Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
Do you simply mean the transition from primary to secondary? Or are you lamenting an actual change in human behaviour?
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
Off thread #2 - all the schools I know of in the UK don't allow mobile phones during the school day. Seems reasonable to me. But seemingly this is not necessarily typical worldwide. Apparently the likely-next-PM of New Zealand has suggested that phones be banned in school and been roundly mocked for it. I find it interesting how another country's norms can be so different that what we consider reasonable can be quite beyond the pale. And phones are apparently commonplace in schools in the USA, ostensibly in case there is a shooting, which is just deranged. You could sympathise if it was Israel or somewhere like that which is in a constant state of sort-of-at-war. But the USA seems to have just accepted that periodically its citizens go mad and do a school shooting.
7.20pm on the first of October. I’m sitting out on the fairy-lit patio in a t-shirt with a glass of wine after an earlier barbecue. Weird weather.
Indeed - Guardian
“Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland have all experienced their hottest Septembers on record, with unseasonably high temperatures set to continue into October, in a year likely to be the warmest in human history.
As 31C (88F) was forecast in south-west France on Sunday and 28C in Paris, the French weather authority, Météo-France, said September’s average temperature was 21.5C, between 3.5C and 3.6C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
7.20pm on the first of October. I’m sitting out on the fairy-lit patio in a t-shirt with a glass of wine after an earlier barbecue. Weird weather.
Indeed - Guardian
“Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland have all experienced their hottest Septembers on record, with unseasonably high temperatures set to continue into October, in a year likely to be the warmest in human history.
As 31C (88F) was forecast in south-west France on Sunday and 28C in Paris, the French weather authority, Météo-France, said September’s average temperature was 21.5C, between 3.5C and 3.6C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period.
35.5C in SW France today. All time French October record, by 3C.
Off thread #2 - all the schools I know of in the UK don't allow mobile phones during the school day. Seems reasonable to me. But seemingly this is not necessarily typical worldwide. Apparently the likely-next-PM of New Zealand has suggested that phones be banned in school and been roundly mocked for it. I find it interesting how another country's norms can be so different that what we consider reasonable can be quite beyond the pale. And phones are apparently commonplace in schools in the USA, ostensibly in case there is a shooting, which is just deranged. You could sympathise if it was Israel or somewhere like that which is in a constant state of sort-of-at-war. But the USA seems to have just accepted that periodically its citizens go mad and do a school shooting.
The first thing children learn at school is what to do if there’s an active shooter ! The fact so many in the USA think this is normality is why the country is fxcked . And then they have the cheek to look down on Canada which has a much higher quality of life.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
That's sad. I hope she finds kids to play with.
It's remarkable the changes that can happen, both physically and emotionally, at that age and not all do or want to change at the same rate.
We had a shocking moment in the summer when my daughter (nine) was bridesmaid at a wedding, related to the bride, as was an eleven year related to the groom. Our daughter is small but not exceptionally small for her age, she very much is and looks like a child.
The eleven year old despite being only two years older looked far closer to the adult bridesmaids than my daughter in age. I could imagine if she wanted she could be served alcohol in many UK pubs without getting asked for ID, she looked that mature.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
Do you simply mean the transition from primary to secondary? Or are you lamenting an actual change in human behaviour?
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
I definitely hear a lot about the challenges facing kids, changes in behaviour and socialisation post Covid etc, and I am guessing like a lot of things it must be way worse in some areas and in some parts of the population than in others. I've got kids who are 17, 14 and 11 and I'm not really seeing any changes or obvious ill effects in my youngest daughter or among her peer group. My youngest is certainly a less advanced and interested reader than my eldest daughter, or her brother probably, but I think this is probably not due to lockdown etc. Some of her friends are big readers. And she is way more sociable than my eldest daughter, who only had 2 friends when she was her age, well before Covid. This is a state school, albeit with quite a middle class catchment for SE London. Perhaps it's much worse in some of the other parts of the borough. Or perhaps it's worse outside London, I don't know. Or perhaps I'm just being oblivious! I'm definitely not denying it's a thing, but it must be quite unevenly distributed I guess. My son just came back from a Cubs camp where he was working as a young leader, and said some of the younger kids were quite weirdly behaved.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
Do you simply mean the transition from primary to secondary? Or are you lamenting an actual change in human behaviour?
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
Well it sort of happens at the transition from primary to secondary, but I feel sad for the likes of her - the 'young-for-their-age' kids - who are used to spending breaktimes playing games, who suddenly find that teenagers don't 'play', they just hang out. I mean for this particular individual, it's ok - she's on a football team, she dances, she has friends - but nevertheless she's no longer living a carefree school existence in a school with extensive grounds to explore, and playhouses, and a jungle to hang out in; she's in a secondary school where there's suddenly a lot of currency in how cool you are and playing is looked down on as childish.
Conversely, my kids went the other way at that age - they've got a lot more independence so spend rather more time with friends IRL than they previously did. But not all kids are quite ready to do that.
I think I'm just feeling a bit wistful; I've spent the weekend disassembling the remnants of daughter #2's childhood bedroom after she's moved to a new bedroom following an extension. And while daughter #2 is the most wonderful person in the world (equal with daughters #1 and #3, of course), she is no longer the child for whom we decorated the room and put children's furniture in.
7.20pm on the first of October. I’m sitting out on the fairy-lit patio in a t-shirt with a glass of wine after an earlier barbecue. Weird weather.
Indeed - Guardian
“Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland have all experienced their hottest Septembers on record, with unseasonably high temperatures set to continue into October, in a year likely to be the warmest in human history.
As 31C (88F) was forecast in south-west France on Sunday and 28C in Paris, the French weather authority, Météo-France, said September’s average temperature was 21.5C, between 3.5C and 3.6C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period.
