Roy Beerens who played a lot less in the second and Danzell Gravenberch, who looked like a rugby league player and barely played at all.
Before that, and I think much more likely for the parties, we had Royston Drenthe, a complete waste of time, energy and effort. But he just about predated Stam.
Mr. 43, worth noting that Pictland (as it were) descended far south of the current border, whereas when Northumberland (I think that's the appropriate term) was the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom it's territory was far to the north.
I just listened to Joni Mitchell for the first time this millennium so assuming I'm not the only one her spat with Spotify wasn't all negative (Great voice. I'd forgotten)
@isam - once of this parish - has just emailed me this. A graph correlating (inverted) covid cases with conservative Voting Intention. He says he started tracking it some months ago. The echo is quite spooky
For me this is a pretty good reason to unban @isam because he does stuff like this. But this is not my site. And he also says he is now too busy and hassled to come on PB anyway, so maybe it is all moot
Whatever, this is worthy of scrutiny
I do stuff like this too. In 2017/19 I messed about with Brexit vote %ages, long term unemployment etc, and placed my bets accordingly.
It didn't go very well, tbh. The best approach is to just copy what OGH suggests ATL - when he shot down my Burnham theory he was absolutely right
(Still a really interesting graph from Isam).
Did you use my Brexit spreadsheet? It was pretty good at predicting what would happen.
I just listened to Joni Mitchell for the first time this millennium so assuming I'm not the only one her spat with Spotify wasn't all negative (Great voice. I'd forgotten)
Sweet Jesus. And WaPo isn’t half as mad as the NYT
I am sure the WaPo editorial team thought what a great cartoon, hits the nail right on the head.
In fairness I think most people who make or share political cartoons think they are much more clever and insightful than they think they are.
Which is not as big a slam as it sounds, it's just that a good political cartoon is hard, much harder for instance than a moderately smart or insightful piece of writing.
I fail to see how anybody can think writing fascist down the side of a lorry is clever or insightful.
And obviously in this case, the truckers are protesting against being forced to be vaccinated. Now I don't have a huge amount of time for anti-vax stand point, but truckers in North America, of all jobs, seems the miles down the totem pole in terms of risk. A job where you spend days / weeks sitting alone in a cab only interacting with people to fill up for gas.
Matt manages brilliant cutting cartoons without ever resorting to this kind of stuff.
American cartoonists, the New Yorker aside, are inveterate over-labelers. I’m not quite sure why.
@isam - once of this parish - has just emailed me this. A graph correlating (inverted) covid cases with conservative Voting Intention. He says he started tracking it some months ago. The echo is quite spooky
For me this is a pretty good reason to unban @isam because he does stuff like this. But this is not my site. And he also says he is now too busy and hassled to come on PB anyway, so maybe it is all moot
Whatever, this is worthy of scrutiny
I do stuff like this too. In 2017/19 I messed about with Brexit vote %ages, long term unemployment etc, and placed my bets accordingly.
It didn't go very well, tbh. The best approach is to just copy what OGH suggests ATL - when he shot down my Burnham theory he was absolutely right
(Still a really interesting graph from Isam).
Did you use my Brexit spreadsheet? It was pretty good at predicting what would happen.
PRETTY GOOD????!!!
It was amazing and contributed to the increased wealth of many a PBer.
Completely off-topic but frankly rather disturbing...
The complete cultural disconnect between under 25s and millenials + older is v interesting. My kids + friends have no engagement with music/TV or film. Their heroes are all YouTubers that no one my age has even heard of.
Obviously there's been youth culture for a long time but I think a culturally literate adult would have been aware of who was famous etc... in previous decades.
Also means they get a weirdly reversed version of mainstream culture. They've never seen Squid Games but know about it from YouTube. They only know songs that appear on computer games + aren't really intetested in who made them.
I'm not at all convinced that a future cultural landscape dominated by gaming and shitty homemade YouTube videos is something to be welcomed. But then again I'm 45 and therefore an old fossil who'll be dead soon, so who cares?
This trend will accelerate and this is why the license fee, in spite of the backlash in the media over the govts plans, is unuststainable.
Completely off-topic but frankly rather disturbing...
The complete cultural disconnect between under 25s and millenials + older is v interesting. My kids + friends have no engagement with music/TV or film. Their heroes are all YouTubers that no one my age has even heard of.
Obviously there's been youth culture for a long time but I think a culturally literate adult would have been aware of who was famous etc... in previous decades.
Also means they get a weirdly reversed version of mainstream culture. They've never seen Squid Games but know about it from YouTube. They only know songs that appear on computer games + aren't really intetested in who made them.
I'm not at all convinced that a future cultural landscape dominated by gaming and shitty homemade YouTube videos is something to be welcomed. But then again I'm 45 and therefore an old fossil who'll be dead soon, so who cares?
That's the spirit.
I'm all for the gaming, the average gamer is in their mid thirties I believe, but even in my mid twenties I felt more in line with those 10-15 years older than even people just 5 years younger. Just felt different. It was the last generation growing up without common home intenet and mobile phones, if I too wish to sound like an old fart.
@isam - once of this parish - has just emailed me this. A graph correlating (inverted) covid cases with conservative Voting Intention. He says he started tracking it some months ago. The echo is quite spooky
For me this is a pretty good reason to unban @isam because he does stuff like this. But this is not my site. And he also says he is now too busy and hassled to come on PB anyway, so maybe it is all moot
Whatever, this is worthy of scrutiny
I do stuff like this too. In 2017/19 I messed about with Brexit vote %ages, long term unemployment etc, and placed my bets accordingly.
It didn't go very well, tbh. The best approach is to just copy what OGH suggests ATL - when he shot down my Burnham theory he was absolutely right
(Still a really interesting graph from Isam).
Did you use my Brexit spreadsheet? It was pretty good at predicting what would happen.
You're a modest man, Andy. You made people some decent money, I know that much.
Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
Quite.
I’ve also seen it linked to, by not-the-usual suspects. GBNews seems to be making an impact, after a terrible start
Good luck to them. The more independent voices the better. C4 News has been pumping out leftwing nonsense for decades
Anyway, if you want something different to talk about we could talk about women, Article 10 of the ECHR and what, if any, the police's role in this should be. It touches on Scotland, Wales, the police, law and Europe - as well as, of course, women. So pretty much a full bingo card.
Does it involve aliens, GPT4 and arguments about the best Goan fish curry recipes? I/f not, sorry. Not interested
No. Of course not. Such dreary geeky topics. I don't even know what the second one means.
