I've spent the last month in Turkey, mostly on the west coast. Here are my impressions, for anyone interested:
- English-speaking Turks are, unsurprisingly, annoyed with their government and its nationalist, Islamist tilt at the moment. Undoubtedly unrepresentative of the country as a whole - Despite that, there are pictures and statues of Ataturk, the modernising, secularising dictator of a century ago everywhere - the country has massively developed in the last decade since I was there: Istanbul had two or three metro lines, now it has 15, and there is a lot of new construction - despite that, most male Turks still seem to find time to spend endless hours in cafes drinking tea and playing backgammon - rather more women wear veils than the last time I was here, but that may be due to the large number of Syrian refugees - rapid inflation (80% officially last year, probably much higher in reality) has odd effects, because, as so often, some prices are adjusted immediately and some, particularly for government services, aren't. So public transport is laughably cheap, as is food that Turks eat, and taxis can't make a living, but foreign hotels and restaurants, priced mostly in euros, are fairly expensive - loads of fat, pasty Russian tourists everywhere remotely on the beaten path. All one can do not to shout "Slava Ukraini" at the top of one's voice - I've spoken to more than one Syrian refugee who has told me that the tolerance the Turks initially showed has long since worn thin, and all of them ask how they can get to the EU or the UK.
I was in Instanbul a couple of months ago, just before the elections.
I wrote down my thoughts at the time but didn’t post them anywhere. So here goes:
City very well organised, tour guides are licensed and wear ID. English widely spoken. Queues not too bad and mostly well-ordered. Feels much safer than I thought it would be, even at night. Lots of police around, and bag scanners at the entrances to most buildings. Parks and squares have police at the entrances, to keep out unlicensed sellers and tour guides, scooters and other undesirables. Surprisingly few homeless or beggars. Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque are free to enter. Museums are $10-$15 and the palace is $20, all have really good multi-lingual audio guides. Loads of travel agent shops, who will sell more organised guided tours. Public transport good and cheap, traffic totally chaos though, especially on approaches to bridges and in the old town, and motorcyclists not wearing helmets, I thought everywhere had banned that by now! Surprised at the number of shops selling fake branded goods, proper shops not just market stalls, and often not far from the shops selling the real stuff! Restaurants and bars all had proper menus with prices on, although the prices did vary a lot. No bill surprises, as used to be the case in many tourist cities. Pretty much everywhere accepted both cash and cards, budget around £50/ day per person for spending money.
Airport immigration lines are “Turkish” and “Other”, for those who pay attention to such things, and don’t expect to get the Wi-Fi to work, for some reason it requires data roaming to submit the registration form, which is then supposed to send an SMS access code. Nope, me neither.
First time as a tourist anywhere for three years, so interesting to watch all the people. 90% of tourists don’t have cameras any more, they’re all using their phones. A huge number of people seem more interested in taking photos of themselves, than the places they are visiting, even inside religious buildings.
Stories about Turkey being the European capital of cheap plastic surgery do appear to be true, saw a couple of dozen women (and one man!) with nose-job plasters, a handful of men with hair transplant scars, and literally thousands of white and Arab women in their 20s with hideous duck lips! What on Earth makes them think that’s an attractive look? I’m sure in a decade’s time, they will all laugh at their (very over-posed) photos from 2023!
The trout pout lips are done with fillers, so will gradually absorb, so not so bad.
There are quite a few stories circulating of patients who came back with some discount new boobs, but minus a kidney from Turkyie. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
That’s perhaps not what they signed up for! I imagine that many of the botched ones end up with your colleagues, for the taxpayer to sort out?
Off-topic: 20,000 new surveillance cameras are to be installed in Sao Paulo with real-time data analysis using AI. An equal number of "third-party and private" cameras are to be integrated into the network.
"The new cameras will enable the city to monitor schools, medical practices, public spaces such as squares and parks, as well as social media content relevant to public administration." (BBM)
That last bit is straight out of the Chinese regime's playbook in Xinjiang. Not the surveillance of social media of course - social media is always under permanent surveillance as well as spooking from the inside, in every country. I mean doing it on a grid system. In parts of Urumqi there are pop-up police stations every 100 or so metres with this among their functions.
Why should Essex residents have to pay a tax because leftwing inner London eco warriors who don't care about rural and small town residents who need a car want to tax drivers out of existence?
Even on those numbers as many suburban Londoners oppose the ULEZ as back it anyway
That - if I am following this correctly - would be because they want to drive vehicles with excessive emissions into London, which do not get exemptions.
No one is forcing them to drive into London, of course.
But I guess that they have all heard about it by now.
I would think that, like the Outer London boroughs, the vast majority of vehicles are already compliant, so the scaremongering pols are (to borrow a phrase from Cycling Mikey) almost all fart and no poo.
I live in Essex and my sister lives in Outer London in Beckenham for example. Now while we normally take the train to visit her, if we wanted to use the car we would now have to pay the ULEZ on top of petrol
So, Ofsted gives Rye College a clean bill of health. Following an inspection ordered by Kemi Badenoch, in response to tabloid outrage at the content of a lesson leaked.
Fans of Kemi should reconsider their fanship. It's wholly inappropriate for a SoS to order an inspection based on a media report of an individual lesson - just imagine if Ofsted had to concede to every such demand. I'm not defending the teacher - if it's as reported, then action should be taken by the Head and/or governors. But it's no business of the SoS. Indeed, it's an abuse of her power to order an inspection for such a reason. Ofsted should have refused.
Since academisation, school trusts do in theory report directly to the DoE. Another example of centralisation sold as freeing us from the dead hand of local government
Why should Essex residents have to pay a tax to drive into London because leftwing inner London eco warriors who don't care about rural and small town residents who need a car want to tax drivers out of existence?
Even on those numbers as many suburban Londoners oppose the ULEZ as back it anyway
The first principle is one that sailed some years ago, when Boris introduced the central London ULEZ. Everything since then has been haggling over price and extent.
As for the second, the usual pattern is that anti car measures are least popular just before their introduction. Fears are greatest, benefits are still invisible. For it to be net neutral now doesn't bode well for the anti ULEZ future.
But to return to my point. By refusing to put up signs, Essex CC doesn't stop the scheme, does make it more likely Essex drivers get fined. It's a dumb, self harming gesture, isn't it?