And there's a warm plume of air on the way for the end of next week.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
Do you simply mean the transition from primary to secondary? Or are you lamenting an actual change in human behaviour?
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
I definitely hear a lot about the challenges facing kids, changes in behaviour and socialisation post Covid etc, and I am guessing like a lot of things it must be way worse in some areas and in some parts of the population than in others. I've got kids who are 17, 14 and 11 and I'm not really seeing any changes or obvious ill effects in my youngest daughter or among her peer group. My youngest is certainly a less advanced and interested reader than my eldest daughter, or her brother probably, but I think this is probably not due to lockdown etc. Some of her friends are big readers. And she is way more sociable than my eldest daughter, who only had 2 friends when she was her age, well before Covid. This is a state school, albeit with quite a middle class catchment for SE London. Perhaps it's much worse in some of the other parts of the borough. Or perhaps it's worse outside London, I don't know. Or perhaps I'm just being oblivious! I'm definitely not denying it's a thing, but it must be quite unevenly distributed I guess. My son just came back from a Cubs camp where he was working as a young leader, and said some of the younger kids were quite weirdly behaved.
It wasn't really a lockdown complaint (though I am not averse to them!) - just a lament on the brevity of childhood.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
Do you simply mean the transition from primary to secondary? Or are you lamenting an actual change in human behaviour?
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
Well it sort of happens at the transition from primary to secondary, but I feel sad for the likes of her - the 'young-for-their-age' kids - who are used to spending breaktimes playing games, who suddenly find that teenagers don't 'play', they just hang out. I mean for this particular individual, it's ok - she's on a football team, she dances, she has friends - but nevertheless she's no longer living a carefree school existence in a school with extensive grounds to explore, and playhouses, and a jungle to hang out in; she's in a secondary school where there's suddenly a lot of currency in how cool you are and playing is looked down on as childish.
Conversely, my kids went the other way at that age - they've got a lot more independence so spend rather more time with friends IRL than they previously did. But not all kids are quite ready to do that.
I think I'm just feeling a bit wistful; I've spent the weekend disassembling the remnants of daughter #2's childhood bedroom after she's moved to a new bedroom following an extension. And while daughter #2 is the most wonderful person in the world (equal with daughters #1 and #3, of course), she is no longer the child for whom we decorated the room and put children's furniture in.
It's a cliche but they really do grow up so fast. Our eldest goes to Uni next year, unbelievable. And the youngest will be going up to Secondary. The odd thing about Secondary is how much of a difference there is between some kids and others. My son is 14 and small and young looking for his age, and plays football against kids who are 6 foot with a full beard! My kids are all growing up and becoming physically mature quite slowly, I think that can be quite hard on them, with feelings of being ignored or missing out, but I think it's preferable to the opposite to be honest. It's quite good if they don't have to deal with things they're physically but not emotionally mature enough to deal with.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
Do you simply mean the transition from primary to secondary? Or are you lamenting an actual change in human behaviour?
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
I definitely hear a lot about the challenges facing kids, changes in behaviour and socialisation post Covid etc, and I am guessing like a lot of things it must be way worse in some areas and in some parts of the population than in others. I've got kids who are 17, 14 and 11 and I'm not really seeing any changes or obvious ill effects in my youngest daughter or among her peer group. My youngest is certainly a less advanced and interested reader than my eldest daughter, or her brother probably, but I think this is probably not due to lockdown etc. Some of her friends are big readers. And she is way more sociable than my eldest daughter, who only had 2 friends when she was her age, well before Covid. This is a state school, albeit with quite a middle class catchment for SE London. Perhaps it's much worse in some of the other parts of the borough. Or perhaps it's worse outside London, I don't know. Or perhaps I'm just being oblivious! I'm definitely not denying it's a thing, but it must be quite unevenly distributed I guess. My son just came back from a Cubs camp where he was working as a young leader, and said some of the younger kids were quite weirdly behaved.
Yeah, varies a lot from school to school. The girls' comp mine go to is pretty impressive from that point of view- they have a proper playground for Year 7s who still want it, and let them grow into adolescence gradually. (I suspect it's much easier to manage this sort of thing in a single sex environment.)
As for the effect of The Sickness... I remember thinking at the time, there was a need to resocialise before leaping straight back into lessons. Both summer 2020 (the respite) and 2021 (post-vaccination catchup) had opportunities there- outside, with not much more aim than learning to be around people (again). And we fluffed it.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
I am seasick from the row forward and row back from these clowns.
And in all probability, we have another bloody year of this.
I've been in the "failed organisation waiting for the takeover to happen" limbo, and it's horrible.
There comes a point when, grim as the days after the takeover are going to be, they are preferable to the mixture of chaos and stasis that come before.
Better to have stasis in government than Stasi in government.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
No. It began with the US bankrolling the French colonialists postwar. A decade earlier.
The American “trainers” were leading South Vietnamese patrols and engaging in fighting on the frontline right from the start.
Indeed - though it was a mixture of programs. There was also a genuine effort to transform the rural economy in the South.
But it was a shitshow from the start. When Eisenhower signed the accords which partitioned Vietnam, he also agreed to a democratic vote on reuniting the country.
And quickly reneged on that after the installation of Diem in the South.
The Vietnamese were always more interested in independence than in communism. Had Truman and Eisenhower (and Dulles, who bears much of the blame) recognised that, history could have been very different.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
maybe observation bias at work in the sense I doubt you would go to chitholes for your holiday and hence you compare the best of France and Spain against more mundane places that you know in the UK
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
maybe observation bias at work in the sense I doubt you would go to chitholes for your holiday and hence you compare the best of France and Spain against more mundane places that you know in the UK
I never thought of that, obviously. Anyway, not the case. My comparison was with the best of this country.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
maybe observation bias at work in the sense I doubt you would go to chitholes for your holiday and hence you compare the best of France and Spain against more mundane places that you know in the UK
I never thought of that, obviously. Anyway, not the case. My comparison was with the best of this country.