Maybe someone else will bite.
Or I could do some work. Next door's cat is staring at me evilly. He/she is probably an alien, maybe even a GPT4 alien who likes fish.
There - that'll have to do.
You tried. Fair play
Believe it or not I AM interested in your garden!
You said it was REALLY big. How big? And you say you could happily spend all day gardening. Why do you think that is? How does it affect you? Is there an endorphin high at the end, is it the pleasure of seeing flowers, or growing your own veg?
Genuine questions. One day I will retire, at least a bit, and I wonder if I might like a garden….
OK - here goes. In a curious way gardening chose me. Oh I wanted a nice garden for the children.
But what I eventually realised was that I was drawn to it because it helped soothe & calm me whenever I was troubled or worried. It rooted me in a way. And then it made me feel good. It answered various needs in me I was only dimly aware I had.
How? It is sensuous - you use your eyes, you have to take the time to really observe & see & when you do you see such beauty & often in unexpected combinations: rain on a spider's web, bees burrowing into allium flowers, the light shining through canna leaves. My mind is a very visual one. I think in pictures. I try to paint pictures with words. I cannot draw. But gardening gives me the ability to create something beautiful & visual.
Then there is scent. A garden without scent is absurd.
Sound - water obviously but the sound of grasses moving in wind. In the Lakes we are on a hill. It can be very windy so I'm experimenting with grasses for just that reason.
Taste - an obvious one this. But I eat lemons, figs, apples, pears & blackberries I have grown myself. The sense of achievement is superb.
Touch - overlooked but real. The feel of different sorts of leaves or petals or running your fingers through lavender etc. Or having your hands in earth. Honestly it is lovely.
Yes - gardening is sensuous. And creative.
Plus the physical exercise & being outside in all weathers. It is tiring but so fulfilling & yes gives me a high. The sense of stretching my body, of being tired & dirty is good - together with a sense of achievement - of being able to look & say "I've done that".
It's unexpected. Whatever you plan it will never quite work out as you wanted. That is part of the joy. You have a partner - Mother Nature - who will do her own thing.
It is quiet. It puts my mind into a sort of suspended animation where whatever I'm thinking about goes into the back - like someone stuffing clothes into a cupboard without bothering to hang them up. But somehow when I switch my mind back on, it is all a bit clearer & more ordered than before.
The Lakes garden is big - about 1/3 of an acre I think. On a hill. On limestone. Windy. But very sunny with fabulous views & a mile from the sea. Front garden - largely done. Back garden: needs sorting. Then some additional land next to it which is a huge mess. Just wild. I am just beginning to think about this.
I need to draw it out on paper, work out what I want to do, how it relates to the house, the views of it & from it etc. I would like to have a formal French-style potager with veg, a greenhouse, a garden building to sit in with my books, maybe a hot tub & an area of large sweeping planted curvaceous beds. It needs mystery too.
So that's why I can spend all day. I am not a tidy lawn & small border sort of a girl.
Here are my roses from a few years back in London to give you an idea of the sensuous aspect.
Eloquent as ever and also pretty persuasive. And enlightening. Much to think about. Thankyou
Maybe I should get a garden. I can see the enormous pleasure of growing your own fruit and veg and I totally get the reward of proper physical work - it is good for you, AND you earn your appetite
I have just one more question. You’ve spoken of your Neapolitan background. Don’t you miss the Campanian sun? Are you totally adjusted to British weather?
When I think about the next Act in my life I do yearn for real warmth and sun. Mediterranean, but tempered. Maybe Portugal. Or go the whole hog and go tropical, like Sri Lanka. The sweet soft evenings are so seductive….
Yes and no. Naples is not famous for its gardens. That level of heat is not really good for gardens. Where I am we get sun all day and when it is there - being near the sea - it can get beautifully warm. Also I like mist and cold weather too. I don't like very hot humid weather.
Campania is very humid and the sun is fierce so it is something to be enjoyed but also something to be avoided as well: the rush to the sea in summer, the closing of shutters to keep the heat out etc.
Husband and I talked in the past (ie before Covid hit and we'd moved into our house) of spending part of the winter abroad - in the Mediterranean, exploring different places, then further afield, maybe even renting for 3 months. That was the vague plan. It still is.
Grazie, again
If you - or any other PB'er - wants advice on gardening and gardening design DM me. I will even come and plant for you for those living nearby (so Lakes and North London). Anywhere else you have to ask nicely.
Maybe my final career will be as some sort of freelance gardener-cum-investigator.
That sounds like something for Sunday evening TV with somebody like Harriet Walter in the lead role.
I have started writing a drama series - but there is no gardening in it it all. Only investigations.
Rosemary & Thyme was execrable.
The plotting is the hardest part and I am not a screen writer so will see how far I can take it before I throw it in the bin or sell to someone to finish.
Good luck with that. Yes, plot is the hardest thing. Then dialogue. Then prose. Or to be more accurate, not so much hardest but a rarer skill. More people can do good prose than can do good dialogue than can do good plot. That's my view anyway.
Indeed. "Show" rather than "Tell".
I have the outline of the plot. And the characters. Some of their names as well. And some scenes. The dialogue and style - not yet.
And so much is in the acting. So much communication is non-verbal. So how the hell do you write a script for that?
I have probably jinxed it now by revealing even this much.
Maybe for each big character do a thumbnail of what they're like. Traits, tics, habits, likes, dislikes, kind of the essence of them, more than superficial but very much including the superficial. The acting can then work off that as a guide but not be boxed in.
My one serious attempt at getting published - really hard without contacts - was a black comedy where the protagonist per my pitch was "Patrick Bateman meets Alan Partridge". That worked well to get me a full reading at a couple of places but sadly no further.
Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
Quite.
I’ve also seen it linked to, by not-the-usual suspects. GBNews seems to be making an impact, after a terrible start
Good luck to them. The more independent voices the better. C4 News has been pumping out leftwing nonsense for decades
Anyway, if you want something different to talk about we could talk about women, Article 10 of the ECHR and what, if any, the police's role in this should be. It touches on Scotland, Wales, the police, law and Europe - as well as, of course, women. So pretty much a full bingo card.
Does it involve aliens, GPT4 and arguments about the best Goan fish curry recipes? I/f not, sorry. Not interested
No. Of course not. Such dreary geeky topics. I don't even know what the second one means.
Maybe someone else will bite.
Or I could do some work. Next door's cat is staring at me evilly. He/she is probably an alien, maybe even a GPT4 alien who likes fish.