Given Labour won most London suburban seats even in 2019, for anti ULEZ feeling to have already reached 50% of those with a view in London's suburbs gives encouragement to Tories in London suburbia for the Mayoral and Assembly election next year. Plus the Uxbridge by election next week.
The Tories even won a council seat in a by election in Cambridge last week for the first time in a generation over opposition to their congestion charge too
So, Ofsted gives Rye College a clean bill of health. Following an inspection ordered by Kemi Badenoch, in response to tabloid outrage at the content of a lesson leaked.
Fans of Kemi should reconsider their fanship. It's wholly inappropriate for a SoS to order an inspection based on a media report of an individual lesson - just imagine if Ofsted had to concede to every such demand. I'm not defending the teacher - if it's as reported, then action should be taken by the Head and/or governors. But it's no business of the SoS. Indeed, it's an abuse of her power to order an inspection for such a reason. Ofsted should have refused.
Since academisation, school trusts do in theory report directly to the DoE. Another example of centralisation sold as freeing us from the dead hand of local government
I'm more worried really at the fact Badenoch is so dim she thinks OFSTED are the right people to be judging safeguarding.
It's a bit like asking Philip Schofield to come up with a new policy on sexual relationships between colleagues.
I've spent the last month in Turkey, mostly on the west coast. Here are my impressions, for anyone interested:
- English-speaking Turks are, unsurprisingly, annoyed with their government and its nationalist, Islamist tilt at the moment. Undoubtedly unrepresentative of the country as a whole - Despite that, there are pictures and statues of Ataturk, the modernising, secularising dictator of a century ago everywhere - the country has massively developed in the last decade since I was there: Istanbul had two or three metro lines, now it has 15, and there is a lot of new construction - despite that, most male Turks still seem to find time to spend endless hours in cafes drinking tea and playing backgammon - rather more women wear veils than the last time I was here, but that may be due to the large number of Syrian refugees - rapid inflation (80% officially last year, probably much higher in reality) has odd effects, because, as so often, some prices are adjusted immediately and some, particularly for government services, aren't. So public transport is laughably cheap, as is food that Turks eat, and taxis can't make a living, but foreign hotels and restaurants, priced mostly in euros, are fairly expensive - loads of fat, pasty Russian tourists everywhere remotely on the beaten path. All one can do not to shout "Slava Ukraini" at the top of one's voice - I've spoken to more than one Syrian refugee who has told me that the tolerance the Turks initially showed has long since worn thin, and all of them ask how they can get to the EU or the UK.
I was in Instanbul a couple of months ago, just before the elections.
I wrote down my thoughts at the time but didn’t post them anywhere. So here goes:
City very well organised, tour guides are licensed and wear ID. English widely spoken. Queues not too bad and mostly well-ordered. Feels much safer than I thought it would be, even at night. Lots of police around, and bag scanners at the entrances to most buildings. Parks and squares have police at the entrances, to keep out unlicensed sellers and tour guides, scooters and other undesirables. Surprisingly few homeless or beggars. Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque are free to enter. Museums are $10-$15 and the palace is $20, all have really good multi-lingual audio guides. Loads of travel agent shops, who will sell more organised guided tours. Public transport good and cheap, traffic totally chaos though, especially on approaches to bridges and in the old town, and motorcyclists not wearing helmets, I thought everywhere had banned that by now! Surprised at the number of shops selling fake branded goods, proper shops not just market stalls, and often not far from the shops selling the real stuff! Restaurants and bars all had proper menus with prices on, although the prices did vary a lot. No bill surprises, as used to be the case in many tourist cities. Pretty much everywhere accepted both cash and cards, budget around £50/ day per person for spending money.
Airport immigration lines are “Turkish” and “Other”, for those who pay attention to such things, and don’t expect to get the Wi-Fi to work, for some reason it requires data roaming to submit the registration form, which is then supposed to send an SMS access code. Nope, me neither.
First time as a tourist anywhere for three years, so interesting to watch all the people. 90% of tourists don’t have cameras any more, they’re all using their phones. A huge number of people seem more interested in taking photos of themselves, than the places they are visiting, even inside religious buildings.
Stories about Turkey being the European capital of cheap plastic surgery do appear to be true, saw a couple of dozen women (and one man!) with nose-job plasters, a handful of men with hair transplant scars, and literally thousands of white and Arab women in their 20s with hideous duck lips! What on Earth makes them think that’s an attractive look? I’m sure in a decade’s time, they will all laugh at their (very over-posed) photos from 2023!
The trout pout lips are done with fillers, so will gradually absorb, so not so bad.
There are quite a few stories circulating of patients who came back with some discount new boobs, but minus a kidney from Turkyie. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
That’s perhaps not what they signed up for! I imagine that many of the botched ones end up with your colleagues, for the taxpayer to sort out?
We do get a fair number of patients who come back from a winter holiday in India with a new kidney. All fine and dandy until it rejects or they get problems from excessive immunosuppression, having been poorly tissue matched.
Meanwhile, you remember that conversation in the previous thread about how a small number of promiscuous people were getting all the sex and others were going without?
Turns out that it's not really the case. Data for 2022 from the United States General Social Survey;
Instinctively those numbers for 3 and 4 partners look seriously weird.
3 - Men 12% Women 3% 4 - Men 2% Women 7%
with the rest of the curve similar? Really?
It's a survey subject to sampling error so you probably can't really be that precise about the numbers. But you can probably be fairly sure that the majority had a single sexual partner while about 10-20% had none. Which sounds plausible. I can happily report that as I have only had one sexual partner my entire life I am doing my bit to contain the incel problem.
I usually try and restrict myself to no more than two sexual partners per day.
But think of all those disappointed. How selfish of you.
Why should Essex residents have to pay a tax because leftwing inner London eco warriors who don't care about rural and small town residents who need a car want to tax drivers out of existence?
Even on those numbers as many suburban Londoners oppose the ULEZ as back it anyway
That - if I am following this correctly - would be because they want to drive vehicles with excessive emissions into London, which do not get exemptions.
No one is forcing them to drive into London, of course.
But I guess that they have all heard about it by now.
I would think that, like the Outer London boroughs, the vast majority of vehicles are already compliant, so the scaremongering pols are (to borrow a phrase from Cycling Mikey) almost all fart and no poo.