Where do you live in this country that the streets aren't clean, flower beds aren't maintained etc?
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
One point in favour of the UK, from the last few times I’ve returned from the continent (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland. Not so much Denmark which is more like UK) : service culture in shops and restaurants has noticeably improved here, whereas it’s every bit as nonchalant and unsmiling as ever in those other countries. And we seem to have achieved this without the need for the bribes (tips) they have in the US.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
maybe observation bias at work in the sense I doubt you would go to chitholes for your holiday and hence you compare the best of France and Spain against more mundane places that you know in the UK
No, I noticed much the same in S Korea (despite their historic reputation for abysmal toilets) - and that encompassed highway service stations across the country, not tourist spots.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
They aren't moving production. They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
7.20pm on the first of October. I’m sitting out on the fairy-lit patio in a t-shirt with a glass of wine after an earlier barbecue. Weird weather.
Though I distinctly recall 1 October 1985 when the temperature finally hit 80°F for the first time that year.
(Not to be taken as a denial of AGW, just an observation that balmy October evenings have always been within the normal range.)
It’s not been as sunny a week as predicted, warm though it’s been. I heard that smoke from wildfires in North America was wafted across the Atlantic giving us hazy conditions. From an authoritative weather forecasting source, unlikely though it sounds.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
maybe observation bias at work in the sense I doubt you would go to chitholes for your holiday and hence you compare the best of France and Spain against more mundane places that you know in the UK
I am one of those flag flyers who used to buy British (cars, white goods, consumer electronics) when I could back in the day. I even had a little union flag under the bumper of my Cologne built Capri (I wouldn't now, mind you, I wouldn't want you to think I was Lozza Fox). I had this quaint notion of supporting British manufacturing jobs, while all the Tories around me splashed out on their Golf and 205GTis. Anyway I was far too sentimental then, which is why I note, even when I go to continental industrial cities, except for the absence of continental graffiti, our cities look far more tired and unkempt. Just an observation. One of our worst is Birmingham, and I'm a proud Brummie.
7.20pm on the first of October. I’m sitting out on the fairy-lit patio in a t-shirt with a glass of wine after an earlier barbecue. Weird weather.
Though I distinctly recall 1 October 1985 when the temperature finally hit 80°F for the first time that year.
(Not to be taken as a denial of AGW, just an observation that balmy October evenings have always been within the normal range.)
It’s not been as sunny a week as predicted, warm though it’s been. I heard that smoke from wildfires in North America was wafted across the Atlantic giving us hazy conditions. From an authoritative weather forecasting source, unlikely though it sounds.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
They aren't moving production. They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
Yes, I know, and I think the Defence Secretary should be encouraging them to set up new production in the UK.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
They aren't moving production. They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
Prompted by French manufacturers announcing the same a few days ago. The old Anglo-French defence contracting rivalry finds a new home after AUKUS.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
This appears to be a very promising desalination process.
Extreme salt-resisting multistage solar distillation with thermohaline convection https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2542435123003604 Utilizing sunlight to drive freshwater production is a promising way to realize sustainable water supply. Recent advances in multistage solar distillation attract particular interest because it enables a multifold enhancement in water production rate. However, existing solar-powered multistage distillers suffer from reliability and limited lifetime. The undesirable reliability makes the distilled water cost much higher than the tap water price, which significantly impedes the practical adoption. A key underlying limiting factor of device reliability is the evaporator fouling induced by salt accumulation. Inspired by a natural phenomenon, thermohaline convection in the deep ocean, we demonstrate multistage solar distillation with both record-high water production efficiency and extreme resistance to salt accumulation via temperature and salinity gradient manipulation across a novel confined-saline-layer evaporator. This promises a real-world impact of solar distillation technologies.
Whoever it was who called Australia being 20 points better than Portugal (Penddu ?) was right on the money.
Fiji need a point next week to qualify ahead of Australia.
Yes I said that it would probably be 20 points to Oz - but more importantly that it could be a big upset - if it wasnt for the 21 point blitz when Portugal were a man down that could have been a very different result. Portugal were very impressive at times...
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
It's never easy being a teenager.
One of the hardest times in life, IMHO.
Apart from health, most worries in life reduce as you get older.
It’s just a shame that the health one will get you, in the end.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
They aren't moving production. They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
Yes, I know, and I think the Defence Secretary should be encouraging them to set up new production in the UK.
The reconstruction and rearming of Ukraine, after the war is over, will be quite lucrative. Probably got an eye on a share of the spoils.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
It's never easy being a teenager.
One of the hardest times in life, IMHO.
Agreed. Yet a few hundred years ago the concept of 'teenager' barely existed. Most of us would go from being a child to a young adult, often thrown into the workplace before we reached thirteen.
Although the modern world is more complex than those times, I wonder if people aged between thirteen and nineteen had many of the same issues our kids face nowadays - after all, the biology of the bodily changes is much the same. The problems were just ignored.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
No. It began with the US bankrolling the French colonialists postwar. A decade earlier.
The American “trainers” were leading South Vietnamese patrols and engaging in fighting on the frontline right from the start.
Indeed - though it was a mixture of programs. There was also a genuine effort to transform the rural economy in the South.
But it was a shitshow from the start. When Eisenhower signed the accords which partitioned Vietnam, he also agreed to a democratic vote on reuniting the country.
And quickly reneged on that after the installation of Diem in the South.
The Vietnamese were always more interested in independence than in communism. Had Truman and Eisenhower (and Dulles, who bears much of the blame) recognised that, history could have been very different.