There - that'll have to do.
You tried. Fair play
Believe it or not I AM interested in your garden!
You said it was REALLY big. How big? And you say you could happily spend all day gardening. Why do you think that is? How does it affect you? Is there an endorphin high at the end, is it the pleasure of seeing flowers, or growing your own veg?
Genuine questions. One day I will retire, at least a bit, and I wonder if I might like a garden….
OK - here goes. In a curious way gardening chose me. Oh I wanted a nice garden for the children.
But what I eventually realised was that I was drawn to it because it helped soothe & calm me whenever I was troubled or worried. It rooted me in a way. And then it made me feel good. It answered various needs in me I was only dimly aware I had.
How? It is sensuous - you use your eyes, you have to take the time to really observe & see & when you do you see such beauty & often in unexpected combinations: rain on a spider's web, bees burrowing into allium flowers, the light shining through canna leaves. My mind is a very visual one. I think in pictures. I try to paint pictures with words. I cannot draw. But gardening gives me the ability to create something beautiful & visual.
Then there is scent. A garden without scent is absurd.
Sound - water obviously but the sound of grasses moving in wind. In the Lakes we are on a hill. It can be very windy so I'm experimenting with grasses for just that reason.
Taste - an obvious one this. But I eat lemons, figs, apples, pears & blackberries I have grown myself. The sense of achievement is superb.
Touch - overlooked but real. The feel of different sorts of leaves or petals or running your fingers through lavender etc. Or having your hands in earth. Honestly it is lovely.
Yes - gardening is sensuous. And creative.
Plus the physical exercise & being outside in all weathers. It is tiring but so fulfilling & yes gives me a high. The sense of stretching my body, of being tired & dirty is good - together with a sense of achievement - of being able to look & say "I've done that".
It's unexpected. Whatever you plan it will never quite work out as you wanted. That is part of the joy. You have a partner - Mother Nature - who will do her own thing.
It is quiet. It puts my mind into a sort of suspended animation where whatever I'm thinking about goes into the back - like someone stuffing clothes into a cupboard without bothering to hang them up. But somehow when I switch my mind back on, it is all a bit clearer & more ordered than before.
The Lakes garden is big - about 1/3 of an acre I think. On a hill. On limestone. Windy. But very sunny with fabulous views & a mile from the sea. Front garden - largely done. Back garden: needs sorting. Then some additional land next to it which is a huge mess. Just wild. I am just beginning to think about this.
I need to draw it out on paper, work out what I want to do, how it relates to the house, the views of it & from it etc. I would like to have a formal French-style potager with veg, a greenhouse, a garden building to sit in with my books, maybe a hot tub & an area of large sweeping planted curvaceous beds. It needs mystery too.
So that's why I can spend all day. I am not a tidy lawn & small border sort of a girl.
Here are my roses from a few years back in London to give you an idea of the sensuous aspect.
Eloquent as ever and also pretty persuasive. And enlightening. Much to think about. Thankyou
Maybe I should get a garden. I can see the enormous pleasure of growing your own fruit and veg and I totally get the reward of proper physical work - it is good for you, AND you earn your appetite
I have just one more question. You’ve spoken of your Neapolitan background. Don’t you miss the Campanian sun? Are you totally adjusted to British weather?
When I think about the next Act in my life I do yearn for real warmth and sun. Mediterranean, but tempered. Maybe Portugal. Or go the whole hog and go tropical, like Sri Lanka. The sweet soft evenings are so seductive….
Yes and no. Naples is not famous for its gardens. That level of heat is not really good for gardens. Where I am we get sun all day and when it is there - being near the sea - it can get beautifully warm. Also I like mist and cold weather too. I don't like very hot humid weather.
Campania is very humid and the sun is fierce so it is something to be enjoyed but also something to be avoided as well: the rush to the sea in summer, the closing of shutters to keep the heat out etc.
Husband and I talked in the past (ie before Covid hit and we'd moved into our house) of spending part of the winter abroad - in the Mediterranean, exploring different places, then further afield, maybe even renting for 3 months. That was the vague plan. It still is.
Grazie, again
If you - or any other PB'er - wants advice on gardening and gardening design DM me. I will even come and plant for you for those living nearby (so Lakes and North London). Anywhere else you have to ask nicely.
Maybe my final career will be as some sort of freelance gardener-cum-investigator.
That sounds like something for Sunday evening TV with somebody like Harriet Walter in the lead role.
I have started writing a drama series - but there is no gardening in it it all. Only investigations.
Rosemary & Thyme was execrable.
The plotting is the hardest part and I am not a screen writer so will see how far I can take it before I throw it in the bin or sell to someone to finish.
Good luck with that. Yes, plot is the hardest thing. Then dialogue. Then prose. Or to be more accurate, not so much hardest but a rarer skill. More people can do good prose than can do good dialogue than can do good plot. That's my view anyway.
Indeed. "Show" rather than "Tell".
I have the outline of the plot. And the characters. Some of their names as well. And some scenes. The dialogue and style - not yet.
And so much is in the acting. So much communication is non-verbal. So how the hell do you write a script for that?
I have probably jinxed it now by revealing even this much.
Maybe for each big character do a thumbnail of what they're like. Traits, tics, habits, likes, dislikes, kind of the essence of them, more than superficial but very much including the superficial. The acting can then work off that as a guide but not be boxed in.
My one serious attempt at getting published - really hard without contacts - was a black comedy where the protagonist per my pitch was "Patrick Bateman meets Alan Partridge". That worked well to get me a full reading at a couple of places but sadly no further.
One of the best examples I saw of this was the extras on the film Hope Springs. Steve Carell was the therapist dealing with the couple of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. He described and showed how they did some scenes several times putting the emphasis on the same words in different places and completely changing the meaning. It genuinely was an acting masterclass. I think sometimes you must just trust your actors but you are unlikely to get a cast quite like that!
Never live near professional footballers. A friend of mine lives opposite what was Reading’s training ground. The club bought the house next door to my friend to use for loan/new signings to use. One player - Dutch Guy, it was when Stam as in charge - held parties on Monday nights. Absolute nightmare when you have to be up early for work.
There were three Dutch players under Stam, Joey van den Berg who played a fair bit over both, Roy Beerens who played a lot less in the second and Danzell Gravenberch, who looked like a rugby league player and barely played at all.
Before that, and I think much more likely for the parties, we had Royston Drenthe, a complete waste of time, energy and effort. But he just about predated Stam.