I live in Essex and my sister lives in Outer London in Beckenham for example. Now while we normally take the train to visit her, if we wanted to use the car we would now have to pay the ULEZ on top of petrol
If you have a petrol car that's not ULEZ compliant it must be ancient.
So, Ofsted gives Rye College a clean bill of health. Following an inspection ordered by Kemi Badenoch, in response to tabloid outrage at the content of a lesson leaked.
Fans of Kemi should reconsider their fanship. It's wholly inappropriate for a SoS to order an inspection based on a media report of an individual lesson - just imagine if Ofsted had to concede to every such demand. I'm not defending the teacher - if it's as reported, then action should be taken by the Head and/or governors. But it's no business of the SoS. Indeed, it's an abuse of her power to order an inspection for such a reason. Ofsted should have refused.
Since academisation, school trusts do in theory report directly to the DoE. Another example of centralisation sold as freeing us from the dead hand of local government
I'm more worried really at the fact Badenoch is so dim she thinks OFSTED are the right people to be judging safeguarding.
It's a bit like asking Philip Schofield to come up with a new policy on sexual relationships between colleagues.
Also she's not the education minister, so should have STFU.
I've spent the last month in Turkey, mostly on the west coast. Here are my impressions, for anyone interested:
- English-speaking Turks are, unsurprisingly, annoyed with their government and its nationalist, Islamist tilt at the moment. Undoubtedly unrepresentative of the country as a whole - Despite that, there are pictures and statues of Ataturk, the modernising, secularising dictator of a century ago everywhere - the country has massively developed in the last decade since I was there: Istanbul had two or three metro lines, now it has 15, and there is a lot of new construction - despite that, most male Turks still seem to find time to spend endless hours in cafes drinking tea and playing backgammon - rather more women wear veils than the last time I was here, but that may be due to the large number of Syrian refugees - rapid inflation (80% officially last year, probably much higher in reality) has odd effects, because, as so often, some prices are adjusted immediately and some, particularly for government services, aren't. So public transport is laughably cheap, as is food that Turks eat, and taxis can't make a living, but foreign hotels and restaurants, priced mostly in euros, are fairly expensive - loads of fat, pasty Russian tourists everywhere remotely on the beaten path. All one can do not to shout "Slava Ukraini" at the top of one's voice - I've spoken to more than one Syrian refugee who has told me that the tolerance the Turks initially showed has long since worn thin, and all of them ask how they can get to the EU or the UK.
I was in Instanbul a couple of months ago, just before the elections.
I wrote down my thoughts at the time but didn’t post them anywhere. So here goes:
City very well organised, tour guides are licensed and wear ID. English widely spoken. Queues not too bad and mostly well-ordered. Feels much safer than I thought it would be, even at night. Lots of police around, and bag scanners at the entrances to most buildings. Parks and squares have police at the entrances, to keep out unlicensed sellers and tour guides, scooters and other undesirables. Surprisingly few homeless or beggars. Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque are free to enter. Museums are $10-$15 and the palace is $20, all have really good multi-lingual audio guides. Loads of travel agent shops, who will sell more organised guided tours. Public transport good and cheap, traffic totally chaos though, especially on approaches to bridges and in the old town, and motorcyclists not wearing helmets, I thought everywhere had banned that by now! Surprised at the number of shops selling fake branded goods, proper shops not just market stalls, and often not far from the shops selling the real stuff! Restaurants and bars all had proper menus with prices on, although the prices did vary a lot. No bill surprises, as used to be the case in many tourist cities. Pretty much everywhere accepted both cash and cards, budget around £50/ day per person for spending money.
Airport immigration lines are “Turkish” and “Other”, for those who pay attention to such things, and don’t expect to get the Wi-Fi to work, for some reason it requires data roaming to submit the registration form, which is then supposed to send an SMS access code. Nope, me neither.
First time as a tourist anywhere for three years, so interesting to watch all the people. 90% of tourists don’t have cameras any more, they’re all using their phones. A huge number of people seem more interested in taking photos of themselves, than the places they are visiting, even inside religious buildings.
Stories about Turkey being the European capital of cheap plastic surgery do appear to be true, saw a couple of dozen women (and one man!) with nose-job plasters, a handful of men with hair transplant scars, and literally thousands of white and Arab women in their 20s with hideous duck lips! What on Earth makes them think that’s an attractive look? I’m sure in a decade’s time, they will all laugh at their (very over-posed) photos from 2023!
Interesting to compare your observations with mine. I think yours really relate to Istanbul - I was only there for a couple of days at the start and end of my trip. For instance, in the rest of Turkey, English is much less widely spoken, and you can get by comfortably on much less than £50/day (though I spent about that, and travelled in reasonable style) unless you're in tourist resorts.
I agree that Turks rip foreigners off much less than they did when I was last there - I only had a couple of bad experiences and it was only a few pounds each time. But the government rips them off far more - the two week museum pass is 40x for foreigners what it is for Turks. They disguise that by advertising museum entrance prices for Turks in Turkish only of course.
The point you raise about airport wifi is because the Turkish government doesn't allow anonymous access - they want to know who is messaging. You can either do it through SMS or scan your passport at the airport.
I agree about plastic surgery. Indeed, while I was there, a friend flew out from London to get some botox done - what would have cost £500 in London cost him £150 in Istanbul after a little shopping around.
Yes, I spotted the museum prices, and I’m sure many of the restaurants had local menu and tourist menu as well - because few locals would pay 150 lire for a beer or 300 for a steak. At least they were honest though, and the bill was what was expected, even if you thought it was expensive. The authorities have obviously told them to clamp down on the bill arguments, because they give the place a bad name.
Even Dubai lets visitors connect free to the airport wifi.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
Why should Essex residents have to pay a tax to drive into London because leftwing inner London eco warriors who don't care about rural and small town residents who need a car want to tax drivers out of existence?
Even on those numbers as many suburban Londoners oppose the ULEZ as back it anyway
The first principle is one that sailed some years ago, when Boris introduced the central London ULEZ. Everything since then has been haggling over price and extent.
As for the second, the usual pattern is that anti car measures are least popular just before their introduction. Fears are greatest, benefits are still invisible. For it to be net neutral now doesn't bode well for the anti ULEZ future.
But to return to my point. By refusing to put up signs, Essex CC doesn't stop the scheme, does make it more likely Essex drivers get fined. It's a dumb, self harming gesture, isn't it?
