Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
Some people have seen all this emerging for 3 decades: John Gray for instance - false dawn, written in 1997, was enormously insightful. The problem with Putin has always been there. The horrors of today have actually been going on in the Donbass for at least 8 years. Clearly dictators rely on violence and terror to exert authority. There's lots of other terrible stuff going on in the world when you start to sniff around.
The good news, is that this will hopefully force people in to taking defence seriously. If you defund your army, you eventually get invaded like Ukraine. It really is as simple as that. You need to fund your military and make your defensive alliances work, because dickheads like Putin are always around.
It's not just funding of the military. Russia spends over 4% of its GDP on its military. The US is slightly under 4%. We are around 2%. Ukraine just under 5%. It's just that Ukraine's economy is so much smaller than Russia's. There's no way Ukraine could match Russia's spending.
If you start spending much more percentage GDP-wise on your military, then you risk becoming a martial state - which has its own issues and risks.
It's interesting that the UK spends a little less than Russia on our military in dollar terms, but our percentage of GDP spent on our military is much smaller.
Yes - in the run up to the Iraq war, one of the ideas that preoccupied Tony Blair was that we may as well put all this military spending to some positive effect through a bit of light regime change.
However - looking at Russia under Putin - the fallacy that we could disband NATO and stop spending money on defence gets very quickly unveiled as an extremely naive and dangerous idea. Clearly Russia has harboured its own aspirations for territorial expansion all this time. The world will not be made safe through the unilateral abandonment of war.
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
This evening's French Presidential polling continues the theme of a closing gap between Macron and Marine Le Pen. One run off has the gap to just three points though in the context of a first round gap of three and a half points it shows Le Pen has to be almost level with Macron at the end of Round 1 to have a realistic chance in the run off.
Melenchon continues to poll strongly and up to 17% yet still down on his 2017 numbers as is every candidate other than Macron and Le Pen.
This is normal. Put your house on Macron. Faced with Le Pen the French ALWAYS do the right thing.
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
“overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.”
By some measures, Ed Sheeran is the most popular solo musician on the planet. I rest my case
By other measures/claims, he is a good 'repurposer'.
Ed Sheeran does not stir me at all. He doesn't seem to have any good tunes. I am a fan of Rock n Roll, Blues, R&B, Folk, Bob Dylan. I accept he is popular with others though.
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
“overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.”
By some measures, Ed Sheeran is the most popular solo musician on the planet. I rest my case
Warming is going much, much faster than predicted 20 years ago. The minimum we can hope to achieve is creeping steadily upwards. I never expected high Dartmoor to be virtually frost free in my lifetime, but it is.
Decline in absolute poverty is great but means more pressure on resources and more carbon.
We created the pandemic and haven't yet fixed it
We have had Trump in WH and Johnson in no 10
We hoped WW2 was a never again event for Europe at least
What is the point of going to Mars?
I’ve not had a particularly cold winter, but I’ve had 15 frosts in Wiltshire. I’m amazed high Dartmoor has not.
I’m puzzled by the idea that we created the pandemic. Do you mean genetically engineered it? Or allowed it to happen through having cities? We’ve been getting animal to human disease transfer since the dawn of farming led to humans living in close probity to animals.
Trump got voted out. Democracy. We get the chance to evict Johnson soon, if he doesn’t get the shove beforehand.
As a species we have become aware of the damage to the environment and the need to fix stuff. That’s a positive. As societies mature family size drops until you start not replacing the adults.
Since 1945 there have only been two occasions when one party has held the reins of power continuously for more than 10 years.
1979-1997 Conservatives 18 years
1997 to 2010 Labour 13 years
Since 2010 the Conservatives have been in power continuously and by 2024 it will be 14 years
In the last terms on both previous occasions the party in power changed their leader (John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair).
In 1997 the swing from Conservative to Labour was 10.2%
In 2010 the swing from Labour to Conservative was 6.4%
It will only take a swing of c. 4% from Conservative to Labour to end the tories’ 12 year reign even allowing for a DUP coalition again (smaller than 4% if you discount the DUP joining the tories).
So although Labour need c. 9% to gain an overall majority, they only need about 4% to likely be in power.
The most interesting outcome in my opinion would be if Labour require the SNP because the price of support will be Indyref2. I can see Labour going for that on a practical arrangement that still allows them to campaign for the union in Scotland.
* I don’t think Keir Starmer is Tony Blair. More John Smith. * But equally these are unprecedented times in almost every regard and Boris Johnson, whatever his cheerleaders might say, is a ??? liability.
So, who knows? Currently I’d predict a bigger swing than 2010 but a smaller one than 1997. Somewhere between the two.
(Don’t pile on if you question the above figures. I’ve worked from multiple sites. Kindly be polite if you think there’s a miscalculation).
Starmer: a depressing prime minister for depressing times. i can see it working
Life is shite, maybe Keir will bore us all close to death. But paradoxically we will survive
Boris’ quintessential optimism might seem painfully absurd by 2024 as we gnaw at the rancid corpses of the rats that fed on our famished granny, and then got poisoned because granny was irradiated
God I dunno. As you can see my mind is deranged. i am on the gin. the world is fucked
"Quintessential optimism" - lol
You are SUCH a sucker.
He's a con artist ffs.
Boris is now on his THIRD wife and creating his umpteenth family. If that isn’t “quintessential optimism” I don’t know what is
Ha, yes, but also no - it more supports the conman diagnosis.
Thing is, I understand the gratitude for Brexit and smashing Corbyn, I do, but it's time now to drop the hero worship and see through him. An obviously correct assessment is available and you need to assimilate it rather than clinging onto vestiges of belief in what you once thought he was about.
Look into his eyes. That's no cheery can-do optimist there. It's an empty calculating narcissist.
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
“overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.”
By some measures, Ed Sheeran is the most popular solo musician on the planet. I rest my case
Warming is going much, much faster than predicted 20 years ago. The minimum we can hope to achieve is creeping steadily upwards. I never expected high Dartmoor to be virtually frost free in my lifetime, but it is.
Decline in absolute poverty is great but means more pressure on resources and more carbon.
We created the pandemic and haven't yet fixed it
We have had Trump in WH and Johnson in no 10
We hoped WW2 was a never again event for Europe at least
What is the point of going to Mars?
I’ve not had a particularly cold winter, but I’ve had 15 frosts in Wiltshire. I’m amazed high Dartmoor has not.
I’m puzzled by the idea that we created the pandemic. Do you mean genetically engineered it? Or allowed it to happen through having cities? We’ve been getting animal to human disease transfer since the dawn of farming led to humans living in close probity to animals.
Trump got voted out. Democracy. We get the chance to evict Johnson soon, if he doesn’t get the shove beforehand.
As a species we have become aware of the damage to the environment and the need to fix stuff. That’s a positive. As societies mature family size drops until you start not replacing the adults.
Half a dozen perhaps, none of them hard enough to kill an orange tree I left out by mistake. I don't get radiation frosts (but i can see them down in the valley)
Pandemic - either lab, or encroachment on habitat, or bad eating choices
So the other half’s taken over big screen and sound to watch Arsenal 🥱 Is there a law every Arsenal game has to be screened live? Can we repeal it? Meanwhile here on PB chat Leon is hitting the gin like an old hack trapped in Sunderland on a Monday night. 🤦♀️
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
There have been lots of predictions so it easy to find the ones that match. I don’t think many dispute the warming to date, rather the more extreme scare mongering (usually attributable to journalism - where have we seen that before?)