My next door neighbour is a professional footballer. Lovely guy, as are his parents who live there too (which probably mitigates somewhat against too many parties). But the crime he attracts is horrendous. Repeated break-ins, etc.
Opinium have asked the most important question ever in their new poll.
I wouldn't want to see pineapple on any pizza I'm presented with. My heart would sink in fact. I'd pick it off and discard if I judged I could without causing offence to my table companions.
Might this be a problem for Sir Keir going forward?
Rosie Duffield joining the Tories. I should say so.
... meanwhile Mail reporting more potential alleged sedition from Trump. "Take to the streets" if Trump or Trump Organisation are prosecuted.
I doubt she’d join the Tories, given how pro-European she is. She might consider the LibDems, who have some presence in her seat; Canterbury is the sort of seat the Libs could have had a shot at in better times - for example look back to the constituency results in 2010, 1992 or the 1980s.
And remember that her relations with the local LibDems are already good; in 2019 they stood down in her favour, only thwarted by a last minute intervention from LD HQ who parachuted someone else in.
Opinium have asked the most important question ever in their new poll.
I wouldn't want to see pineapple on any pizza I'm presented with. My heart would sink in fact. I'd pick it off and discard if I judged I could without causing offence to my table companions.
Good evening from the 727 bus from Aberdeen to the airport. On topic I must say that it's a fabulous plan made all the easier that you don't need to impeach Biden and Harris as there are plenty of patriots willing to be John Wilkes Booth
Donald Trump going for Speaker could save the Dems in the midterms.
Sounds like he wouldn't go for anything. They would simply vote him in once they win the House. Absolutely fucking mental plan, but perfectly same if you are a GOPper
So you're saying 82% of the public have excellent taste whilst 18% of the public are degenerates.
Chicken and Turkey on pizza... no. Vegetarians? I'm not sure it's allowed!
Cauliflour? Perhaps my favourite vegetable, but I can't see it on a pizza. Where are olives, ham and capers? Where are musrooms and artichokes - both of course in very strict moderation as they're too wet.
I just listened to Joni Mitchell for the first time this millennium so assuming I'm not the only one her spat with Spotify wasn't all negative (Great voice. I'd forgotten)
Did you follow that with 4 hours of Joe Rogan yapping on about various things?
Lofgren has now joined his old mate Neil in pulling from Spotify.
Unintended consequences, that made me look up Lofgren on Amazon music and play For Your Love, and then play the much better Yardbirds version, and then the Bowie version of Shapes of Things, then Bowie and then Merseybeats Sorrow, which is soooo streets ahead of the grannie music* crap you expect from Merseyside bands.
I think the great thing about pizza is you can put anything you want on it, it is so versatile (with apologies to natives of Naples etc), but pineapple just wouldn't work for me. Given it is so popular suprised other fruity combinations are not more popular, though you do see them.
So you're saying 82% of the public have excellent taste whilst 18% of the public are degenerates.
Chicken and Turkey on pizza... no. Vegetarians? I'm not sure it's allowed!
Cauliflour? Perhaps my favourite vegetable, but I can't see it on a pizza. Where are olives, ham and capers? Where are musrooms and artichokes - both of course in very strict moderation as they're too wet.
Opinium have asked the most important question ever in their new poll.
I wouldn't want to see pineapple on any pizza I'm presented with. My heart would sink in fact. I'd pick it off and discard if I judged I could without causing offence to my table companions.
I recommend you go to Hawaii. That seems to be the one place where finding pineapple on offer on a pizza is genuinely difficult.
Might this be a problem for Sir Keir going forward?
Rosie Duffield joining the Tories. I should say so.
... meanwhile Mail reporting more potential alleged sedition from Trump. "Take to the streets" if Trump or Trump Organisation are prosecuted.
I doubt she’d join the Tories, given how pro-European she is. She might consider the LibDems, who have some presence in her seat; Canterbury is the sort of seat the Libs could have had a shot at in better times - for example look back to the constituency results in 2010, 1992 or the 1980s.
And remember that her relations with the local LibDems are already good; in 2019 they stood down in her favour, only thwarted by a last minute intervention from LD HQ who parachuted someone else in.
The problem here is that the trans issue is something of a smokescreen hiding the fact that she's not a very nice person, who has wound up people across the spectrum. She's incredibly lazy as an MP. She's claimed c. £250,000 in expenses.
Oh and she lives in north Wales which isn't terribly close to Canterbury.
I don't think the LibDems or tories should touch her with a bargepole.
Might this be a problem for Sir Keir going forward?
Rosie Duffield joining the Tories. I should say so.
... meanwhile Mail reporting more potential alleged sedition from Trump. "Take to the streets" if Trump or Trump Organisation are prosecuted.
I doubt she’d join the Tories, given how pro-European she is. She might consider the LibDems, who have some presence in her seat; Canterbury is the sort of seat the Libs could have had a shot at in better times - for example look back to the constituency results in 2010, 1992 or the 1980s.
And remember that her relations with the local LibDems are already good; in 2019 they stood down in her favour, only thwarted by a last minute intervention from LD HQ who parachuted someone else in.
She seems to have taken exception to an anonymous blog posting that alleges that she lives 200 miles away and never attends local meetings etc in her constituency. Quite what is going on is rather opaque
So you're saying 82% of the public have excellent taste whilst 18% of the public are degenerates.
Chicken and Turkey on pizza... no. Vegetarians? I'm not sure it's allowed!
Cauliflour? Perhaps my favourite vegetable, but I can't see it on a pizza. Where are olives, ham and capers? Where are musrooms and artichokes - both of course in very strict moderation as they're too wet.
Basil! Where's bloody Basil!
And cheese, cheese and more cheese.
More pics:
What Vegans need is proper pizza toppings. Working on it. Can't keep up with early demand from our first few London customers.
Might this be a problem for Sir Keir going forward?
Rosie Duffield joining the Tories. I should say so.
... meanwhile Mail reporting more potential alleged sedition from Trump. "Take to the streets" if Trump or Trump Organisation are prosecuted.
I doubt she’d join the Tories, given how pro-European she is. She might consider the LibDems, who have some presence in her seat; Canterbury is the sort of seat the Libs could have had a shot at in better times - for example look back to the constituency results in 2010, 1992 or the 1980s.
And remember that her relations with the local LibDems are already good; in 2019 they stood down in her favour, only thwarted by a last minute intervention from LD HQ who parachuted someone else in.