When Kennedy was elected in 1960 they considered the 2 most dangerous men in America to be John Foster Dulles and J Edgar Hoover. Both had absurdly inflated power over their areas of expertise and reputations that made them almost bullet proof. Ultimately, they decided Hoover was the more dangerous and so RFK was made Attorney General to keep an eye on him. A few months later they had the Bay of Pigs. Not sure they called it right although the freedom riders and racial tensions would have gone very differently without Robert's intervention.
It's a great shame Robert's son has proved to be such an arse.
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
It's never easy being a teenager.
One of the hardest times in life, IMHO.
I think for girls 12-15 is the hardest, and for boys 14-16.
My mother used to say a teenager is a beautiful statue wrapped in black plastic sheeting. When they emerge from the covering, around the time they start sixth form, it’s like a butterfly after metamorphosis. Suddenly you find yourself living with a proto-adult, with interesting things to say and their own dreams to follow.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
No. It began with the US bankrolling the French colonialists postwar. A decade earlier.
The American “trainers” were leading South Vietnamese patrols and engaging in fighting on the frontline right from the start.
Indeed - though it was a mixture of programs. There was also a genuine effort to transform the rural economy in the South.
But it was a shitshow from the start. When Eisenhower signed the accords which partitioned Vietnam, he also agreed to a democratic vote on reuniting the country.
And quickly reneged on that after the installation of Diem in the South.
The Vietnamese were always more interested in independence than in communism. Had Truman and Eisenhower (and Dulles, who bears much of the blame) recognised that, history could have been very different.
When Kennedy was elected in 1960 they considered the 2 most dangerous men in America to be John Foster Dulles and J Edgar Hoover. Both had absurdly inflated power over their areas of expertise and reputations that made them almost bullet proof. Ultimately, they decided Hoover was the more dangerous and so RFK was made Attorney General to keep an eye on him. A few months later they had the Bay of Pigs. Not sure they called it right although the freedom riders and racial tensions would have gone very differently without Robert's intervention.
It's a great shame Robert's son has proved to be such an arse.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
They aren't moving production. They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
Prompted by French manufacturers announcing the same a few days ago. The old Anglo-French defence contracting rivalry finds a new home after AUKUS.
Extraordinary heat in Spain,records were obliterated with huge margins allover the country Most important records 🧵
38.0 Badajoz National October record 37.2 Seville Tablada 36.7 Aero 36.7 Cordoba 35.8 Granada AP 33.6 Jaen 34.1 Toledo 33.1 C. Real 30 MADRID TIE 32.6 Barajas
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
No. It began with the US bankrolling the French colonialists postwar. A decade earlier.
The American “trainers” were leading South Vietnamese patrols and engaging in fighting on the frontline right from the start.
Indeed - though it was a mixture of programs. There was also a genuine effort to transform the rural economy in the South.
But it was a shitshow from the start. When Eisenhower signed the accords which partitioned Vietnam, he also agreed to a democratic vote on reuniting the country.
And quickly reneged on that after the installation of Diem in the South.
The Vietnamese were always more interested in independence than in communism. Had Truman and Eisenhower (and Dulles, who bears much of the blame) recognised that, history could have been very different.
When Kennedy was elected in 1960 they considered the 2 most dangerous men in America to be John Foster Dulles and J Edgar Hoover. Both had absurdly inflated power over their areas of expertise and reputations that made them almost bullet proof. Ultimately, they decided Hoover was the more dangerous and so RFK was made Attorney General to keep an eye on him. A few months later they had the Bay of Pigs. Not sure they called it right although the freedom riders and racial tensions would have gone very differently without Robert's intervention.
It's a great shame Robert's son has proved to be such an arse.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
They aren't moving production. They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
Yes, I know, and I think the Defence Secretary should be encouraging them to set up new production in the UK.
The reconstruction and rearming of Ukraine, after the war is over, will be quite lucrative. Probably got an eye on a share of the spoils.
I seem to remember something very similar being said about Iraq.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
It's never easy being a teenager.
One of the hardest times in life, IMHO.
Apart from health, most worries in life reduce as you get older.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
No. It began with the US bankrolling the French colonialists postwar. A decade earlier.
The American “trainers” were leading South Vietnamese patrols and engaging in fighting on the frontline right from the start.
Indeed - though it was a mixture of programs. There was also a genuine effort to transform the rural economy in the South.
But it was a shitshow from the start. When Eisenhower signed the accords which partitioned Vietnam, he also agreed to a democratic vote on reuniting the country.
And quickly reneged on that after the installation of Diem in the South.
The Vietnamese were always more interested in independence than in communism. Had Truman and Eisenhower (and Dulles, who bears much of the blame) recognised that, history could have been very different.
When Kennedy was elected in 1960 they considered the 2 most dangerous men in America to be John Foster Dulles and J Edgar Hoover. Both had absurdly inflated power over their areas of expertise and reputations that made them almost bullet proof. Ultimately, they decided Hoover was the more dangerous and so RFK was made Attorney General to keep an eye on him. A few months later they had the Bay of Pigs. Not sure they called it right although the freedom riders and racial tensions would have gone very differently without Robert's intervention.
It's a great shame Robert's son has proved to be such an arse.
RFK Jr is mulling a third party presidential bid.
Apparently.
Financed by Republican money.. I'm not entirely convinced it will work for them.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
They aren't moving production. They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
Yes, I know, and I think the Defence Secretary should be encouraging them to set up new production in the UK.
The Ukrainians want production of arms they are procuring to occur in factories they control.
The recent history of people telling them want they can have and when explains why.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
No. It began with the US bankrolling the French colonialists postwar. A decade earlier.
The American “trainers” were leading South Vietnamese patrols and engaging in fighting on the frontline right from the start.
Indeed - though it was a mixture of programs. There was also a genuine effort to transform the rural economy in the South.
But it was a shitshow from the start. When Eisenhower signed the accords which partitioned Vietnam, he also agreed to a democratic vote on reuniting the country.
And quickly reneged on that after the installation of Diem in the South.