Since about half the population of Essex are people who originally come from London and now spend their whole time saying they "don't recognise the place anymore" and slagging it off on Facebook I'm assuming they won't be coming into London anyway.
And it's not like Crocosaurus Cove is "entirely safe"
"Female keeper mauled by 16ft crocodile in horror attack at reptile park
"A female keeper, 34, working at Crocosaurus Cove reptile park, in Darwin, Australia, "lost a lot of blood" in an attack by a massive 16 feet crocodile and was rushed to hospital"
I've spent the last month in Turkey, mostly on the west coast. Here are my impressions, for anyone interested:
- English-speaking Turks are, unsurprisingly, annoyed with their government and its nationalist, Islamist tilt at the moment. Undoubtedly unrepresentative of the country as a whole - Despite that, there are pictures and statues of Ataturk, the modernising, secularising dictator of a century ago everywhere - the country has massively developed in the last decade since I was there: Istanbul had two or three metro lines, now it has 15, and there is a lot of new construction - despite that, most male Turks still seem to find time to spend endless hours in cafes drinking tea and playing backgammon - rather more women wear veils than the last time I was here, but that may be due to the large number of Syrian refugees - rapid inflation (80% officially last year, probably much higher in reality) has odd effects, because, as so often, some prices are adjusted immediately and some, particularly for government services, aren't. So public transport is laughably cheap, as is food that Turks eat, and taxis can't make a living, but foreign hotels and restaurants, priced mostly in euros, are fairly expensive - loads of fat, pasty Russian tourists everywhere remotely on the beaten path. All one can do not to shout "Slava Ukraini" at the top of one's voice - I've spoken to more than one Syrian refugee who has told me that the tolerance the Turks initially showed has long since worn thin, and all of them ask how they can get to the EU or the UK.
I was in Instanbul a couple of months ago, just before the elections.
I wrote down my thoughts at the time but didn’t post them anywhere. So here goes:
City very well organised, tour guides are licensed and wear ID. English widely spoken. Queues not too bad and mostly well-ordered. Feels much safer than I thought it would be, even at night. Lots of police around, and bag scanners at the entrances to most buildings. Parks and squares have police at the entrances, to keep out unlicensed sellers and tour guides, scooters and other undesirables. Surprisingly few homeless or beggars. Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque are free to enter. Museums are $10-$15 and the palace is $20, all have really good multi-lingual audio guides. Loads of travel agent shops, who will sell more organised guided tours. Public transport good and cheap, traffic totally chaos though, especially on approaches to bridges and in the old town, and motorcyclists not wearing helmets, I thought everywhere had banned that by now! Surprised at the number of shops selling fake branded goods, proper shops not just market stalls, and often not far from the shops selling the real stuff! Restaurants and bars all had proper menus with prices on, although the prices did vary a lot. No bill surprises, as used to be the case in many tourist cities. Pretty much everywhere accepted both cash and cards, budget around £50/ day per person for spending money.
Airport immigration lines are “Turkish” and “Other”, for those who pay attention to such things, and don’t expect to get the Wi-Fi to work, for some reason it requires data roaming to submit the registration form, which is then supposed to send an SMS access code. Nope, me neither.
First time as a tourist anywhere for three years, so interesting to watch all the people. 90% of tourists don’t have cameras any more, they’re all using their phones. A huge number of people seem more interested in taking photos of themselves, than the places they are visiting, even inside religious buildings.
Stories about Turkey being the European capital of cheap plastic surgery do appear to be true, saw a couple of dozen women (and one man!) with nose-job plasters, a handful of men with hair transplant scars, and literally thousands of white and Arab women in their 20s with hideous duck lips! What on Earth makes them think that’s an attractive look? I’m sure in a decade’s time, they will all laugh at their (very over-posed) photos from 2023!
The trout pout lips are done with fillers, so will gradually absorb, so not so bad.
There are quite a few stories circulating of patients who came back with some discount new boobs, but minus a kidney from Turkyie. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
That’s perhaps not what they signed up for! I imagine that many of the botched ones end up with your colleagues, for the taxpayer to sort out?
We do get a fair number of patients who come back from a winter holiday in India with a new kidney. All fine and dandy until it rejects or they get problems from excessive immunosuppression, having been poorly tissue matched.
Oh, that must be pretty horrible. A bodged boob job is one thing, but a bodged kidney transplant?
So, Ofsted gives Rye College a clean bill of health. Following an inspection ordered by Kemi Badenoch, in response to tabloid outrage at the content of a lesson leaked.
Fans of Kemi should reconsider their fanship. It's wholly inappropriate for a SoS to order an inspection based on a media report of an individual lesson - just imagine if Ofsted had to concede to every such demand. I'm not defending the teacher - if it's as reported, then action should be taken by the Head and/or governors. But it's no business of the SoS. Indeed, it's an abuse of her power to order an inspection for such a reason. Ofsted should have refused.
Since academisation, school trusts do in theory report directly to the DoE. Another example of centralisation sold as freeing us from the dead hand of local government
I'm more worried really at the fact Badenoch is so dim she thinks OFSTED are the right people to be judging safeguarding.
It's a bit like asking Philip Schofield to come up with a new policy on sexual relationships between colleagues.
Also she's not the education minister, so should have STFU.
But she is Minister for Culture Wars Women & Equalities.
Or is that Minister for Women and Equalities Culture Wars?
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
I remember we had another poster did that, although I forget who it was. Might have been Byronic, Eadric, LadyG, Fitz or SeanT.
The only thing I can remember is he was drunk at the time.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
I remember reading that Tony Blair had become keen on shark hunting. Going down in one of those cages and firing on them I believe.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
I remember we had another poster did that, although I forget who it was. Might have been Byronic, Eadric, LadyG, Fitz or SeanT.
The only thing I can remember is he was drunk at the time.
You'd be drunk. It is properly scary
Being that close to an enormous, hangry apex predator, with just a bit of perspex to keep you safe
Like beung an elfin intern for Boris sheltering behind a Covid visor
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
I remember reading that Tony Blair had become keen on shark hunting. Going down in one of those cages and firing on them I believe.
Figures. He was always quite keen on randomly shooting at things he considered dangerous but weren't really as menacing as he supposed.
Why should Essex residents have to pay a tax because leftwing inner London eco warriors who don't care about rural and small town residents who need a car want to tax drivers out of existence?