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
Since 1945 there have only been two occasions when one party has held the reins of power continuously for more than 10 years.
1979-1997 Conservatives 18 years
1997 to 2010 Labour 13 years
Since 2010 the Conservatives have been in power continuously and by 2024 it will be 14 years
In the last terms on both previous occasions the party in power changed their leader (John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair).
In 1997 the swing from Conservative to Labour was 10.2%
In 2010 the swing from Labour to Conservative was 6.4%
It will only take a swing of c. 4% from Conservative to Labour to end the tories’ 12 year reign even allowing for a DUP coalition again (smaller than 4% if you discount the DUP joining the tories).
So although Labour need c. 9% to gain an overall majority, they only need about 4% to likely be in power.
The most interesting outcome in my opinion would be if Labour require the SNP because the price of support will be Indyref2. I can see Labour going for that on a practical arrangement that still allows them to campaign for the union in Scotland.
* I don’t think Keir Starmer is Tony Blair. More John Smith. * But equally these are unprecedented times in almost every regard and Boris Johnson, whatever his cheerleaders might say, is a ??? liability.
So, who knows? Currently I’d predict a bigger swing than 2010 but a smaller one than 1997. Somewhere between the two.
(Don’t pile on if you question the above figures. I’ve worked from multiple sites. Kindly be polite if you think there’s a miscalculation).
Starmer: a depressing prime minister for depressing times. i can see it working
Life is shite, maybe Keir will bore us all close to death. But paradoxically we will survive
Boris’ quintessential optimism might seem painfully absurd by 2024 as we gnaw at the rancid corpses of the rats that fed on our famished granny, and then got poisoned because granny was irradiated
God I dunno. As you can see my mind is deranged. i am on the gin. the world is fucked
"Quintessential optimism" - lol
You are SUCH a sucker.
He's a con artist ffs.
Boris is now on his THIRD wife and creating his umpteenth family. If that isn’t “quintessential optimism” I don’t know what is
Ha, yes, but also no - it more supports the conman diagnosis.
Thing is, I understand the gratitude for Brexit and smashing Corbyn, I do, but it's time now to drop the hero worship and see through him. An obviously correct assessment is available and you need to assimilate it rather than clinging onto vestiges of belief in what you once thought he was about.
Look into his eyes. That's no cheery can-do optimist there. It's an empty calculating narcissist.
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Thanks for that brilliant post.
The media love bad news - as bad news sells. Yet modern communications means that the news is at our fingertips whenever we want it. Therefore we see images of the war in Ukraine almost as soon as they happen, whereas fifty yeas ago they would have been delayed days, and have been in much smaller quantities.
Yes, there are worries. But there is also much to be optimistic about.
If I was Big and Rich I'd be more optimstic too, in fairness.
In which case I'm an 18th-Century engineer who has been in his grave for nearly 200 years...
And on the issue of the day, fish and chips, in all its battered, oily, greasy glory is a fantastic meal. Once a year. More than that is too much.
Geales out of choice for me pre-pandemic but I see it has now closed its doors for good.
Used to be a great New School chippy on Parkway, Camden.
Hook.
Also closed by the demic
In travel news, I am in Izmir. My informed advice: never go to Izmir
Was briefly Greek under the Treaty of Sevres, 1920, until the Turks drove them out in 1922.
Was longly Greek 688-133BC, as Smyrna. Zero remains though.
A lot of the local population is actually still of Ionian Greek origin, but long since converted to Islam, and not likely to respond well to questions on the whys and wherefores of their Greek origin. It was the Ionian heartland, like Chios opposite.
Today i learned about Afro-Turks (having seen some black people on my plane into Izmir, speaking pure Turkish, which made me confused). They mainly live in Izmir, and predominantly descend from the Ottoman slave trade
This is what’s so frustrating about Izmir. It has a magnificently plural history (for good or bad) but it looks like a notably poorer part of West Bromwich (apart from the sea)
I am determined to find better things tomorrow. There are said to be brilliant remnants of this 5000 year history, if you look REALLY HARD
A lot of the city was burnt down at the end of the Greco-Turkish war. The Greeks had quite a lot of cultural institutions there and a more educated population than some other parts of the diaspora, and have never really got over the loss. Here it is before ;
Ah, that’s fascinating. So it was the Mariupol of its time
Too many of the marvellous cities of the Hellenic world were quite recently destroyed. Thessaloniki (Salonica) is another example: devastated by fire and war and ethnic strife. Sounds almost identical to Izmir, tho Izmir has suffered more grievously and is now much uglier
Good point. It has to be said the Greek roles in Thessaloniki and Smyrna were a bit different, as well - Smyrna, a very big and educated Greek population who made it a very cosmopolitan city themselves, and in Thessaloniki more of a hellenising project which contributed to the city being a bit different and less unpredictable afterwards. It's quite strongly recovering now, though, I think ; I like Thessaloniki.
This evening's French Presidential polling continues the theme of a closing gap between Macron and Marine Le Pen. One run off has the gap to just three points though in the context of a first round gap of three and a half points it shows Le Pen has to be almost level with Macron at the end of Round 1 to have a realistic chance in the run off.
Melenchon continues to poll strongly and up to 17% yet still down on his 2017 numbers as is every candidate other than Macron and Le Pen.
This is normal. Put your house on Macron. Faced with Le Pen the French ALWAYS do the right thing.
The Harris poll is a shocker and Le Pen seems to be duping lots of people with her new warm and fluffy persona. Macron needs to go for the jugular in the debate and make sure the French know she’s a Putin lapdog and supporter of a war criminal .
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
His point was about hurricanes and is correct.
I was just talking about Big Rich's post that said the world was heating more slowly than predicted "10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago."
I was pointing out it is heating as fast if not faster than the concensus models over that time period.
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
If you want to know how to spell the latest incarnation of Covid, remove the “vi” and replace with an “l”.
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
Study finds Atlantic hurricanes becoming more frequent, destructive Hurricanes are the most costly disasters for the United States, and a study suggests they’re increasing in number and ferocity By Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow December 2, 2021 at 11:31 a.m. EST
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season ended Tuesday, marking the close of the sixth consecutive above-average season. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published Thursday offers evidence that there is indeed a long-term trend toward increasing numbers of Atlantic hurricanes.
Hurricanes are the most costly weather disasters for the United States; the damage from the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, for example, is expected to top $70 billion.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
Study finds Atlantic hurricanes becoming more frequent, destructive Hurricanes are the most costly disasters for the United States, and a study suggests they’re increasing in number and ferocity By Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow December 2, 2021 at 11:31 a.m. EST
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season ended Tuesday, marking the close of the sixth consecutive above-average season. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published Thursday offers evidence that there is indeed a long-term trend toward increasing numbers of Atlantic hurricanes.
Hurricanes are the most costly weather disasters for the United States; the damage from the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, for example, is expected to top $70 billion.