The Vietnamese were always more interested in independence than in communism. Had Truman and Eisenhower (and Dulles, who bears much of the blame) recognised that, history could have been very different.
When Kennedy was elected in 1960 they considered the 2 most dangerous men in America to be John Foster Dulles and J Edgar Hoover. Both had absurdly inflated power over their areas of expertise and reputations that made them almost bullet proof. Ultimately, they decided Hoover was the more dangerous and so RFK was made Attorney General to keep an eye on him. A few months later they had the Bay of Pigs. Not sure they called it right although the freedom riders and racial tensions would have gone very differently without Robert's intervention.
It's a great shame Robert's son has proved to be such an arse.
RFK Jr is mulling a third party presidential bid.
Apparently.
Financed by Republican money.. I'm not entirely convinced it will work for them.
Me neither, he is more likely to pull some of the anti vax nutters away from Trump than left wing voters from Biden.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
British firms having production abroad is absolutely in Britain's interests, which is why we have done it for 316 years and counting.
Overseas firms investing in Britain do so because its in their interests too, not out of the goodness of their heart.
The fact that its a warzone is all the more reason why why it is a smart idea to invest in war related manufacturing there.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
It's never easy being a teenager.
One of the hardest times in life, IMHO.
Apart from health, most worries in life reduce as you get older.
I wish .......
It was a glib generalisation, but there is research to back it up.
About yourself, I should have clarified. Worries about children and grandchildren are worries about the young, by proxy.
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
For a regular helicopter flyer he’s done remarkably little for aviators, ISTM?
Lol, yes. Today I biked down to Halfords to buy products to spruce up the paintwork on my SUV. On the way home, I was beeped and close-passed by a moron in a grey van. No idea whether I am a ‘motorist’ or not.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
British firms having production abroad is absolutely in Britain's interests, which is why we have done it for 316 years and counting.
Overseas firms investing in Britain do so because its in their interests too, not out of the goodness of their heart.
The fact that its a warzone is all the more reason why why it is a smart idea to invest in war related manufacturing there.
To give some context - the Ukrainians want to maintain a tank park larger than any other in Europe. They are looking to buy hundreds of self propelled artillery pieces.
At this scale they will need multiple new factories to support this. And they are determined that they should be under their control.
Off thread - I was speaking to an 11 year old girl yesterday - another player in my daughter's football team. She's a sweet kid - smiley and eager to please. "How's senior school going?" I asked. "Oh, OK," she answered brightly. "It's very different from primary school though. I've only cried a couple of times. Just about how different it is." [Pause] "There isn't really much to do at break times. People just talk. No one really plays any more."
A more harrowing lament on growing up I have yet to hear.
It's OK for my daughter. She's one of the oldest in the year. She's more adult than most. But I really felt for this girl, and for all the slightly-young-for-their-year kids being yanked unceremoniously out of childhood.
Not sure what to do with this story but I can't stop thinking about it.
Do you simply mean the transition from primary to secondary? Or are you lamenting an actual change in human behaviour?
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
Well it sort of happens at the transition from primary to secondary, but I feel sad for the likes of her - the 'young-for-their-age' kids - who are used to spending breaktimes playing games, who suddenly find that teenagers don't 'play', they just hang out. I mean for this particular individual, it's ok - she's on a football team, she dances, she has friends - but nevertheless she's no longer living a carefree school existence in a school with extensive grounds to explore, and playhouses, and a jungle to hang out in; she's in a secondary school where there's suddenly a lot of currency in how cool you are and playing is looked down on as childish.
Conversely, my kids went the other way at that age - they've got a lot more independence so spend rather more time with friends IRL than they previously did. But not all kids are quite ready to do that.
I think I'm just feeling a bit wistful; I've spent the weekend disassembling the remnants of daughter #2's childhood bedroom after she's moved to a new bedroom following an extension. And while daughter #2 is the most wonderful person in the world (equal with daughters #1 and #3, of course), she is no longer the child for whom we decorated the room and put children's furniture in.
It's a cliche but they really do grow up so fast. Our eldest goes to Uni next year, unbelievable. And the youngest will be going up to Secondary. The odd thing about Secondary is how much of a difference there is between some kids and others. My son is 14 and small and young looking for his age, and plays football against kids who are 6 foot with a full beard! My kids are all growing up and becoming physically mature quite slowly, I think that can be quite hard on them, with feelings of being ignored or missing out, but I think it's preferable to the opposite to be honest. It's quite good if they don't have to deal with things they're physically but not emotionally mature enough to deal with.
From Fern Hill:
And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long, In the sun born over and over, I ran my heedless ways, My wishes raced through the house high hay And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs Before the children green and golden Follow him out of grace,
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
Absolutely hit the nail on the head.
This applies especially true for children of all ages.
If my daughter says today she is a butterfly, then today she is a butterfly.
If my daughter says today she is a boy, then today they are a boy.
There is no reason to take anything to extremes. Just treat people with respect, but that doesn't lock things in stone either.
People who either react with horror at people who may just experimenting with who they are, or who go to the other extreme and want to medically 'affirm' what might just be a phase is utterly unnecessary. Just treat people with respect and within reason call them what they want to be called and let them experiment.
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
I tick none of those boxes, so what does that mean?
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
No. It's slightly trickier than that. Words are public not private possessions. You can in your private thoughts and speech to self use words how you like, but that world only belongs to you. But in public speech words have shared meanings, so it is not obvious that it is proper to compel someone else to use words in a way obliging them to renounce the ways in which our shared language works and is rendered meaningful. Courtesy and respect is a two way street.
7.20pm on the first of October. I’m sitting out on the fairy-lit patio in a t-shirt with a glass of wine after an earlier barbecue. Weird weather.
Though I distinctly recall 1 October 1985 when the temperature finally hit 80°F for the first time that year.