Even on those numbers as many suburban Londoners oppose the ULEZ as back it anyway
That - if I am following this correctly - would be because they want to drive vehicles with excessive emissions into London, which do not get exemptions.
No one is forcing them to drive into London, of course.
But I guess that they have all heard about it by now.
I would think that, like the Outer London boroughs, the vast majority of vehicles are already compliant, so the scaremongering pols are (to borrow a phrase from Cycling Mikey) almost all fart and no poo.
I live in Essex and my sister lives in Outer London in Beckenham for example. Now while we normally take the train to visit her, if we wanted to use the car we would now have to pay the ULEZ on top of petrol
Thank you comrade for taking money out of the economy to help tackle inflation.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
I've spent the last month in Turkey, mostly on the west coast. Here are my impressions, for anyone interested:
- English-speaking Turks are, unsurprisingly, annoyed with their government and its nationalist, Islamist tilt at the moment. Undoubtedly unrepresentative of the country as a whole - Despite that, there are pictures and statues of Ataturk, the modernising, secularising dictator of a century ago everywhere - the country has massively developed in the last decade since I was there: Istanbul had two or three metro lines, now it has 15, and there is a lot of new construction - despite that, most male Turks still seem to find time to spend endless hours in cafes drinking tea and playing backgammon - rather more women wear veils than the last time I was here, but that may be due to the large number of Syrian refugees - rapid inflation (80% officially last year, probably much higher in reality) has odd effects, because, as so often, some prices are adjusted immediately and some, particularly for government services, aren't. So public transport is laughably cheap, as is food that Turks eat, and taxis can't make a living, but foreign hotels and restaurants, priced mostly in euros, are fairly expensive - loads of fat, pasty Russian tourists everywhere remotely on the beaten path. All one can do not to shout "Slava Ukraini" at the top of one's voice - I've spoken to more than one Syrian refugee who has told me that the tolerance the Turks initially showed has long since worn thin, and all of them ask how they can get to the EU or the UK.
I was in Instanbul a couple of months ago, just before the elections.
I wrote down my thoughts at the time but didn’t post them anywhere. So here goes:
City very well organised, tour guides are licensed and wear ID. English widely spoken. Queues not too bad and mostly well-ordered. Feels much safer than I thought it would be, even at night. Lots of police around, and bag scanners at the entrances to most buildings. Parks and squares have police at the entrances, to keep out unlicensed sellers and tour guides, scooters and other undesirables. Surprisingly few homeless or beggars. Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque are free to enter. Museums are $10-$15 and the palace is $20, all have really good multi-lingual audio guides. Loads of travel agent shops, who will sell more organised guided tours. Public transport good and cheap, traffic totally chaos though, especially on approaches to bridges and in the old town, and motorcyclists not wearing helmets, I thought everywhere had banned that by now! Surprised at the number of shops selling fake branded goods, proper shops not just market stalls, and often not far from the shops selling the real stuff! Restaurants and bars all had proper menus with prices on, although the prices did vary a lot. No bill surprises, as used to be the case in many tourist cities. Pretty much everywhere accepted both cash and cards, budget around £50/ day per person for spending money.
Airport immigration lines are “Turkish” and “Other”, for those who pay attention to such things, and don’t expect to get the Wi-Fi to work, for some reason it requires data roaming to submit the registration form, which is then supposed to send an SMS access code. Nope, me neither.
First time as a tourist anywhere for three years, so interesting to watch all the people. 90% of tourists don’t have cameras any more, they’re all using their phones. A huge number of people seem more interested in taking photos of themselves, than the places they are visiting, even inside religious buildings.
Stories about Turkey being the European capital of cheap plastic surgery do appear to be true, saw a couple of dozen women (and one man!) with nose-job plasters, a handful of men with hair transplant scars, and literally thousands of white and Arab women in their 20s with hideous duck lips! What on Earth makes them think that’s an attractive look? I’m sure in a decade’s time, they will all laugh at their (very over-posed) photos from 2023!
The trout pout lips are done with fillers, so will gradually absorb, so not so bad.
There are quite a few stories circulating of patients who came back with some discount new boobs, but minus a kidney from Turkyie. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
That’s perhaps not what they signed up for! I imagine that many of the botched ones end up with your colleagues, for the taxpayer to sort out?
We do get a fair number of patients who come back from a winter holiday in India with a new kidney. All fine and dandy until it rejects or they get problems from excessive immunosuppression, having been poorly tissue matched.
There are some things in life you just should not skimp on. A good mattress, quality sausages, dodgily obtained organs, that sort of thing.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
I remember we had another poster did that, although I forget who it was. Might have been Byronic, Eadric, LadyG, Fitz or SeanT.
The only thing I can remember is he was drunk at the time.
You'd be drunk. It is properly scary
Being that close to an enormous, hangry apex predator, with just a bit of perspex to keep you safe
Like beung an elfin intern for Boris sheltering behind a Covid visor
Look, when OFSTED turned up and started molesting my students, I didn't have the Perspex.
"Even in the Poison Garden, this little guy is in isolation.
Why? Because it is one of the most venomous and dangerous plants in the world - if you touch it, the sensation is likened to being burned and electrocuted at the same time, and the effects can persist for YEARS. "
The pain of its sting is so acute, prolonged, and incurable, it has caused suicide. Ouch
Typical of Moss to be slagging off plants.
I remember when I encountered a solitary ant north of Sydney in a national park: the ant was blithely wandering down a path. I bent down to have a look, it was an unusual insect. At this point the ant actually turned on me, and forced me back, with a menacing glare. I thought the little fucker was having a laugh - I mean, OK, he had a tough stare, but let's face it, this was an ant - but I quickly googled the species and discovered it was THIS:
Not only is it infamously aggressive, it can deliver one of the fiercest insect bites in the world, the bite can actually be fatal within fifteen minutes (if you get an allergic shock)... and the fucking ant can JUMP AT YOU, up to a foot or more
I decided to let the ant go about his business
You have to be insane to go to or live in Australia
In this 14 year study, 56 people in Australia died from poisoned wildlife, or about 4 per year. Only 3 from stingers (box jellyfish) in the entire period. Anaphylaxis to bee or wasp stings being the most frequent.
To keep perspective there are a half dozen deaths in the UK each year from stings.