Cost in dollars is a poor measure of weather. It’s like being highest grossing movie. As tickets cost 10x as much than x years ago, it’s a poor measure of how many bums on seats.
Ha, I've already llistened to it. Twas good but got put off when the narrator guy said that the remade Ipcress File was one of his..
Ah is that not good? Was just about to start it.
Well, tastes differ but I didn't get past epsode 1. Some period clobber, vehicles and pistolry do not necessarily a gripping watch make. Probably just a bit browned off with remakes of decent stuff cos we can't think of anything new ourselves.
Must admit I didn't see an obvious need for a TV remake, stretching the same story out for longer.
I like the character, Palmer, how he's same period but anti-bond, the thick glasses, working class, likes cooking, no flash, but what I find interesting is how he still has to be a "ladies man", a hit with the girls - that was a trope that just couldn't be dropped for some reason.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa, up a bit and left a bit, looks worth a detour
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
Study finds Atlantic hurricanes becoming more frequent, destructive Hurricanes are the most costly disasters for the United States, and a study suggests they’re increasing in number and ferocity By Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow December 2, 2021 at 11:31 a.m. EST
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season ended Tuesday, marking the close of the sixth consecutive above-average season. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published Thursday offers evidence that there is indeed a long-term trend toward increasing numbers of Atlantic hurricanes.
Hurricanes are the most costly weather disasters for the United States; the damage from the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, for example, is expected to top $70 billion.
We had a long period after Katrina of decreased activity. I think it goes in cycles.
Heat engines like Hurricanes depend on there being both a heat source and a heat sink, and if the heat sink also warms, you aren't going to see much of an increase in frequency or power in the long term.
An increase in cost is not a surprise when people build stuff in stupid places and destroy any natural coastal defences.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Sounds good. Just out of interest - how is mask useage? I thought about a trip to mainland Europe this spring but was put off by the mask thing.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa, up a bit and left a bit, looks worth a detour
The Dalí museum in Figueres is very much worth a look if the queue is not too daunting.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa, up a bit and left a bit, looks worth a detour
Oh yeah, I saw that during the very brief planning period for my trip. I thought I might go there on the way back from France, possibly via Andorra.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
Study finds Atlantic hurricanes becoming more frequent, destructive Hurricanes are the most costly disasters for the United States, and a study suggests they’re increasing in number and ferocity By Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow December 2, 2021 at 11:31 a.m. EST
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season ended Tuesday, marking the close of the sixth consecutive above-average season. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published Thursday offers evidence that there is indeed a long-term trend toward increasing numbers of Atlantic hurricanes.
Hurricanes are the most costly weather disasters for the United States; the damage from the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, for example, is expected to top $70 billion.
Cost in dollars is a poor measure of weather. It’s like being highest grossing movie. As tickets cost 10x as much than x years ago, it’s a poor measure of how many bums on seats.
Yes, there's a lot not to like about the report on closer inspection. It says the trend is over the past 150 years, it says USA hurricanes are increasing but the global total not, and worst of all it suffers from the Holy Grail/Camelot problem: "It's only a model." "Sssshhhhhh."
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
His point was about hurricanes and is correct.
I was just talking about Big Rich's post that said the world was heating more slowly than predicted "10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago."
I was pointing out it is heating as fast if not faster than the concensus models over that time period.
'The consensus modals', i.e. not the ones that where publied and agonised over by lots of people Like Al Gore in his silly film, that have not come trow,
Starmer: a depressing prime minister for depressing times. i can see it working
Life is shite, maybe Keir will bore us all close to death. But paradoxically we will survive
Boris’ quintessential optimism might seem painfully absurd by 2024 as we gnaw at the rancid corpses of the rats that fed on our famished granny, and then got poisoned because granny was irradiated
God I dunno. As you can see my mind is deranged. i am on the gin. the world is fucked
Having worked for 20 years to get to the top job, Boris Johnson might have some justification for railing at the fates for dealing him such a crap hand - it all seemed so easy in December 2019. Get Brexit done, then his own version of neo-Thatcherism and the 20s could have been one long party.
Instead, he's faced more storms than a seafarer trying to sail round Antarctica and everything has turned to, well, not very niceness.
Yet he still has those willing to bat for him or die in the ditch with him. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make leader of the Conservative Party, perhaps.
Though if Boris were half the man he imagines himself to be, he could have become the father to the nation he so desperately wants to be. Exhausted, bashed and bruised, but attached to a heroic moment in our island story. Sure of a welcome in years to come across the land.
He's not, and that's largely because of his own character flaws.
What's the line about national leadership being an X-ray of your soul?
This evening's French Presidential polling continues the theme of a closing gap between Macron and Marine Le Pen. One run off has the gap to just three points though in the context of a first round gap of three and a half points it shows Le Pen has to be almost level with Macron at the end of Round 1 to have a realistic chance in the run off.
Melenchon continues to poll strongly and up to 17% yet still down on his 2017 numbers as is every candidate other than Macron and Le Pen.
This is normal. Put your house on Macron. Faced with Le Pen the French ALWAYS do the right thing.
Hope so, but I'm getting less confident. Seems Macron is copping the blame for cost of living increases and embargoing Russian fuel to avoid funding genocide in Ukraine isn't necessarily a vote winner
Le Pen has been directly funded by Russia and publicly supported its previous invasion of Ukraine.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Sounds good. Just out of interest - how is mask useage? I thought about a trip to mainland Europe this spring but was put off by the mask thing.
There are loads more masks than at home. Even outdoors. But very few are wearing decent masks, or wearing them properly. I walked past a restaurant earlier where I could see the kitchen; all four chefs were wearing them on their chins!
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Sounds good. Just out of interest - how is mask useage? I thought about a trip to mainland Europe this spring but was put off by the mask thing.
Outside of airports and planes mask wearing is over in Turkey - interior or coast. No one cares any more. They’ve had enough
In case you missed it, #45 has formally endorsed Sarah Palin for Congress.
Could he see her as potential 2024 running mate? Provided that she thrives, or at least survives on the 2022 campaign trail up there where the huskies go? (FYI more candidates on special election ballot than competitors in this year's Iditarod dogsled race.)
Possible. More solid motivation for Sage of Mar-a-Lardo is desire to use Sarah Palin as foil versus Lisa Murkowski. On theory that SP will REALLY help boost MAGA turnout in fall, by at least priming the pump this summer, an at most by running for full congressional term on November ballot.
Then why didn't Trump get Palin to run against LM for US Senate? Again guessing, reckon that SP was NOT willing to run against the incumbent.
Whereas 51-candidate special election with no big-league (by Last Frontier standards) opponents (other than Santa Claus of course) appears much more to her advantage and liking.
FYI, only other candidate with obvious name appeal (from lower 48 perspective anyway) is Nick Begich (III) the grandson of former US Rep Nick Begich and nephew of former US Sen Mark Begich. They were/are Democrats, but Begich the Youngest has filed for special as Republican.
BTW, have a friend here in Seattle, a native Alaskan (different from Alaska Native) who used to hang out at the Begich house in Anchorage when he was in high school with a Begich kid, might have been the Senator!