(Not to be taken as a denial of AGW, just an observation that balmy October evenings have always been within the normal range.)
It’s not been as sunny a week as predicted, warm though it’s been. I heard that smoke from wildfires in North America was wafted across the Atlantic giving us hazy conditions. From an authoritative weather forecasting source, unlikely though it sounds.
Define crazy:
Going all the way from London to Wolverhampton to do the new tram extension to the railway station (no more than half a mile) and getting soaking wet for my troubles
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
I tick none of those boxes, so what does that mean?
You're a driver, not a motorist.
Sorry, them's the rules. I don't make them, I just rigourously enforce them.
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
You forgot the 1950s AA badge on the front of your Morris Oxford.
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
No. It's slightly trickier than that. Words are public not private possessions. You can in your private thoughts and speech to self use words how you like, but that world only belongs to you. But in public speech words have shared meanings, so it is not obvious that it is proper to compel someone else to use words in a way obliging them to renounce the ways in which our shared language works and is rendered meaningful. Courtesy and respect is a two way street.
Yes words do have shared meanings, but words about an individual do not. That's when we get into basic manners. If I want to be called Bart and you keep calling me Joseph, then to me that's just rude. If I call you kirk and you say I'd rather be called algar, and I continue to call you kirk, then that's just me being rude.
If somebody wants to be called "them" which is a third party singular word anyway, then what's the bloody harm in calling them by what they want to be called?
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
You forgot the 1950s AA badge on the front of your Morris Oxford.
And a warm blanket to wrap round yourself, as in those days driving meant you were outside, not inside.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
Public squalor is a peculiarly English thing. On the whole Scotland is different and more continental.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
British firms having production abroad is absolutely in Britain's interests, which is why we have done it for 316 years and counting.
Overseas firms investing in Britain do so because its in their interests too, not out of the goodness of their heart.
The fact that its a warzone is all the more reason why why it is a smart idea to invest in war related manufacturing there.
To give some context - the Ukrainians want to maintain a tank park larger than any other in Europe.* They are looking to buy hundreds of self propelled artillery pieces.
At this scale they will need multiple new factories to support this. And they are determined that they should be under their control.
*Except perhaps Poland. Who have done a deal with S Korea's Hanwa to build production of their tanks and howitzers in Poland.
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
British troops openly in Ukraine training Ukrainian troops is a fucking mad idea
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
The wally also wants UK defence firms to locate production there. Why on earth do they keep putting him in charge of things? His wig would probably make a better Defence Sec.
Since when were exports a bad thing?
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I have never made any posts welcoming any British firm moving production overseas. At least locating it in Britain creates some ancillary benefit to the economy from our continuing weapons donations. To say nothing of the fact that it's a warzone.
British firms having production abroad is absolutely in Britain's interests, which is why we have done it for 316 years and counting.
Overseas firms investing in Britain do so because its in their interests too, not out of the goodness of their heart.
The fact that its a warzone is all the more reason why why it is a smart idea to invest in war related manufacturing there.
To give some context - the Ukrainians want to maintain a tank park larger than any other in Europe.* They are looking to buy hundreds of self propelled artillery pieces.
At this scale they will need multiple new factories to support this. And they are determined that they should be under their control.
*Except perhaps Poland. Who have done a deal with S Korea's Hanwa to build production of their tanks and howitzers in Poland.
Exactly. At this scale in the arms world, it's about buying a design and setting up your own factory.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
Public squalor is a peculiarly English thing. On the whole Scotland is different and more continental.
I am not a seasoned European traveller, but recently we visited Pompeii. We stayed in a tiny B&B near the ruins, and most mornings I would go out for an early-morning stroll before it got too hot.
The centre of Pompeii town (the modern one...) was very nice, and just what you imagine an Italian town to be like. But as I walked out of it, particularly to the north, the buildings and surroundings were really shabbby. In particular the render/plaster was invariably really, really grimy, or even patchy. There was a fair bit of litter, and lots of graffiti.
(I also liked the way rubbish bags would hang down from balconies; a small van was going around collecting them.)
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
No. It's slightly trickier than that. Words are public not private possessions. You can in your private thoughts and speech to self use words how you like, but that world only belongs to you. But in public speech words have shared meanings, so it is not obvious that it is proper to compel someone else to use words in a way obliging them to renounce the ways in which our shared language works and is rendered meaningful. Courtesy and respect is a two way street.
Yes words do have shared meanings, but words about an individual do not. That's when we get into basic manners. If I want to be called Bart and you keep calling me Joseph, then to me that's just rude. If I call you kirk and you say I'd rather be called algar, and I continue to call you kirk, then that's just me being rude.
If somebody wants to be called "them" which is a third party singular word anyway, then what's the bloody harm in calling them by what they want to be called?
Thanks. Words about an individual have shared meanings. Each individual has a finite range of terms which pick them out as an individual which holds good for the world as a whole ('Pope Francis' for example, but Francis or Frank will do for his family, but Billy won't do the trick). Pronouns are not proper names but generic. Unless there are shared rules about how they work, then ordinary language becomes a place of power play and manipulation.
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
No. It's slightly trickier than that. Words are public not private possessions. You can in your private thoughts and speech to self use words how you like, but that world only belongs to you. But in public speech words have shared meanings, so it is not obvious that it is proper to compel someone else to use words in a way obliging them to renounce the ways in which our shared language works and is rendered meaningful. Courtesy and respect is a two way street.
Yes words do have shared meanings, but words about an individual do not. That's when we get into basic manners. If I want to be called Bart and you keep calling me Joseph, then to me that's just rude. If I call you kirk and you say I'd rather be called algar, and I continue to call you kirk, then that's just me being rude.
If somebody wants to be called "them" which is a third party singular word anyway, then what's the bloody harm in calling them by what they want to be called?