The problem here is that the trans issue is something of a smokescreen hiding the fact that she's not a very nice person, who has wound up people across the spectrum. She's incredibly lazy as an MP. She's claimed c. £250,000 in expenses.
Oh and she lives in north Wales which isn't terribly close to Canterbury.
I don't think the LibDems or tories should touch her with a bargepole.
If she does not get the Labour nomination again she won't hold the seat anyway.
It is already a Labour seat, helped by students from Kent University in Canterbury and London Remainers with homes in Whitstable and in current polls will swing even further to Labour.
Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
Quite.
I’ve also seen it linked to, by not-the-usual suspects. GBNews seems to be making an impact, after a terrible start
Good luck to them. The more independent voices the better. C4 News has been pumping out leftwing nonsense for decades
Anyway, if you want something different to talk about we could talk about women, Article 10 of the ECHR and what, if any, the police's role in this should be. It touches on Scotland, Wales, the police, law and Europe - as well as, of course, women. So pretty much a full bingo card.
Does it involve aliens, GPT4 and arguments about the best Goan fish curry recipes? I/f not, sorry. Not interested
No. Of course not. Such dreary geeky topics. I don't even know what the second one means.
Maybe someone else will bite.
Or I could do some work. Next door's cat is staring at me evilly. He/she is probably an alien, maybe even a GPT4 alien who likes fish.
There - that'll have to do.
You tried. Fair play
Believe it or not I AM interested in your garden!
You said it was REALLY big. How big? And you say you could happily spend all day gardening. Why do you think that is? How does it affect you? Is there an endorphin high at the end, is it the pleasure of seeing flowers, or growing your own veg?
Genuine questions. One day I will retire, at least a bit, and I wonder if I might like a garden….
OK - here goes. In a curious way gardening chose me. Oh I wanted a nice garden for the children.
But what I eventually realised was that I was drawn to it because it helped soothe & calm me whenever I was troubled or worried. It rooted me in a way. And then it made me feel good. It answered various needs in me I was only dimly aware I had.
How? It is sensuous - you use your eyes, you have to take the time to really observe & see & when you do you see such beauty & often in unexpected combinations: rain on a spider's web, bees burrowing into allium flowers, the light shining through canna leaves. My mind is a very visual one. I think in pictures. I try to paint pictures with words. I cannot draw. But gardening gives me the ability to create something beautiful & visual.
Then there is scent. A garden without scent is absurd.
Sound - water obviously but the sound of grasses moving in wind. In the Lakes we are on a hill. It can be very windy so I'm experimenting with grasses for just that reason.
Taste - an obvious one this. But I eat lemons, figs, apples, pears & blackberries I have grown myself. The sense of achievement is superb.
Touch - overlooked but real. The feel of different sorts of leaves or petals or running your fingers through lavender etc. Or having your hands in earth. Honestly it is lovely.
Yes - gardening is sensuous. And creative.
Plus the physical exercise & being outside in all weathers. It is tiring but so fulfilling & yes gives me a high. The sense of stretching my body, of being tired & dirty is good - together with a sense of achievement - of being able to look & say "I've done that".
It's unexpected. Whatever you plan it will never quite work out as you wanted. That is part of the joy. You have a partner - Mother Nature - who will do her own thing.
It is quiet. It puts my mind into a sort of suspended animation where whatever I'm thinking about goes into the back - like someone stuffing clothes into a cupboard without bothering to hang them up. But somehow when I switch my mind back on, it is all a bit clearer & more ordered than before.
The Lakes garden is big - about 1/3 of an acre I think. On a hill. On limestone. Windy. But very sunny with fabulous views & a mile from the sea. Front garden - largely done. Back garden: needs sorting. Then some additional land next to it which is a huge mess. Just wild. I am just beginning to think about this.
I need to draw it out on paper, work out what I want to do, how it relates to the house, the views of it & from it etc. I would like to have a formal French-style potager with veg, a greenhouse, a garden building to sit in with my books, maybe a hot tub & an area of large sweeping planted curvaceous beds. It needs mystery too.
So that's why I can spend all day. I am not a tidy lawn & small border sort of a girl.
Here are my roses from a few years back in London to give you an idea of the sensuous aspect.
Eloquent as ever and also pretty persuasive. And enlightening. Much to think about. Thankyou
Maybe I should get a garden. I can see the enormous pleasure of growing your own fruit and veg and I totally get the reward of proper physical work - it is good for you, AND you earn your appetite
I have just one more question. You’ve spoken of your Neapolitan background. Don’t you miss the Campanian sun? Are you totally adjusted to British weather?
When I think about the next Act in my life I do yearn for real warmth and sun. Mediterranean, but tempered. Maybe Portugal. Or go the whole hog and go tropical, like Sri Lanka. The sweet soft evenings are so seductive….
Yes and no. Naples is not famous for its gardens. That level of heat is not really good for gardens. Where I am we get sun all day and when it is there - being near the sea - it can get beautifully warm. Also I like mist and cold weather too. I don't like very hot humid weather.
Campania is very humid and the sun is fierce so it is something to be enjoyed but also something to be avoided as well: the rush to the sea in summer, the closing of shutters to keep the heat out etc.
Husband and I talked in the past (ie before Covid hit and we'd moved into our house) of spending part of the winter abroad - in the Mediterranean, exploring different places, then further afield, maybe even renting for 3 months. That was the vague plan. It still is.
Grazie, again
If you - or any other PB'er - wants advice on gardening and gardening design DM me. I will even come and plant for you for those living nearby (so Lakes and North London). Anywhere else you have to ask nicely.
Maybe my final career will be as some sort of freelance gardener-cum-investigator.
That sounds like something for Sunday evening TV with somebody like Harriet Walter in the lead role.
I have started writing a drama series - but there is no gardening in it it all. Only investigations.
Rosemary & Thyme was execrable.
The plotting is the hardest part and I am not a screen writer so will see how far I can take it before I throw it in the bin or sell to someone to finish.
Good luck with that. Yes, plot is the hardest thing. Then dialogue. Then prose. Or to be more accurate, not so much hardest but a rarer skill. More people can do good prose than can do good dialogue than can do good plot. That's my view anyway.
Indeed. "Show" rather than "Tell".
I have the outline of the plot. And the characters. Some of their names as well. And some scenes. The dialogue and style - not yet.
And so much is in the acting. So much communication is non-verbal. So how the hell do you write a script for that?
I have probably jinxed it now by revealing even this much.