If Russia is only spending 4% of its GDP on its military that goes some way to explain its less than impressive performance. In the 1980s the USSR spent 20% of its somewhat larger economy on the military.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did something similar in France (although with a hired car, not on foot) back in '96, so I'd say you don't even need those: a copy of the relevant Michelin guide did me just fine.
Starmer: a depressing prime minister for depressing times. i can see it working
Life is shite, maybe Keir will bore us all close to death. But paradoxically we will survive
Boris’ quintessential optimism might seem painfully absurd by 2024 as we gnaw at the rancid corpses of the rats that fed on our famished granny, and then got poisoned because granny was irradiated
God I dunno. As you can see my mind is deranged. i am on the gin. the world is fucked
Having worked for 20 years to get to the top job, Boris Johnson might have some justification for railing at the fates for dealing him such a crap hand - it all seemed so easy in December 2019. Get Brexit done, then his own version of neo-Thatcherism and the 20s could have been one long party.
Instead, he's faced more storms than a seafarer trying to sail round Antarctica and everything has turned to, well, not very niceness.
Yet he still has those willing to bat for him or die in the ditch with him. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make leader of the Conservative Party, perhaps.
Though if Boris were half the man he imagines himself to be, he could have become the father to the nation he so desperately wants to be. Exhausted, bashed and bruised, but attached to a heroic moment in our island story. Sure of a welcome in years to come across the land.
He's not, and that's largely because of his own character flaws.
What's the line about national leadership being an X-ray of your soul?
Boris's efforts to become the father to the nation are part of the reason why he is so short of cash...
Terrific shenanigans by Imran Khan in Pakistan, reminiscent of pig Dog 2019:
"His political opponents then seized this opportunity to demand a no-confidence vote after persuading a number of his coalition partners to defect to them.
On Sunday, MPs meeting to hold the vote - which Mr Khan was expected to lose - were told of an "an operation for a regime change by a foreign government".
The deputy speaker chairing the session - a close ally of the prime minister - then proceeded to declare the vote unconstitutional.
Shortly afterwards Pakistan's president Arif Alvi - who is from Mr Khan's ruling PTI party - dissolved parliament in a step towards early elections."
And there was me thinking that an elected president woukd've had more teeth than Queenie and told Boris where to stuff his prorogation
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
On my own travels from Dingle to Debrecen in both 2nd & 3rd millennia, only time I ever had a reservation (that I can recall anyway) was for a summer school dorm in 1984. Rest of time just winged it via guidebooks (Let's Go & Rick Steves). Worked great. Occasionally slept rough, but that was in good weather by my own choice, being too cheap to spring for something better at that moment.
Controversial (?) comment: I prefer Safari over Chrome
Chrome 2022 seems to be a different thing to the Chrome I first came to know. I think I really should bin it, but I gave Google all my passwords so switching is going to be a pain.
I can easily believe that Safari is currently superior.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did something similar in France (although with a hired car, not on foot) back in '96, so I'd say you don't even need those: a copy of the relevant Michelin guide did me just fine.
People have been setting out on unplanned travels since the First Times, see Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey, early Leigh Fermor, etc etc
It's one month and one day to go before the local elections. I think nominations are closed here so pretty close to that time where I need to agonise of the full ordering. I do like the fact that I can rank the parties. It feels much more expressive than just choosing one. I really want the other parties to know that they're second, or 5th, or last.
Right now it feels like this: 1. Lib Dem 2. SNP 3. Labour 4. Green 5. random independent nutters 6. {Conservative/Alba} 7. {Conservative/Alba} 8+. Any current or former Farage vehicles, Nazis, Christians, Libertarians, or obvious paedophile candidates that would otherwise fit in the above categories
Can't yet decide between Salmond and Johnson for that all-important 6th spot.
Goodness me... I've found the candidate list and I'll need to scale back my ambitions a little. Not many options. Not many at all.
I think I'm the same. Is there any law against setting fire to the ballot paper?
At one time at least, anarchist collective named Edible Ballot Society of Canada urged voters to eat their ballots instead of casting them at the polls; they even had a cookbook!
Controversial (?) comment: I prefer Safari over Chrome
Chrome 2022 seems to be a different thing to the Chrome I first came to know. I think I really should bin it, but I gave Google all my passwords so switching is going to be a pain.
I can easily believe that Safari is currently superior.
So the other half’s taken over big screen and sound to watch Arsenal 🥱 Is there a law every Arsenal game has to be screened live? Can we repeal it? Meanwhile here on PB chat Leon is hitting the gin like an old hack trapped in Sunderland on a Monday night. 🤦♀️
I’m sure you can figure out a way to distract your other half 😇
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
We are only allowing you to go if you keep us updated. Especially, we want images of tiny tortoises....
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I’ve done it a couple of times before on road trips with my best mate, but this is the first time I’ve done it on my own. It feels more like an adventure than a holiday.
I’m so glad I got drunk on Friday; I don’t think I would have booked the flight sober!
Never has UK political polling felt so utterly trivial and meaningless. Like talking about next winter’s skiing, in the trenches of the Somme
Indeed, the urge to debate either probably comes from the same source
Yes but we are not at war ourselves, even if our sympathies go out to the Ukrainians.
Most UK general elections had a war going on somewhere else in the world at the same time
The multiple crises we face - as a nation, a continent, a world, a species - are orders of magnitude worse than anything we have known for many decades.
A malignant and rising Chinese superpower, Russia genocidal and rampant in Eastern Europe, the real threat of nuclear war on top of actual war, the worst global plague in a century (still going, still hurting), a looming worldwide economic meltdown, multiple refugee horrors, and the prospect of Famine
And, on top of all that, apocalyptic climate change?
This is worse than any set of circumstances since World War Two. Arguably, with climate change, it is worse than THAT
on the other hand:
The climate is worming mush more slowly than predicted 10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago. and technology including eclectic cares, to small nuclear reactors are coming on stream.
Absolutes poverty is falling very rapidly, at the tern of the millennium about 30% of the people in the would lived on less than 1 doler a day (at 1990 prices) today the equivalent finger is about 10% and falling, with it access to clean water and electricity are rising fast, I forget the exact numen's but something like 250,000 people leave poverty every day and 300,000 get electricity in there house every day.
We have had a pandemic, it was bad, but we have created a vaccine in record time, and produced and distributed it, at a rate that no other generation could have imaged.
The War in Ukraine is horrible, but it looks like the good side have just won a victory, and at least according to UK numbers of total wars, and civil wars, this has been the least war decade ever. hopefully china and other nations are looking at Ukraine and thinking, lets not get ourselves in Putin's position.
And we as a speciose are acceding lots of new firsts like building rockets to take us to Mars.
Its very easy to look at the news and be depressed, but overall things are still good, this is the best time to be alive in human history and things are getting even better.
Bravo Rich. It’s nice to see someone not endlessly doomscrolling and doom predicting. Personally I blame 24 news coverage. More news is never good news. Thirty years ago we didn’t get to hear the news from everywhere, instantly, at 6 pm. Now we do. It’s led to a sense of things getting worse, especially in climate terms. There is no increase in the number of hurricanes each year for instance, yet most people think there is. If you see it every time one occurs, and not just see it, but have live reportage, it feels worse.
Edit - I see JJ made the same point.