Yes, the actual stats on death and injury aren't THAT bad
But this is partly because Australia is so sparsely populated, and partly because Australians are taught from birth to be wary of everything wild
Which is not fun. So even if your chances of dying from ants, bees, jellyfish, spiders in the bog, are theoretically low, there is always this persistent hum of mild dread. And the stingers really do stop you swimming
Acvtually, the biggest risk of all and one where I had to wear protective clothing and eye protection and prophylactic creams was: the sun. Not joking. Fair freckled Scottish skin - I apologised when holding up the tour 4x4 on Kangaroo Island a few moments while slapping on the gunge and the chap said on the contrary - it was good to seem someone being sensible. I daresay also it saved having a grizzling sunburnt client later on.
Absolutely
You see some terrible skin cancers in Oz. Then you REALLY slap on the Factor 90
And you forgot the kangaroos on the road. Smash through the car windscreen like deer in the UK, but then starty kicking and punching with those sharp claws. Relative of our tour expert ...
And let's not forget the salties. The crocs of the north
Biggest land predator on earth? - and prone to grumpiness
They are pretty scary, and I have met a few. And now they have started to team up to take us out
"The death of a fisher taken from a boat and eaten by two crocodiles in northern Australia marks the first time a human has been preyed upon by more than one of the reptiles, the Queensland environment department believes."
I know a few people who've been attacked by crocs, around the world. It's not a bundle of fun
One was a young white Zimbabwean man - a guide in the Kafue National Park in Zambia. The croc got him firmly by the arm and was dragging him to a nasty death but he managed to wrench the croc's jaws open by stabbing it in the eye (IIRC) and so it let go in shock, but he was left with tremendous scars up to his shoulder. Brrrr
I assume the minute hand on the doomsday clock has been turned back a couple of degrees and you’ve cast your net wider for things to be scared shitless by.
Given that this is actually me, in the plastic podule, in an underwater cage, with the world’s largest salt water crocodile in captivity - at Crocosaurus Cove, Darwin - you can rest assured that I am not “scared shitless” by Australian wildlife
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
I can almost discern a stream of panicked urine.. So at least not shitless.
The Guardian reported that BBC News journalists are understood to be working on further potential stories on Edwards
While...BBC insiders have accused Victoria Derbyshire and other colleagues of pursuing “aggressive” stories about Huw Edwards despite the police finding no evidence of criminality. Some staff are said to have erupted in “boiling fury” as the corporation descends into civil war,
I think this is why they need to get an independent inquiry setup.
Meanwhile, you remember that conversation in the previous thread about how a small number of promiscuous people were getting all the sex and others were going without?
Turns out that it's not really the case. Data for 2022 from the United States General Social Survey;
Meanwhile, you remember that conversation in the previous thread about how a small number of promiscuous people were getting all the sex and others were going without?
Turns out that it's not really the case. Data for 2022 from the United States General Social Survey;
Instinctively those numbers for 3 and 4 partners look seriously weird.
3 - Men 12% Women 3% 4 - Men 2% Women 7%
with the rest of the curve similar? Really?
It's a survey subject to sampling error so you probably can't really be that precise about the numbers. But you can probably be fairly sure that the majority had a single sexual partner while about 10-20% had none. Which sounds plausible. I can happily report that as I have only had one sexual partner my entire life I am doing my bit to contain the incel problem.
It's surprising because it seems out of line with figures from recent years. Of course covid has had all kinds of weird things.
On topic; while polls on wage rises are a sort of guide to sentiment, at least over the next 20 minutes or so, the way the questions go make them no guide to reality and its choices.
To govern is to choose between options, and all choices have consequences for all other options.
To express a polling opinion is to be allowed infinite choices, in particular to spend the same money 100 times.
Real world polling as opposed to fantasy opinion asks about hard choices between options where there are winners and losers, including concerning the person asked.
Probably effective politics from Sunak as it will make it tricky for the TUs - accepting review body recommendations in full is correct, but funding part of it from "efficiency gains" is cowardly, imo. We need taxes somewhat increasing and rebalancing.
Everything being possible is akin to the reform fairy and magic money tree in terms of politicians selling an easy solution - even now there will be efficiencies to make, but endlessly expecting such to achieve everything us no different to promising bankers bonuses will fund all policies, or some vague reform will solve it all.
Efficiencies of 2% per year are built into the NHS workforce plans of last week too, on equally dubious grounds.
I am planning to cut my real terms work in line with my recent real terms pay cuts. Why should I sweat to get stuff done?
That hippocratic oath left a permanent mark on you, didn't it?
There is no Hippocratic Oath in the UK, but even if there was it doesn't oblige to work at a specific rate of pay.
On topic; while polls on wage rises are a sort of guide to sentiment, at least over the next 20 minutes or so, the way the questions go make them no guide to reality and its choices.
To govern is to choose between options, and all choices have consequences for all other options.
To express a polling opinion is to be allowed infinite choices, in particular to spend the same money 100 times.
Real world polling as opposed to fantasy opinion asks about hard choices between options where there are winners and losers, including concerning the person asked.
Ultimately, unless we have an actual plan on how to fund these, I don't see how it's happening.
Just focussing on education - the DfE claim it will be funded, but they're such fluent liars I would right now have real difficulty believing them if they said rain was wet (and I include Nick Gibb in that).
The Treasury are no better, as they've repeatedly proved over HS2.
And as we need to fund the last pay rise before we even think about funding this one, well, I see no reason to be optimistic.
About the only way I can see of raising extra money without impacting frontline services is scrapping the entire structure of the education system including academy chains, inspection bureaus and the DfE itself and just having schools become charities taking vouchers from the treasury on a per pupil basis. But I can't see that happening by October.
Probably effective politics from Sunak as it will make it tricky for the TUs - accepting review body recommendations in full is correct, but funding part of it from "efficiency gains" is cowardly, imo. We need taxes somewhat increasing and rebalancing.
Everything being possible is akin to the reform fairy and magic money tree in terms of politicians selling an easy solution - even now there will be efficiencies to make, but endlessly expecting such to achieve everything us no different to promising bankers bonuses will fund all policies, or some vague reform will solve it all.
Efficiencies of 2% per year are built into the NHS workforce plans of last week too, on equally dubious grounds.
I am planning to cut my real terms work in line with my recent real terms pay cuts. Why should I sweat to get stuff done?
That hippocratic oath left a permanent mark on you, didn't it?
There is no Hippocratic Oath in the UK, but even if there was it doesn't oblige to work at a specific rate of pay.