Imagine your lead character as the offspring of Monty Don and Leon, and base the dialogue as a conversation between them. Malc or HYUFD as the baddie. Yourself as the romantic lead. Sunil in the comedy sub plot. I don’t expect that will help in the least!
I just listened to Joni Mitchell for the first time this millennium so assuming I'm not the only one her spat with Spotify wasn't all negative (Great voice. I'd forgotten)
Did you follow that with 4 hours of Joe Rogan yapping on about various things?
Lofgren has now joined his old mate Neil in pulling from Spotify.
Unintended consequences, that made me look up Lofgren on Amazon music and play For Your Love, and then play the much better Yardbirds version, and then the Bowie version of Shapes of Things, then Bowie and then Merseybeats Sorrow, which is soooo streets ahead of the grannie music* crap you expect from Merseyside bands.
So you're saying 82% of the public have excellent taste whilst 18% of the public are degenerates.
Chicken and Turkey on pizza... no. Vegetarians? I'm not sure it's allowed!
Cauliflour? Perhaps my favourite vegetable, but I can't see it on a pizza. Where are olives, ham and capers? Where are musrooms and artichokes - both of course in very strict moderation as they're too wet.
Basil! Where's bloody Basil!
And cheese, cheese and more cheese.
More pics:
What Vegans need is proper pizza toppings. Working on it. Can't keep up with early demand from our first few London customers.
More people would back a Labour government led by Keir Starmer with Rachel Reeves as Chancellor than the Tories when it comes to who is best for the British economy.
An exclusive poll for the Mirror found that 42% of people would back the Labour team to run the nation's finances over just 36% who support Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to do it.
Crucially, the findings by Deltapoll also show that Labour has a stronger reputation for economic competence than the Tories in seats which Mr Johnson gained at the last election.
The results also put Mr Starmer ahead of the Prime Minister on leadership, with the Labour leader getting a +4 approval rating compared with Mr Johnson's -4.
It means that the Conservatives are substantially behind Labour on both leadership and the economy - with no party ever going on to win a general election from that position.
The poll gave Labour a 10-point lead over the Tories, one point up from the previous poll to 42%, suggesting the Opposition's lead is holding for the time being.
Starmer+Reeves also beating Johnson+Sunak by 6% on the economy.
Likely an older fieldwork poll, I will take the only 5% Labour lead from Opinium yesterday and Survation last week given they were the most accurate pollsters at the last general election
Starmer+Reeves also beating Johnson+Sunak by 6% on the economy.
Likely an older fieldwork poll, I will take the only 5% Labour lead from Opinium yesterday and Survation last week given they were the most accurate pollsters at the last general election
Hahahahaha. Genuinely hilarious and also very sad.
Starmer+Reeves also beating Johnson+Sunak by 6% on the economy.
Likely an older fieldwork poll, I will take the only 5% Labour lead from Opinium yesterday and Survation last week given they were the most accurate pollsters at the last general election
Hahahahaha. Genuinely hilarious and also very sad.
HYUFD breaks the Golden Rule.
No, Deltapoll underestimated the Tory lead in 2019, while Survation and Opinium were spot on.
Unless all pollsters show Labour leads of 10% or more, Boris stays
Starmer+Reeves also beating Johnson+Sunak by 6% on the economy.
Likely an older fieldwork poll, I will take the only 5% Labour lead from Opinium yesterday and Survation last week given they were the most accurate pollsters at the last general election
Hahahahaha. Genuinely hilarious and also very sad.
HYUFD breaks the Golden Rule.
No, Deltapoll underestimated the Tory lead in 2019, while Survation and Opinium were spot on.
Unless all pollsters show Labour leads of 10% or more, Boris stays
Lol
You are so far gone that you have to be a parody, right?
Starmer+Reeves also beating Johnson+Sunak by 6% on the economy.
Likely an older fieldwork poll, I will take the only 5% Labour lead from Opinium yesterday and Survation last week given they were the most accurate pollsters at the last general election
Odd you missed out Ipsos MORI who also were spot on, who had a 9% Labour lead last week.
Starmer+Reeves also beating Johnson+Sunak by 6% on the economy.
Likely an older fieldwork poll, I will take the only 5% Labour lead from Opinium yesterday and Survation last week given they were the most accurate pollsters at the last general election
Hahahahaha. Genuinely hilarious and also very sad.
HYUFD breaks the Golden Rule.
No, Deltapoll underestimated the Tory lead in 2019, while Survation and Opinium were spot on.
Unless all pollsters show Labour leads of 10% or more, Boris stays
Surely if 19 of 20 polls show Labour 10 points ahead or more, that makes them 13 or more ahead allowing for MOE. That's a defeat the size of which would take a decade to claw back. (Although they wouldn't win by that many). I can't believe the Tories will be sanguine about a c 10% swing. I wouldn't if my majority was under 15 k.
42% to 36% thinh SKS and Reeves would be best for country's finances despite the fact they have completely fooked Labours up to the extent the Party is on the verge of Bankruptcy.
Oh well I am sure they might change their mind when Labour files
The Wikipedia graphical summary of the opinion polls has been updated with the latest polls. What does it show?
There has been a very slight uptick in Tory support in the most recent polls, but you really have to zoom in to see it. The Labour share continues to increase, so it looks like the lead also continues to increase.
It looks like there's been a marked decline in the share for the Reform Party - perhaps Johnson has succeeded in defending his right flank at the expense of ceding ground to Labour in the centre.
If the Tories do make a recovery we will see it here. So far, not much sign of it.
Half the latest 4 polls have Labour under 40% and the Tories on 34%, the recovery is there.
As the graph shows 2 weeks ago most polls had Labour over 40% and a few even had the Tories under 30%
See how HYUFD moves the goalposts to suit his myopia? Once it was all about the magic 40% mark. Then it was all about 10% leads. Now it's all about the kosher pollsters.
Why don't you go the whole way and conduct your own polling?
Alternatively, be less subjective. Look, listen and learn.
However given the violence we saw the GOP is prepared to engage in for a Presidency they lost if I was the Secret Service detailing President Biden and Vice President Harris I would become very worried the moment Trump became Speaker.
The Pandora's box of political violence, once opened, unleashes the possibility of violence engulfing the people who opened that box. It wouldn't be altogether surprising if Trump got up to his old tricks and found that other people, keener on preserving the republic than he is, followed suit but with a more specific and targeted approach.
Your regular reminder that the overwhelming majority of political violence in the US over the last few years has been perpetrated by groupings who tend to vote for the Democrats.