Its not true though, the climate is warming pretty much on trend with the first ipcc report (1990) faster than ipcc 2 (1995) & 3 (2001) and pretty much on trend with 4 and 5
His point was about hurricanes and is correct.
I was just talking about Big Rich's post that said the world was heating more slowly than predicted "10, 20, or ethne 30 years ago."
I was pointing out it is heating as fast if not faster than the concensus models over that time period.
But if it was ahead of trend in 2001 and is on trend 20 years later, doesn’t that imply it has been below trend over the last 20 years? Otherwise you are just taking the reforecast as the baseline
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good to see people travelling again despite everything.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
There’s a really cool biological manufacturing plant in Girona
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
We are only allowing you to go if you keep us updated. Especially, we want images of tiny tortoises....
Ok. It’s a deal. Even if I have to crawl to the tortoise sanctuary.
In case you missed it, #45 has formally endorsed Sarah Palin for Congress.
Could he see her as potential 2024 running mate? Provided that she thrives, or at least survives on the 2022 campaign trail up there where the huskies go? (FYI more candidates on special election ballot than competitors in this year's Iditarod dogsled race.)
Possible. More solid motivation for Sage of Mar-a-Lardo is desire to use Sarah Palin as foil versus Lisa Murkowski. On theory that SP will REALLY help boost MAGA turnout in fall, by at least priming the pump this summer, an at most by running for full congressional term on November ballot.
Then why didn't Trump get Palin to run against LM for US Senate? Again guessing, reckon that SP was NOT willing to run against the incumbent.
Whereas 51-candidate special election with no big-league (by Last Frontier standards) opponents (other than Santa Claus of course) appears much more to her advantage and liking.
FYI, only other candidate with obvious name appeal (from lower 48 perspective anyway) is Nick Begich (III) the grandson of former US Rep Nick Begich and nephew of former US Sen Mark Begich. They were/are Democrats, but Begich the Youngest has filed for special as Republican.
BTW, have a friend here in Seattle, a native Alaskan (different from Alaska Native) who used to hang out at the Begich house in Anchorage when he was in high school with a Begich kid, might have been the Senator!
There is a reasonably good chance that Palin will not win, don't know exactly, haven't checked the odds, but if she loses, as it looks like lots of other people Trump has endorsed, then tat saps away his prestige and power in the Republican party. while each loss does this a bit, with Palin, because she is so well known, it would be a bigger loss as more people would notice.
Anyway if I was happy to tie up money for 2 and a half years I would short Trump.
Controversial (?) comment: I prefer Safari over Chrome
Chrome 2022 seems to be a different thing to the Chrome I first came to know. I think I really should bin it, but I gave Google all my passwords so switching is going to be a pain.
I can easily believe that Safari is currently superior.
I'd be non-amazed if safari can import them
Safari isn't an option for me, but I'd expect that other browsers would have migration options. Clearly Chrome isn't annoying enough yet.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
We are only allowing you to go if you keep us updated. Especially, we want images of tiny tortoises....
Ok. It’s a deal. Even if I have to crawl to the tortoise sanctuary.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did something similar in France (although with a hired car, not on foot) back in '96, so I'd say you don't even need those: a copy of the relevant Michelin guide did me just fine.
People have been setting out on unplanned travels since the First Times, see Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey, early Leigh Fermor, etc etc
I'm not that old! Which year do you think I meant by '96?
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did something similar in France (although with a hired car, not on foot) back in '96, so I'd say you don't even need those: a copy of the relevant Michelin guide did me just fine.
People have been setting out on unplanned travels since the First Times, see Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey, early Leigh Fermor, etc etc
I'm not that old! Which year do you think I meant by '96?
I was just reinforcing your point that it can be done without iphones
Much though I would like it to be true a 50% reduction in SNP support seems....unlikely.
Yes, hardly a 50% drop. The two Scottish polls earlier do however both suggest that something is happening in terms of an SNP->Lab shift. The gap is still very large, but Sarwar seems to have a respectable rating and if Labour can pick up a few points more, seats will start to fall.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did something similar in France (although with a hired car, not on foot) back in '96, so I'd say you don't even need those: a copy of the relevant Michelin guide did me just fine.
People have been setting out on unplanned travels since the First Times, see Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey, early Leigh Fermor, etc etc
I'm not that old! Which year do you think I meant by '96?
I was just reinforcing your point that it can be done without iphones
Fair enough. I'm just used to pupils who think I knew Newton personally...
I would personally give SKS something like 7/10 for his first 2 years. He has got rid of Corbyn and similar traitors. He has a secure grip on the party machinary so is less likely to be embarrassed at Conference etc. He is now getting consistent leads in the polls, albeit mid term. He has got rid of some of the duffers and appointed more competent replacements such as Rachel Reeves. He has got a bit better at PMQs without being great (admittedly a rather niche point).
OTOH He is still really boring. He has really struggled to find a big idea. His main argument is that I could run this government with very, very similar policies better than Boris. Even if this is true it is hardly inspiring.
As a Tory supporter I would not panic at the idea of him being PM (unlike Corbyn). As a Scot I could contemplate voting tactically for Labour now. I can imagine him winning. It still seems unlikely to me but it has definitely moved into the realm of the possible.
This evening's French Presidential polling continues the theme of a closing gap between Macron and Marine Le Pen. One run off has the gap to just three points though in the context of a first round gap of three and a half points it shows Le Pen has to be almost level with Macron at the end of Round 1 to have a realistic chance in the run off.
Melenchon continues to poll strongly and up to 17% yet still down on his 2017 numbers as is every candidate other than Macron and Le Pen.
This is normal. Put your house on Macron. Faced with Le Pen the French ALWAYS do the right thing.
Hope so, but I'm getting less confident. Seems Macron is copping the blame for cost of living increases and embargoing Russian fuel to avoid funding genocide in Ukraine isn't necessarily a vote winner
Le Pen has been directly funded by Russia and publicly supported its previous invasion of Ukraine.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
We are only allowing you to go if you keep us updated. Especially, we want images of tiny tortoises....
Ok. It’s a deal. Even if I have to crawl to the tortoise sanctuary.
In solidarity? My tip is ALWAYS keep a clean, dry, spare pair of socks handy. Bon chance!
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did that a few years back, had 10 days off, about a 10 minit gap between deciding to go and laving the house to put some cloths in a bag and head to the station, took the ferry to Holland, up thou Germany, Austria, Litcinstin and Switzerland, and fly home. great fun, no real plan, just a new city each day, and booking accommodation on phone 30 minims or so before I got there,
This evening's French Presidential polling continues the theme of a closing gap between Macron and Marine Le Pen. One run off has the gap to just three points though in the context of a first round gap of three and a half points it shows Le Pen has to be almost level with Macron at the end of Round 1 to have a realistic chance in the run off.
Melenchon continues to poll strongly and up to 17% yet still down on his 2017 numbers as is every candidate other than Macron and Le Pen.
This is normal. Put your house on Macron. Faced with Le Pen the French ALWAYS do the right thing.
The Harris poll is a shocker and Le Pen seems to be duping lots of people with her new warm and fluffy persona. Macron needs to go for the jugular in the debate and make sure the French know she’s a Putin lapdog and supporter of a war criminal .