Careful. You'll get people saying if you have that attitude you should give up your holiday time for free to show you care or you're a bad doctor and your patients are unlucky to have you next.
He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something ...
"Podule" is, if I remember correctly, a word derived from a Rowan Atkinson sketch. It was later picked up by ARM and repurposed, although older British people still occasionally use it as part of a boomer folk memory (see also "flange of baboons")
I've spent the last month in Turkey, mostly on the west coast. Here are my impressions, for anyone interested:
- English-speaking Turks are, unsurprisingly, annoyed with their government and its nationalist, Islamist tilt at the moment. Undoubtedly unrepresentative of the country as a whole - Despite that, there are pictures and statues of Ataturk, the modernising, secularising dictator of a century ago everywhere - the country has massively developed in the last decade since I was there: Istanbul had two or three metro lines, now it has 15, and there is a lot of new construction - despite that, most male Turks still seem to find time to spend endless hours in cafes drinking tea and playing backgammon - rather more women wear veils than the last time I was here, but that may be due to the large number of Syrian refugees - rapid inflation (80% officially last year, probably much higher in reality) has odd effects, because, as so often, some prices are adjusted immediately and some, particularly for government services, aren't. So public transport is laughably cheap, as is food that Turks eat, and taxis can't make a living, but foreign hotels and restaurants, priced mostly in euros, are fairly expensive - loads of fat, pasty Russian tourists everywhere remotely on the beaten path. All one can do not to shout "Slava Ukraini" at the top of one's voice - I've spoken to more than one Syrian refugee who has told me that the tolerance the Turks initially showed has long since worn thin, and all of them ask how they can get to the EU or the UK.
I was in Instanbul a couple of months ago, just before the elections.
I wrote down my thoughts at the time but didn’t post them anywhere. So here goes:
City very well organised, tour guides are licensed and wear ID. English widely spoken. Queues not too bad and mostly well-ordered. Feels much safer than I thought it would be, even at night. Lots of police around, and bag scanners at the entrances to most buildings. Parks and squares have police at the entrances, to keep out unlicensed sellers and tour guides, scooters and other undesirables. Surprisingly few homeless or beggars. Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque are free to enter. Museums are $10-$15 and the palace is $20, all have really good multi-lingual audio guides. Loads of travel agent shops, who will sell more organised guided tours. Public transport good and cheap, traffic totally chaos though, especially on approaches to bridges and in the old town, and motorcyclists not wearing helmets, I thought everywhere had banned that by now! Surprised at the number of shops selling fake branded goods, proper shops not just market stalls, and often not far from the shops selling the real stuff! Restaurants and bars all had proper menus with prices on, although the prices did vary a lot. No bill surprises, as used to be the case in many tourist cities. Pretty much everywhere accepted both cash and cards, budget around £50/ day per person for spending money.
Airport immigration lines are “Turkish” and “Other”, for those who pay attention to such things, and don’t expect to get the Wi-Fi to work, for some reason it requires data roaming to submit the registration form, which is then supposed to send an SMS access code. Nope, me neither.
First time as a tourist anywhere for three years, so interesting to watch all the people. 90% of tourists don’t have cameras any more, they’re all using their phones. A huge number of people seem more interested in taking photos of themselves, than the places they are visiting, even inside religious buildings.
Stories about Turkey being the European capital of cheap plastic surgery do appear to be true, saw a couple of dozen women (and one man!) with nose-job plasters, a handful of men with hair transplant scars, and literally thousands of white and Arab women in their 20s with hideous duck lips! What on Earth makes them think that’s an attractive look? I’m sure in a decade’s time, they will all laugh at their (very over-posed) photos from 2023!
The trout pout lips are done with fillers, so will gradually absorb, so not so bad.
There are quite a few stories circulating of patients who came back with some discount new boobs, but minus a kidney from Turkyie. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
That’s perhaps not what they signed up for! I imagine that many of the botched ones end up with your colleagues, for the taxpayer to sort out?
We do get a fair number of patients who come back from a winter holiday in India with a new kidney. All fine and dandy until it rejects or they get problems from excessive immunosuppression, having been poorly tissue matched.
There are some things in life you just should not skimp on. A good mattress, quality sausages, dodgily obtained organs, that sort of thing.
The government didn't have any choice, really, either on the pay rises or the financing of them. They've used the recommendations of the pay review bodies in the past to justify resisting higher pay claims, making it hard to ignore the recommendations now. In any case, the acute problems of recruitment and retention of staff in all of these sectors mean that pay has to increase. The suggested rises are reasonable in the circumstances, although of course unions will scream that they are not. Private-sector pay (albeit not quite comparable, because of the large hidden-pay element of pensions in the public sector) are in the same ballpark, or even higher. Increasing borrowing to even higher levels at the moment is not realistic, and increasing taxes even more than they are already being increased is also not politically realistic.
Financing from the underspend is a short-term fudge, of course, so the problem isn't going to go away. We need more economic growth, better productivity, and better-managed public services, especially better management in the NHS. But none of that can be done quickly, and meanwhile we have the long-term deadweight of Brexit red tape dragging us down and stifling investment. The medium-term future is pretty bleak, to be honest. Labour are going to inherit a very, very difficult situation.
"And meanwhile we have the long term deadweight of Brexit dragging us down and stifling investment"
Interesting that this key passage had 'likes' from three of the most vociferous Brexiteers who post here. It's almost as though we're dealing with alter egos.
Not sure that's right, Roger. The 'likes' include only one vociferous Brexiteer and this is the almost spookily unrepresentative Richard Tyndall, who seems to agree with his fellow Leavers about very little.
Leavers, like Remainers, are a broad church. Which is as you would expect. It would be very odd if people all had one of only two possible packages of opinions covering everything from Brexit to the environment to taxation to outdoors carpets to organ shoes.
Edit: though I do agree with Richard Tyndall about quite a lot, and I don't find his package of views particularly strange. But then I also find things to agree with you about, and also Leon, HYUFD and Sandy Rentool. Most people really.
Leavers and Remainers are indeed broad churches. That's because the issue is about a foundational constitutional issue, and leaves entirely alone what our practical polity might be. I am a Leaver but pro EFTA/EEA, SM and so on, so have almost nothing in common with Farage and co, except that in the long run I think that the envisaged political 'ever closer union' of most of Europe may be right for them but not for us.