And also that hardly anyone - on any side - has actually been directly killed as a result of the violence, and even fewer of those deaths were in any way deliberate.
Funny, for some reason, that site doesn’t define the shooting of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise in 2017 by a Sanders supporter in its list of left-wing terrorism. One wonders what else they managed to leave out:
Might this be a problem for Sir Keir going forward?
Rosie Duffield joining the Tories. I should say so.
... meanwhile Mail reporting more potential alleged sedition from Trump. "Take to the streets" if Trump or Trump Organisation are prosecuted.
I doubt she’d join the Tories, given how pro-European she is. She might consider the LibDems, who have some presence in her seat; Canterbury is the sort of seat the Libs could have had a shot at in better times - for example look back to the constituency results in 2010, 1992 or the 1980s.
And remember that her relations with the local LibDems are already good; in 2019 they stood down in her favour, only thwarted by a last minute intervention from LD HQ who parachuted someone else in.
The problem here is that the trans issue is something of a smokescreen hiding the fact that she's not a very nice person, who has wound up people across the spectrum. She's incredibly lazy as an MP. She's claimed c. £250,000 in expenses.
Oh and she lives in north Wales which isn't terribly close to Canterbury.
I don't think the LibDems or tories should touch her with a bargepole.
If she does not get the Labour nomination again she won't hold the seat anyway.
It is already a Labour seat, helped by students from Kent University in Canterbury and London Remainers with homes in Whitstable and in current polls will swing even further to Labour.
I think Labour would do fine in Canterbury with any genuine generic centre left/liberal candidate so it wouldn't be a big deal if she left the party. It's not that different to other seats like Portsmouth South or Truro and Falmouth where Labour also increased their vote share against the trend in 2019.
Rosie Duffield has become a ridiculous attention seeker (basically the Joanna Cherry of the Labour Party) and she seems to be crying wolf about legitimate criticism such as spending most of her time in Wales.
In the context of DeltaPoll and the tories being seen as behind on the economy..
The national insurance rise amidst a cost of living crisis is…political suicide?
Yup, I was told it gets worse.
Add the fact 'Billionaire Rishi Sunak is proposing increase your taxes and for other working families' and the support and the policy becomes even more unpopular.
The Wikipedia graphical summary of the opinion polls has been updated with the latest polls. What does it show?
There has been a very slight uptick in Tory support in the most recent polls, but you really have to zoom in to see it. The Labour share continues to increase, so it looks like the lead also continues to increase.
It looks like there's been a marked decline in the share for the Reform Party - perhaps Johnson has succeeded in defending his right flank at the expense of ceding ground to Labour in the centre.
If the Tories do make a recovery we will see it here. So far, not much sign of it.
Half the latest 4 polls have Labour under 40% and the Tories on 34%, the recovery is there.
As the graph shows 2 weeks ago most polls had Labour over 40% and a few even had the Tories under 30%
See how HYUFD moves the goalposts to suit his myopia? Once it was all about the magic 40% mark. Then it was all about 10% leads. Now it's all about the kosher pollsters.
Why don't you go the whole way and conduct your own polling?
Alternatively, be less subjective. Look, listen and learn.
Opinium and Survation still have Labour under 40% and even Deltapoll still have the Tories over 30%.
Tory MPs and Tory members will decide if Boris stays PM until the next general election, nobody else. As long as most polls still have the Labour lead under 10% and the Tory voteshare over 30%, then Boris stays.
It was only most polls having Labour leads over 10% which removed Thatcher in late 1990 and it was most polls having the Tory voteshare under 30% which led to May going in Spring 2019
Not sure why you need to apologise for GB News. Some of their presenters are a bit irritating but I don't get the hate.
Quite.
I’ve also seen it linked to, by not-the-usual suspects. GBNews seems to be making an impact, after a terrible start
Good luck to them. The more independent voices the better. C4 News has been pumping out leftwing nonsense for decades
Anyway, if you want something different to talk about we could talk about women, Article 10 of the ECHR and what, if any, the police's role in this should be. It touches on Scotland, Wales, the police, law and Europe - as well as, of course, women. So pretty much a full bingo card.
SNP are going to get a bloody nose over GRA in Scotland unless the ystart backpeddling and drop the gender loonies who are running the show.
So how do you think they can / will be stopped?
I think many women will be considering how they vote , as well as lots of men. I for one will never vote for them again as long as they are promoting this rubbish against women.
In the context of DeltaPoll and the tories being seen as behind on the economy..
The national insurance rise amidst a cost of living crisis is…political suicide?
Yup, I was told it gets worse.
Add the fact 'Billionaire Rishi Sunak is proposing increase your taxes and for other working families' and the support and the policy becomes even more unpopular.
Yes - the optics are awful. And this whole rubbish about “clearing the backlog” - where on earth do we magic up the extra manpower to clear it?!
In the context of DeltaPoll and the tories being seen as behind on the economy..
The national insurance rise amidst a cost of living crisis is…political suicide?
Yup, I was told it gets worse.
Add the fact 'Billionaire Rishi Sunak is proposing increase your taxes and for other working families' and the support and the policy becomes even more unpopular.
What does "Yup, I was told it gets worse." mean? Is the polling company a polling company or a fortuneteller?
Comments
I have previously posted here a link to this in the scientific literature, but cannot find it now and am currently on my way out to lunch. But it is a real thing. Not in relation to COVID, but in the bigger vaccination picture.
“We believe that targeting internal antigens such as the nucleocapsid presents an advantage over surface antigens as they have a much lower mutation rate,” said Le Vert. He added that an immune T cell response against these internal antigens could protect against both current and future strains of Covid-19."
https://www.labiotech.eu/trends-news/emergex-covid-19-vaccine/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34873910/
So there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcrEqIpi6sg
I have the outline of the plot. And the characters. Some of their names as well. And some scenes. The dialogue and style - not yet.
And so much is in the acting. So much communication is non-verbal. So how the hell do you write a script for that?
I have probably jinxed it now by revealing even this much.
This is what a case where comment is forbidden because of possible prejudice looks like
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60192303
And you're expecting her to know what "prejudice" means.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8714017/Shamed-England-star-Mason-Greenwood-held-SIX-rowdy-house-parties-Covid-lockdown.html
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/england-eng/story/4175366/england-drop-foden-greenwood-for-bringing-girls-back-to-team-hotel
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2020/11/10/man-united-have-concerns-over-mason-greenwoods-off-field-lifestyle/
Ultimately we are all going to catch Covid, lots of times. The key event is almost always the first time. Make it past that and you’ll most likely be fine in future. You may still get ill and feel rough, but you probably won’t die. Vaccines allow us to face the first infection in far better shape than anyone did in 2020.