The final round debate between Le Pen and Macron in 2017 was one of the great political debates of this century. Two and a half hours clash of ideology about what it fundamentally means to be French. Macron won on the arguments but I think many people would have been more in their comfort zone with Le Pen.
Much though I would like it to be true a 50% reduction in SNP support seems....unlikely.
Yes, hardly a 50% drop. The two Scottish polls earlier do however both suggest that something is happening in terms of an SNP->Lab shift. The gap is still very large, but Sarwar seems to have a respectable rating and if Labour can pick up a few points more, seats will start to fall.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
On my own travels from Dingle to Debrecen in both 2nd & 3rd millennia, only time I ever had a reservation (that I can recall anyway) was for a summer school dorm in 1984. Rest of time just winged it via guidebooks (Let's Go & Rick Steves). Worked great. Occasionally slept rough, but that was in good weather by my own choice, being too cheap to spring for something better at that moment.
Point taken. Let’s say it’s EASIER with smartphones, google maps, the net
Some of the glorious places we found in Greece would not have been in any guidebooks. Airbnbs etc
In case you missed it, #45 has formally endorsed Sarah Palin for Congress.
Could he see her as potential 2024 running mate? Provided that she thrives, or at least survives on the 2022 campaign trail up there where the huskies go? (FYI more candidates on special election ballot than competitors in this year's Iditarod dogsled race.)
Possible. More solid motivation for Sage of Mar-a-Lardo is desire to use Sarah Palin as foil versus Lisa Murkowski. On theory that SP will REALLY help boost MAGA turnout in fall, by at least priming the pump this summer, an at most by running for full congressional term on November ballot.
Then why didn't Trump get Palin to run against LM for US Senate? Again guessing, reckon that SP was NOT willing to run against the incumbent.
Whereas 51-candidate special election with no big-league (by Last Frontier standards) opponents (other than Santa Claus of course) appears much more to her advantage and liking.
FYI, only other candidate with obvious name appeal (from lower 48 perspective anyway) is Nick Begich (III) the grandson of former US Rep Nick Begich and nephew of former US Sen Mark Begich. They were/are Democrats, but Begich the Youngest has filed for special as Republican.
BTW, have a friend here in Seattle, a native Alaskan (different from Alaska Native) who used to hang out at the Begich house in Anchorage when he was in high school with a Begich kid, might have been the Senator!
There is a reasonably good chance that Palin will not win, don't know exactly, haven't checked the odds, but if she loses, as it looks like lots of other people Trump has endorsed, then tat saps away his prestige and power in the Republican party. while each loss does this a bit, with Palin, because she is so well known, it would be a bigger loss as more people would notice.
Anyway if I was happy to tie up money for 2 and a half years I would short Trump.
Plenty of betting opportunities in mid-terms for you to test your thesis.
Certainly hope you make a pile IF you do.
And if so, please give generously to PB Special Fund for Hapless Punters and Indigent (and Indignant) Psephologists!
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
On my own travels from Dingle to Debrecen in both 2nd & 3rd millennia, only time I ever had a reservation (that I can recall anyway) was for a summer school dorm in 1984. Rest of time just winged it via guidebooks (Let's Go & Rick Steves). Worked great. Occasionally slept rough, but that was in good weather by my own choice, being too cheap to spring for something better at that moment.
Point taken. Let’s say it’s EASIER with smartphones, google maps, the net
Some of the glorious places we found in Greece would not have been in any guidebooks. Airbnbs etc
I'd drive into a town, find somewhere to park as close to the centre as I could (which was often the town square if there was no market that day) and see if the nearest hotel that looked good had a room. That normally worked.
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
Thank you for making my day. I have been laughing so much that the back of my head hurts!
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
On my own travels from Dingle to Debrecen in both 2nd & 3rd millennia, only time I ever had a reservation (that I can recall anyway) was for a summer school dorm in 1984. Rest of time just winged it via guidebooks (Let's Go & Rick Steves). Worked great. Occasionally slept rough, but that was in good weather by my own choice, being too cheap to spring for something better at that moment.
Point taken. Let’s say it’s EASIER with smartphones, google maps, the net
Some of the glorious places we found in Greece would not have been in any guidebooks. Airbnbs etc
Am not knocking reservations & etc. have mostly been too lazy, also fearful of over-curbing my enthusiasm, esp once I learned how easy it was (for me, then anyway) to just bop along.
The guidebooks were my lodestars, supplemented by a bit of the grapevine (and the grape) on the road.
Have zero doubt that you esp. but also the mass of PBers could cope quite well sans technology, plus kindness of strangers AND a few pages torn from last year's guidebook.
EDIT - Plus IF yours truly had the resources of a great paper/media conglomerate whatever behind me, damn sure would take advantage of my advantages!
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
On my own travels from Dingle to Debrecen in both 2nd & 3rd millennia, only time I ever had a reservation (that I can recall anyway) was for a summer school dorm in 1984. Rest of time just winged it via guidebooks (Let's Go & Rick Steves). Worked great. Occasionally slept rough, but that was in good weather by my own choice, being too cheap to spring for something better at that moment.
Point taken. Let’s say it’s EASIER with smartphones, google maps, the net
Some of the glorious places we found in Greece would not have been in any guidebooks. Airbnbs etc
I'd drive into a town, find somewhere to park as close to the centre as I could (which was often the town square if there was no market that day) and see if the nearest hotel that looked good had a room. That normally worked.
I toured South Island NZ in 98 with a lonely planet guide book. Found excellent lodgings everywhere. Amazingly life went on before smartphones.
Ukraine FM - Mariupol atrocities will be much worse than Bucha
I am utterly bewildered that Mariupol has not fallen yet. The preparation for a seige there must have been immense. Where the hell are the defenders getting their amunition? We hear repeated stories of tens of thousands without water or food. The Russians are either utterly incompetent or content to stand back and blow the whole place to hell without risking more ground troops. It's weird.
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
Thank you for making my day. I have been laughing so much that the back of my head hurts!
I'm sure that's another symptom. Have you had an LFT recently?
Much though I would like it to be true a 50% reduction in SNP support seems....unlikely.
Yes, hardly a 50% drop. The two Scottish polls earlier do however both suggest that something is happening in terms of an SNP->Lab shift. The gap is still very large, but Sarwar seems to have a respectable rating and if Labour can pick up a few points more, seats will start to fall.
It surely depends where the increased Lab vote is coming from. If they are winning back trad voters from SNP in Central Belt, while Tory vote stays solid in NE and South, then SNP could be squeezed from both directions. This happened, to some extent, in 2017 when SNP lost 20 seats. If its just a transfer of Unionist voters back from Tory to Lab then its not going to change things very much.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did something similar in France (although with a hired car, not on foot) back in '96, so I'd say you don't even need those: a copy of the relevant Michelin guide did me just fine.
People have been setting out on unplanned travels since the First Times, see Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey, early Leigh Fermor, etc etc
I'm not that old! Which year do you think I meant by '96?
I was just reinforcing your point that it can be done without iphones
Fair enough. I'm just used to pupils who think I knew Newton personally...