And where does 'courtesy and respect' come into Musk's actions, which is where we kicked off ?
The ECtHR is irritating. It’s political, it’s inconsistent and, occasionally, it is irrational. I can well understand the irritation that someone like Sumption might have about the quality of their decision making. Some of it is indeed embarrassing.
And yet, it exists. It has existed for a very long time and it is, at times, a useful independent check on what we do. I think it would take a lot of time and a lot of precedent before any UK court would establish that kind of independence and impartiality. The current SC shows little evidence of such independence. Some may say that this is because it does it’s job and does not play politics, focusing on the law. I tend to that view myself. But dictatorship by a FPTP majority, well short of a majority of the votes, must have some limits. We need someone to protect the minorities, to explore the hard cases all too often not even considered when the legislation was passed. The ECtHR does this well enough on the whole.
We may not always need the ECHR as a backstop, but sometimes, e.g. under the current government, we do.
People usually don't need a parachute. But when you need one, you really, really need one
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
As a child, the car ashtray was always full of blackcurrant pastilles.
Sadly, since, Rowntree have withdrawn the blackcurrant-only rolls, and then made the recipe vegan, fucking up both the taste and the texture. Oh, and they cancelled tooty-fruities. Arseholes.
Put them in chains with the Mars corporation for cancelling Bounty Dark.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
Public squalor is a peculiarly English thing. On the whole Scotland is different and more continental.
I am not a seasoned European traveller, but recently we visited Pompeii. We stayed in a tiny B&B near the ruins, and most mornings I would go out for an early-morning stroll before it got too hot.
The centre of Pompeii town (the modern one...) was very nice, and just what you imagine an Italian town to be like. But as I walked out of it, particularly to the north, the buildings and surroundings were really shabbby. In particular the render/plaster was invariably really, really grimy, or even patchy. There was a fair bit of litter, and lots of graffiti.
(I also liked the way rubbish bags would hang down from balconies; a small van was going around collecting them.)
Rome was pretty squalid, when I was there recently - the treatment of ruins and ancient monuments was public neglect behind fences. Piles of garbage seemed to be the theme.
The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II needs dynamiting.
A brief contribution to the travelogue. I've just spent a couple of weeks in France and Spain. What stood out most was how superior the public realm was to ours, in both countries. The streets were cleaner, public flower beds beautifully manicured, public toilets plentiful and fine, and so on. There is a civic pride that we have utterly lost, presumably largely due to local authority budgets being axed, but also due to a lack of political will to spend money on such matters. On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
Public squalor is a peculiarly English thing. On the whole Scotland is different and more continental.
I am not a seasoned European traveller, but recently we visited Pompeii. We stayed in a tiny B&B near the ruins, and most mornings I would go out for an early-morning stroll before it got too hot.
The centre of Pompeii town (the modern one...) was very nice, and just what you imagine an Italian town to be like. But as I walked out of it, particularly to the north, the buildings and surroundings were really shabbby. In particular the render/plaster was invariably really, really grimy, or even patchy. There was a fair bit of litter, and lots of graffiti.
(I also liked the way rubbish bags would hang down from balconies; a small van was going around collecting them.)
One of the poorest parts of Italy.
All my life, British public spaces have looked cheap, run-down, and littered with clumsy signage and utilities.
Not always, but often.
I’ve wondered why this is for a long time, and I ended up concluding that these things are usually the domain of local government, which is notably feeble and underfunded by Western standards.
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
No. It's slightly trickier than that. Words are public not private possessions. You can in your private thoughts and speech to self use words how you like, but that world only belongs to you. But in public speech words have shared meanings, so it is not obvious that it is proper to compel someone else to use words in a way obliging them to renounce the ways in which our shared language works and is rendered meaningful. Courtesy and respect is a two way street.
Yes words do have shared meanings, but words about an individual do not. That's when we get into basic manners. If I want to be called Bart and you keep calling me Joseph, then to me that's just rude. If I call you kirk and you say I'd rather be called algar, and I continue to call you kirk, then that's just me being rude.
If somebody wants to be called "them" which is a third party singular word anyway, then what's the bloody harm in calling them by what they want to be called?
Thanks. Words about an individual have shared meanings. Each individual has a finite range of terms which pick them out as an individual which holds good for the world as a whole ('Pope Francis' for example, but Francis or Frank will do for his family, but Billy won't do the trick). Pronouns are not proper names but generic. Unless there are shared rules about how they work, then ordinary language becomes a place of power play and manipulation.
You just want to exclude a set of people from those shared meanings. Which indeed seems a power play.
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
No. It's slightly trickier than that. Words are public not private possessions. You can in your private thoughts and speech to self use words how you like, but that world only belongs to you. But in public speech words have shared meanings, so it is not obvious that it is proper to compel someone else to use words in a way obliging them to renounce the ways in which our shared language works and is rendered meaningful. Courtesy and respect is a two way street.
I don't think this particular issue is one of compulsion, though. It's a question of Elon Musk not even allowing people to state their preference. That goes beyond discourtesy and verges on megalomania.
Apparently Elon Musk is triggered by people putting pronouns into their twitter bios, so he's having them edited out, the great big pathetic snowflake.
What on earth is her problem?
So deliberate misgendering is cool if it’s someone you don’t like. Right…..
No. His pronouns are he/twat.
I cannot see why he is so worked up about people using their pronouns. I cannot see why anyone would get worked up about it.
This is really very simple.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
No. It's slightly trickier than that. Words are public not private possessions. You can in your private thoughts and speech to self use words how you like, but that world only belongs to you. But in public speech words have shared meanings, so it is not obvious that it is proper to compel someone else to use words in a way obliging them to renounce the ways in which our shared language works and is rendered meaningful. Courtesy and respect is a two way street.