The complete cultural disconnect between under 25s and millenials + older is v interesting. My kids + friends have no engagement with music/TV or film. Their heroes are all YouTubers that no one my age has even heard of.
Obviously there's been youth culture for a long time but I think a culturally literate adult would have been aware of who was famous etc... in previous decades.
Also means they get a weirdly reversed version of mainstream culture. They've never seen Squid Games but know about it from YouTube. They only know songs that appear on computer games + aren't really intetested in who made them.
https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1487776406138462214
I'm not at all convinced that a future cultural landscape dominated by gaming and shitty homemade YouTube videos is something to be welcomed. But then again I'm 45 and therefore an old fossil who'll be dead soon, so who cares?
https://twitter.com/MattCartoonist/status/1485671731876536322?t=pYn9mxzXyFmpwLXzs7gsjw&s=19
The odds suggest that you shouldn’t bother;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-59773808
“Sales data obtained by the Sunday Times shows that of the 5,000 cookery titles released in the UK in 2020, only 556 sold more than a hundred copies.”
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/vaccines-will-not-produce-worse-variants
Vaccines dampen genomic diversity of covid mutations here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.01.21259833v1
The default issue is that the more vaccination you have, the more immunity you get in your population. The more immunity you get in your population (from whichever route), the less transmission you have. The less transmission you have, the less opportunity the virus has of hitting on a useful mutation.
Jane Austen satirises the new obsession of young ladies reading novels.
Before that, and I think much more likely for the parties, we had Royston Drenthe, a complete waste of time, energy and effort. But he just about predated Stam.
I expect I can get away with applauding Harriet's bravery in coming forward.
... meanwhile Mail reporting more potential alleged sedition from Trump. "Take to the streets" if Trump or Trump Organisation are prosecuted.
It's A Sin by the Pet Shop Boys is a fantastic track but it's strange to hear it being played on Radio 3, as it is at the moment.
Thanks Stodge - I believe exit polls will be at 8pm when the Azores have finished voting.
Links:
https://www.rtp.pt/play/direto/rtp1
https://cnnportugal.iol.pt/direto
https://www.legislativas2022.mai.gov.pt/afluencia
Thanks,
DC
It was amazing and contributed to the increased wealth of many a PBer.
I'm all for the gaming, the average gamer is in their mid thirties I believe, but even in my mid twenties I felt more in line with those 10-15 years older than even people just 5 years younger. Just felt different. It was the last generation growing up without common home intenet and mobile phones, if I too wish to sound like an old fart.
My one serious attempt at getting published - really hard without contacts - was a black comedy where the protagonist per my pitch was "Patrick Bateman meets Alan Partridge". That worked well to get me a full reading at a couple of places but sadly no further.
And remember that her relations with the local LibDems are already good; in 2019 they stood down in her favour, only thwarted by a last minute intervention from LD HQ who parachuted someone else in.
https://www.ovenpride.com/blog/the-uks-favourite-pizza-toppings-revealed/
But I do I think sultanas in curries are far worse...
Cauliflour? Perhaps my favourite vegetable, but I can't see it on a pizza. Where are olives, ham and capers? Where are musrooms and artichokes - both of course in very strict moderation as they're too wet.
Basil! Where's bloody Basil!
And cheese, cheese and more cheese.
* © Lennon J
Starmer+Reeves also beating Johnson+Sunak by 6% on the economy.
Oh and she lives in north Wales which isn't terribly close to Canterbury.
I don't think the LibDems or tories should touch her with a bargepole.
It is already a Labour seat, helped by students from Kent University in Canterbury and London Remainers with homes in Whitstable and in current polls will swing even further to Labour.
Westminster Voting Intention:
LAB: 42% (+1)
CON: 32% (=)
Via @DeltapollUK, TBC.
Changes w/ 12-16 Jan.
https://twitter.com/MirrorPolitics/status/1487852632588922880
An exclusive poll for the Mirror found that 42% of people would back the Labour team to run the nation's finances over just 36% who support Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to do it.
Crucially, the findings by Deltapoll also show that Labour has a stronger reputation for economic competence than the Tories in seats which Mr Johnson gained at the last election.
The results also put Mr Starmer ahead of the Prime Minister on leadership, with the Labour leader getting a +4 approval rating compared with Mr Johnson's -4.
It means that the Conservatives are substantially behind Labour on both leadership and the economy - with no party ever going on to win a general election from that position.
The poll gave Labour a 10-point lead over the Tories, one point up from the previous poll to 42%, suggesting the Opposition's lead is holding for the time being.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/more-voters-would-back-labour-26090456
That should put some lead in tory pencils tomorrow
Seems an odd time to release polling news, but then perhaps my previous para resolves that question
Good poll for Labour.
HYUFD breaks the Golden Rule.
Unless all pollsters show Labour leads of 10% or more, Boris stays
You are so far gone that you have to be a parody, right?
That's a defeat the size of which would take a decade to claw back. (Although they wouldn't win by that many).
I can't believe the Tories will be sanguine about a c 10% swing.
I wouldn't if my majority was under 15 k.
42% to 36% thinh SKS and Reeves would be best for country's finances despite the fact they have completely fooked Labours up to the extent the Party is on the verge of Bankruptcy.
Oh well I am sure they might change their mind when Labour files
See how HYUFD moves the goalposts to suit his myopia? Once it was all about the magic 40% mark. Then it was all about 10% leads. Now it's all about the kosher pollsters.
Why don't you go the whole way and conduct your own polling?
Alternatively, be less subjective. Look, listen and learn.
I've done that too. Still do sometimes.
The national insurance rise amidst a cost of living crisis is…political suicide?
And who puts cauliflower on pizza?
Rosie Duffield has become a ridiculous attention seeker (basically the Joanna Cherry of the Labour Party) and she seems to be crying wolf about legitimate criticism such as spending most of her time in Wales.
Add the fact 'Billionaire Rishi Sunak is proposing increase your taxes and for other working families' and the support and the policy becomes even more unpopular.
Tory MPs and Tory members will decide if Boris stays PM until the next general election, nobody else. As long as most polls still have the Labour lead under 10% and the Tory voteshare over 30%, then Boris stays.
It was only most polls having Labour leads over 10% which removed Thatcher in late 1990 and it was most polls having the Tory voteshare under 30% which led to May going in Spring 2019