I would personally give SKS something like 7/10 for his first 2 years. He has got rid of Corbyn and similar traitors. He has a secure grip on the party machinary so is less likely to be embarrassed at Conference etc. He is now getting consistent leads in the polls, albeit mid term. He has got rid of some of the duffers and appointed more competent replacements such as Rachel Reeves. He has got a bit better at PMQs without being great (admittedly a rather niche point).
OTOH He is still really boring. He has really struggled to find a big idea. His main argument is that I could run this government with very, very similar policies better than Boris. Even if this is true it is hardly inspiring.
As a Tory supporter I would not panic at the idea of him being PM (unlike Corbyn). As a Scot I could contemplate voting tactically for Labour now. I can imagine him winning. It still seems unlikely to me but it has definitely moved into the realm of the possible.
Moving Labour from impossible to unlikely for 2024 isn't to be sniffed at.
And Starmer has got one key differentiating policy from the incumbent- not being a sh1t. It shouldn't be necessary, but it might be enough.
All the new symptoms added as "official COVID symptoms". Don't they basically add up to every single minor malady or malaise humanity has ever known?
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
Thank you for making my day. I have been laughing so much that the back of my head hurts!
It does remind me of the opening of "Three Men in a Boat", where J decides, after reading though a medical dictionary, that he doesn't have housemaids knee, but he does have everything else.
Ukraine FM - Mariupol atrocities will be much worse than Bucha
When we consider the photos of Mariupol and time the Russians have had there, I think it will be horrific but on a much bigger scale than in the north. sadly that's partly why I don't think the Russians will restreet form that area and we will probably never find out. would the would have ever known about the Katyn massacre if it had not been for the Germans trying Barbarossa?
Had a nap after work so I don't know if this has been posted.
Pundit Gevorg Mirzayan on Bucha:
"This was done by professionals, probably British. They're the best in the area of information operations. [They know how] to place the bodies correctly, do everything correctly, create a nice picture for the necrophilic Western consciousness"
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
I did something similar in France (although with a hired car, not on foot) back in '96, so I'd say you don't even need those: a copy of the relevant Michelin guide did me just fine.
People have been setting out on unplanned travels since the First Times, see Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey, early Leigh Fermor, etc etc
I'm not that old! Which year do you think I meant by '96?
I was just reinforcing your point that it can be done without iphones
Fair enough. I'm just used to pupils who think I knew Newton personally...
Do they reckon you too were/are applepated?
I tell them that obviously I didn't know him: he was at Cambridge and I was at Oxford.
After much soul searching I decided that I don’t have any useful skills to help anyone do anything in or around Ukraine, so I’ve gone on holiday instead. I’m unemployed and homeless at the moment, so three weeks in Catalonia seemed just the thing to cheer me up a bit!
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
Good for you! Wandering alone around the world - especially Europe - not deciding where you will stay that night until you decide at the last minute, at about noon, is a truly wonderful experience. Absolute spontaneity
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
On my own travels from Dingle to Debrecen in both 2nd & 3rd millennia, only time I ever had a reservation (that I can recall anyway) was for a summer school dorm in 1984. Rest of time just winged it via guidebooks (Let's Go & Rick Steves). Worked great. Occasionally slept rough, but that was in good weather by my own choice, being too cheap to spring for something better at that moment.
Point taken. Let’s say it’s EASIER with smartphones, google maps, the net
Some of the glorious places we found in Greece would not have been in any guidebooks. Airbnbs etc
I'd drive into a town, find somewhere to park as close to the centre as I could (which was often the town square if there was no market that day) and see if the nearest hotel that looked good had a room. That normally worked.
I toured South Island NZ in 98 with a lonely planet guide book. Found excellent lodgings everywhere. Amazingly life went on before smartphones.
I came back from NZ with the notorious "SE Asia on a Shoestring" but in general there were better and cheaper hostels than the ones in the yellow book.
I remember getting off a train in Yojakata at 0100 and greeted by local hostel touts, and negotiating a deal on the platform. We always found a good spot in such circumstances, and met all sorts of interesting folk. You just have to trust people.
I would personally give SKS something like 7/10 for his first 2 years. He has got rid of Corbyn and similar traitors. He has a secure grip on the party machinary so is less likely to be embarrassed at Conference etc. He is now getting consistent leads in the polls, albeit mid term. He has got rid of some of the duffers and appointed more competent replacements such as Rachel Reeves. He has got a bit better at PMQs without being great (admittedly a rather niche point).
OTOH He is still really boring. He has really struggled to find a big idea. His main argument is that I could run this government with very, very similar policies better than Boris. Even if this is true it is hardly inspiring.
As a Tory supporter I would not panic at the idea of him being PM (unlike Corbyn). As a Scot I could contemplate voting tactically for Labour now. I can imagine him winning. It still seems unlikely to me but it has definitely moved into the realm of the possible.
Moving Labour from impossible to unlikely for 2024 isn't to be sniffed at.
And Starmer has got one key differentiating policy from the incumbent- not being a sh1t. It shouldn't be necessary, but it might be enough.
I don’t think Starmer would deliberately try to shaft you, if say he was selling you a second hand car. Johnson, on the other hand... He sell you a car, it would break down after 5 miles, and then it would turn out not to be his to sell, and you can’t find him or contact him. Right now boring old starmer looks like what the country needs. Shame he’ll be inheriting a car crash.
Comments
However - looking at Russia under Putin - the fallacy that we could disband NATO and stop spending money on defence gets very quickly unveiled as an extremely naive and dangerous idea. Clearly Russia has harboured its own aspirations for territorial expansion all this time. The world will not be made safe through the unilateral abandonment of war.
Bit of a cough. A cold. Sneezing. A sniffle. A runny nose. Coughing. Feeling chesty. Feeling tired. Feeling a bit out of breath. A bit of a temperature. Having a headache. Having a sore throat. Feeling a bit sick. Actually being sick. Shitting yourself. Being sick and shitting yourself at the same time. Being sick and coughing as you shit yourself. Not feeling hungry. A general sense of "meh".
Essentially has covid mutated in such a way that it has replaced every other minor ailment humans ever experience? Is that why it's so prevalent - it's the only thing left?
Ed Sheeran does not stir me at all. He doesn't seem to have any good tunes. I am a fan of Rock n Roll, Blues, R&B, Folk, Bob Dylan. I accept he is popular with others though.
I’m puzzled by the idea that we created the pandemic. Do you mean genetically engineered it? Or allowed it to happen through having cities? We’ve been getting animal to human disease transfer since the dawn of farming led to humans living in close probity to animals.
Trump got voted out. Democracy. We get the chance to evict Johnson soon, if he doesn’t get the shove beforehand.
As a species we have become aware of the damage to the environment and the need to fix stuff. That’s a positive. As societies mature family size drops until you start not replacing the adults.
Thing is, I understand the gratitude for Brexit and smashing Corbyn, I do, but it's time now to drop the hero worship and see through him. An obviously correct assessment is available and you need to assimilate it rather than clinging onto vestiges of belief in what you once thought he was about.
Look into his eyes. That's no cheery can-do optimist there. It's an empty calculating narcissist.