In the same way it is odd that the only sizable nationalist party in Scotland has a fairly leftish mindset. To support Scottish independence (I don't BTW) is nothing to do with left, right or whatever. The best reason for unionism at the moment is Scotland is the uselessness of the SNP.
I think we are quite close in our vies - with the exception of Scotland where I am pro-Independence for them and hope (probably against expectation) that if and when they vote for independence we can be grown up about it and do our best to make it work for and with them rather than following the EU stated policy of punishing them for voting the 'wrong' way.
Not possible. IndyRef can only be won if SNP persuade voters they will better off. Of course, they won't in the event. In fact it could well prove economically catastrophic. As SNP are unlikely to blame themselves for this, the default will be a war of words with rUK over who who should pay for the mess.
Then again it could by Eldorado, we will not know till a few years after Independence at least. It will take a while to combat the disasters that UK have lumbered on us. Lots more to Independence than SNP.
Hope you've been saving, Malc. Latest wheeze at ScotGov is to whack up council tax on higher-rated properties. Part of the egalitarian to drive a significant chunk of Scotland 's tax base south of the border.
On topic; while polls on wage rises are a sort of guide to sentiment, at least over the next 20 minutes or so, the way the questions go make them no guide to reality and its choices.
To govern is to choose between options, and all choices have consequences for all other options.
To express a polling opinion is to be allowed infinite choices, in particular to spend the same money 100 times.
Real world polling as opposed to fantasy opinion asks about hard choices between options where there are winners and losers, including concerning the person asked.
Ultimately, unless we have an actual plan on how to fund these, I don't see how it's happening.
Just focussing on education - the DfE claim it will be funded, but they're such fluent liars I would right now have real difficulty believing them if they said rain was wet (and I include Nick Gibb in that).
The Treasury are no better, as they've repeatedly proved over HS2.
And as we need to fund the last pay rise before we even think about funding this one, well, I see no reason to be optimistic.
About the only way I can see of raising extra money without impacting frontline services is scrapping the entire structure of the education system including academy chains, inspection bureaus and the DfE itself and just having schools become charities taking vouchers from the treasury on a per pupil basis. But I can't see that happening by October.
The mutterings I've seen are that it's the unspent catch-up tuition money this year, and Somebody Else's Problem after that.
So, Ofsted gives Rye College a clean bill of health. Following an inspection ordered by Kemi Badenoch, in response to tabloid outrage at the content of a lesson leaked.
Fans of Kemi should reconsider their fanship. It's wholly inappropriate for a SoS to order an inspection based on a media report of an individual lesson - just imagine if Ofsted had to concede to every such demand. I'm not defending the teacher - if it's as reported, then action should be taken by the Head and/or governors. But it's no business of the SoS. Indeed, it's an abuse of her power to order an inspection for such a reason. Ofsted should have refused.
Since academisation, school trusts do in theory report directly to the DoE. Another example of centralisation sold as freeing us from the dead hand of local government
I'm more worried really at the fact Badenoch is so dim she thinks OFSTED are the right people to be judging safeguarding.
It's a bit like asking Philip Schofield to come up with a new policy on sexual relationships between colleagues.
Also she's not the education minister, so should have STFU.
Comments
24% of 2019 Conservatives are undecided. 5% of 2019 LD voters now back Sunak's Conservatives, the same as the 5% of 2019 Conservatives who now back the LDs
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/98dsl0fsbn/TheTimes_VI_230711_W.pdf
https://twitter.com/kamleshkhunti/status/1679389918907318274?t=kwA8rs3vCmRi64YCiGjJqw&s=19
Another example of centralisation sold as freeing us from the dead hand of local government
The Tories even won a council seat in a by election in Cambridge last week for the first time in a generation over opposition to their congestion charge too
It's a bit like asking Philip Schofield to come up with a new policy on sexual relationships between colleagues.
How selfish of you.
Even Dubai lets visitors connect free to the airport wifi.
It was especially spicy about 30 seconds after this when they threw raw meat in the pool to liven him up. He came roaring across the pool and slammed into my podule. Quite something
"Female keeper mauled by 16ft crocodile in horror attack at reptile park
"A female keeper, 34, working at Crocosaurus Cove reptile park, in Darwin, Australia, "lost a lot of blood" in an attack by a massive 16 feet crocodile and was rushed to hospital"
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/female-keeper-mauled-16ft-crocodile-29972027
Those fuckers are big and nasty. You've got to be one brave crocodile to take on an Australian woman
Or is that Minister for Women and Equalities Culture Wars?
The only thing I can remember is he was drunk at the time.
Being that close to an enormous, hangry apex predator, with just a bit of perspex to keep you safe
Like beung an elfin intern for Boris sheltering behind a Covid visor
What do you think, kitchencabinet ?
https://twitter.com/AaronParnas/status/1679545600960786433
So at least not shitless.
While...BBC insiders have accused Victoria Derbyshire and other colleagues of pursuing “aggressive” stories about Huw Edwards despite the police finding no evidence of criminality. Some staff are said to have erupted in “boiling fury” as the corporation descends into civil war,
I think this is why they need to get an independent inquiry setup.
H/T - Another PB
That's awful. It lacks spirit.
Nominative Determinism Of The Week: The law firm representing the young person at the heart of the BBC/Sun scandal... Child & Child.
To govern is to choose between options, and all choices have consequences for all other options.
To express a polling opinion is to be allowed infinite choices, in particular to spend the same money 100 times.
Real world polling as opposed to fantasy opinion asks about hard choices between options where there are winners and losers, including concerning the person asked.
Just focussing on education - the DfE claim it will be funded, but they're such fluent liars I would right now have real difficulty believing them if they said rain was wet (and I include Nick Gibb in that).
The Treasury are no better, as they've repeatedly proved over HS2.
And as we need to fund the last pay rise before we even think about funding this one, well, I see no reason to be optimistic.
About the only way I can see of raising extra money without impacting frontline services is scrapping the entire structure of the education system including academy chains, inspection bureaus and the DfE itself and just having schools become charities taking vouchers from the treasury on a per pupil basis. But I can't see that happening by October.
"Building the HS2 Colne Valley Viaduct"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4V7gVejGTI
NEW THREAD
Thinly sliced and salted raw rhubarb has an extraordinary flavour - I'm getting quite excited about the salad