Pandemic - either lab, or encroachment on habitat, or bad eating choices
I was pointing out it is heating as fast if not faster than the concensus models over that time period.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/12/02/atlantic-hurricanes-increasing-frequency-climate/
Study finds Atlantic hurricanes becoming more frequent, destructive
Hurricanes are the most costly disasters for the United States, and a study suggests they’re increasing in number and ferocity
By Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow
December 2, 2021 at 11:31 a.m. EST
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season ended Tuesday, marking the close of the sixth consecutive above-average season. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published Thursday offers evidence that there is indeed a long-term trend toward increasing numbers of Atlantic hurricanes.
Hurricanes are the most costly weather disasters for the United States; the damage from the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, for example, is expected to top $70 billion.
I flew into Girona yesterday (for £50.98 return with Ryanair!) and I’m loving it. I’ve thoroughly explored Girona - I’ve walked over twenty miles since I arrived yesterday afternoon (including lots of stairs; there are loads of little streets here that are basically just steep staircases) only pausing for booze and food breaks.
Tomorrow I’m planning to walk to Figueres. This might be a bold ambition - it’s about thirty miles - if I get blisters I might have to catch a bus, and then abandon my plan to walk to France the following day. I hope I make it because I really want to visit the tiny tortoise sanctuary (the Pyrenees tortoises are tiny, not the sanctuary) that’s on the route I want to take from Figueres to France.
I haven’t even booked a room in Figueres yet, only my room for tonight is booked here in Girona, so my plans might change before the night is out. For now I’m just going to enjoy a few more beers in this bar in Placa de la Indepencia.
https://graphics.reuters.com/FRANCE-ELECTION/POLLS/zjvqkomzlvx/
I like the character, Palmer, how he's same period but anti-bond, the thick glasses, working class, likes cooking, no flash, but what I find interesting is how he still has to be a "ladies man", a hit with the girls - that was a trope that just couldn't be dropped for some reason.
I'll give it that epi 1 anyway.
Heat engines like Hurricanes depend on there being both a heat source and a heat sink, and if the heat sink also warms, you aren't going to see much of an increase in frequency or power in the long term.
An increase in cost is not a surprise when people build stuff in stupid places and destroy any natural coastal defences.
It is only possible because internet and smartphones
I did it in 2019 as a 3 week road trip around mainland Greece with my then partner. Spectacular fun. And we ended up in some mad places that I will never forget. Entire mountain villages with one taverna, one inhabitant, one chef, one screeching polecat, and one amazing lamb dinner followed by too much ouzo.
Enjoy
https://news.mit.edu/2021/hurricane-climate-modeling-1202
He's not, and that's largely because of his own character flaws.
What's the line about national leadership being an X-ray of your soul?
Le Pen has been directly funded by Russia and publicly supported its previous invasion of Ukraine.
Could he see her as potential 2024 running mate? Provided that she thrives, or at least survives on the 2022 campaign trail up there where the huskies go? (FYI more candidates on special election ballot than competitors in this year's Iditarod dogsled race.)
Possible. More solid motivation for Sage of Mar-a-Lardo is desire to use Sarah Palin as foil versus Lisa Murkowski. On theory that SP will REALLY help boost MAGA turnout in fall, by at least priming the pump this summer, an at most by running for full congressional term on November ballot.
Then why didn't Trump get Palin to run against LM for US Senate? Again guessing, reckon that SP was NOT willing to run against the incumbent.
Whereas 51-candidate special election with no big-league (by Last Frontier standards) opponents (other than Santa Claus of course) appears much more to her advantage and liking.
FYI, only other candidate with obvious name appeal (from lower 48 perspective anyway) is Nick Begich (III) the grandson of former US Rep Nick Begich and nephew of former US Sen Mark Begich. They were/are Democrats, but Begich the Youngest has filed for special as Republican.
BTW, have a friend here in Seattle, a native Alaskan (different from Alaska Native) who used to hang out at the Begich house in Anchorage when he was in high school with a Begich kid, might have been the Senator!
"His political opponents then seized this opportunity to demand a no-confidence vote after persuading a number of his coalition partners to defect to them.
On Sunday, MPs meeting to hold the vote - which Mr Khan was expected to lose - were told of an "an operation for a regime change by a foreign government".
The deputy speaker chairing the session - a close ally of the prime minister - then proceeded to declare the vote unconstitutional.
Shortly afterwards Pakistan's president Arif Alvi - who is from Mr Khan's ruling PTI party - dissolved parliament in a step towards early elections."
And there was me thinking that an elected president woukd've had more teeth than Queenie and told Boris where to stuff his prorogation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60978582
In other Imran Khan news,
https://news.sky.com/story/imran-khan-tory-mp-sexually-assaulted-man-in-his-sleep-in-pakistan-court-told-12582283
Nemesis obviously doing that whole sarah Connor thing
I can easily believe that Safari is currently superior.
If they can defend for Arsenal if they can defend for Arsenal if they can defend for Arsenal so can I
I’m so glad I got drunk on Friday; I don’t think I would have booked the flight sober!
Anyway if I was happy to tie up money for 2 and a half years I would short Trump.
He has got rid of Corbyn and similar traitors.
He has a secure grip on the party machinary so is less likely to be embarrassed at Conference etc.
He is now getting consistent leads in the polls, albeit mid term.
He has got rid of some of the duffers and appointed more competent replacements such as Rachel Reeves.
He has got a bit better at PMQs without being great (admittedly a rather niche point).
OTOH
He is still really boring.
He has really struggled to find a big idea.
His main argument is that I could run this government with very, very similar policies better than Boris. Even if this is true it is hardly inspiring.
As a Tory supporter I would not panic at the idea of him being PM (unlike Corbyn).
As a Scot I could contemplate voting tactically for Labour now.
I can imagine him winning. It still seems unlikely to me but it has definitely moved into the realm of the possible.
Some of the glorious places we found in Greece would not have been in any guidebooks. Airbnbs etc
Certainly hope you make a pile IF you do.
And if so, please give generously to PB Special Fund for Hapless Punters and Indigent (and Indignant) Psephologists!
Ukraine FM - Mariupol atrocities will be much worse than Bucha
The guidebooks were my lodestars, supplemented by a bit of the grapevine (and the grape) on the road.
Have zero doubt that you esp. but also the mass of PBers could cope quite well sans technology, plus kindness of strangers AND a few pages torn from last year's guidebook.
EDIT - Plus IF yours truly had the resources of a great paper/media conglomerate whatever behind me, damn sure would take advantage of my advantages!
The next election will depend on whether Tory MPs have a spine or not.
And Starmer has got one key differentiating policy from the incumbent- not being a sh1t. It shouldn't be necessary, but it might be enough.
Pundit Gevorg Mirzayan on Bucha:
"This was done by professionals, probably British. They're the best in the area of information operations. [They know how] to place the bodies correctly, do everything correctly, create a nice picture for the necrophilic Western consciousness"
https://twitter.com/francska1/status/1510993878018670595
I remember getting off a train in Yojakata at 0100 and greeted by local hostel touts, and negotiating a deal on the platform. We always found a good spot in such circumstances, and met all sorts of interesting folk. You just have to trust people.
Right now boring old starmer looks like what the country needs. Shame he’ll be inheriting a car crash.