Yes words do have shared meanings, but words about an individual do not. That's when we get into basic manners. If I want to be called Bart and you keep calling me Joseph, then to me that's just rude. If I call you kirk and you say I'd rather be called algar, and I continue to call you kirk, then that's just me being rude.
If somebody wants to be called "them" which is a third party singular word anyway, then what's the bloody harm in calling them by what they want to be called?
And where does 'courtesy and respect' come into Musk's actions, which is where we kicked off ?
Or is that 'tricky' too ?
Thanks. I'm not Musk's spokesperson. He doesn't come across as great on courtesy and respect. As to his specific actions in this arena, I have no idea. I don't follow him on any platform, and have no plans to start.
Who are this weird breed of people Sunak calls ‘the motorists’? Does he mean anyone who drives sometimes, i.e cyclists, pedestrians and aviators?
To be a motorist, you require string backed driving gloves, a pine rear view mirror air freshener, and a tin of travel sweets in the glove compartment.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
I tick none of those boxes, so what does that mean?
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a car but no string backed driving gloves, pine rear view mirror air freshener, or tin of humbugs, must be in urgent need of a pair of furry dice, or a mini Rubik's Cube.
Comments
If it’s the latter I agree. The stats on how much time kids now spend alone are bleak - if you prefer real socialisation. There’s been a collapse in “group” activities
And phones are apparently commonplace in schools in the USA, ostensibly in case there is a shooting, which is just deranged. You could sympathise if it was Israel or somewhere like that which is in a constant state of sort-of-at-war. But the USA seems to have just accepted that periodically its citizens go mad and do a school shooting.
Isn’t that how the American involvement in Vietnam began? Americans went in to “train” the south Vietnamese?
That didn’t work out well, and in that war America was not directly fighting a nuclear armed major power with psycho tendencies
“Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland have all experienced their hottest Septembers on record, with unseasonably high temperatures set to continue into October, in a year likely to be the warmest in human history.
As 31C (88F) was forecast in south-west France on Sunday and 28C in Paris, the French weather authority, Météo-France, said September’s average temperature was 21.5C, between 3.5C and 3.6C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period.
It's remarkable the changes that can happen, both physically and emotionally, at that age and not all do or want to change at the same rate.
We had a shocking moment in the summer when my daughter (nine) was bridesmaid at a wedding, related to the bride, as was an eleven year related to the groom. Our daughter is small but not exceptionally small for her age, she very much is and looks like a child.
The eleven year old despite being only two years older looked far closer to the adult bridesmaids than my daughter in age. I could imagine if she wanted she could be served alcohol in many UK pubs without getting asked for ID, she looked that mature.
This is a state school, albeit with quite a middle class catchment for SE London. Perhaps it's much worse in some of the other parts of the borough. Or perhaps it's worse outside London, I don't know. Or perhaps I'm just being oblivious! I'm definitely not denying it's a thing, but it must be quite unevenly distributed I guess. My son just came back from a Cubs camp where he was working as a young leader, and said some of the younger kids were quite weirdly behaved.
Britain has sought to have production overseas for the past 316 years and counting.
Why do you object now?
I mean for this particular individual, it's ok - she's on a football team, she dances, she has friends - but nevertheless she's no longer living a carefree school existence in a school with extensive grounds to explore, and playhouses, and a jungle to hang out in; she's in a secondary school where there's suddenly a lot of currency in how cool you are and playing is looked down on as childish.
Conversely, my kids went the other way at that age - they've got a lot more independence so spend rather more time with friends IRL than they previously did. But not all kids are quite ready to do that.
I think I'm just feeling a bit wistful; I've spent the weekend disassembling the remnants of daughter #2's childhood bedroom after she's moved to a new bedroom following an extension. And while daughter #2 is the most wonderful person in the world (equal with daughters #1 and #3, of course), she is no longer the child for whom we decorated the room and put children's furniture in.
It began with the US bankrolling the French colonialists postwar. A decade earlier.
(Not to be taken as a denial of AGW, just an observation that balmy October evenings have always been within the normal range.)
The odd thing about Secondary is how much of a difference there is between some kids and others. My son is 14 and small and young looking for his age, and plays football against kids who are 6 foot with a full beard! My kids are all growing up and becoming physically mature quite slowly, I think that can be quite hard on them, with feelings of being ignored or missing out, but I think it's preferable to the opposite to be honest. It's quite good if they don't have to deal with things they're physically but not emotionally mature enough to deal with.
Fiji need a point next week to qualify ahead of Australia.
As for the effect of The Sickness... I remember thinking at the time, there was a need to resocialise before leaping straight back into lessons. Both summer 2020 (the respite) and 2021 (post-vaccination catchup) had opportunities there- outside, with not much more aim than learning to be around people (again). And we fluffed it.
On transport, the trains were great but the buses as bad, if not worse, than ours. And, if I could murder easyjet, I would.
There was also a genuine effort to transform the rural economy in the South.
But it was a shitshow from the start. When Eisenhower signed the accords which partitioned Vietnam, he also agreed to a democratic vote on reuniting the country.
And quickly reneged on that after the installation of Diem in the South.
The Vietnamese were always more interested in independence than in communism. Had Truman and Eisenhower (and Dulles, who bears much of the blame) recognised that, history could have been very different.
I was right, but reality came to most people rather too late.
They're setting up new production overseas. That is standard practice in the defence industry, not some Shapps innovation, as you seem to imagine.
Then 2001: day after day of 19-20C and the new warmest on record.
2011: almost 30C on the 1st, a trip to Camber Sands with the children’s grandparents.
2018, another very warm October. Last year, warmest on record over most of Europe (but not here).
Now 2023. October is one of the fastest warming months. August and December are the slowest warming.
One of the hardest times in life, IMHO.
Extreme salt-resisting multistage solar distillation with thermohaline convection
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2542435123003604
Utilizing sunlight to drive freshwater production is a promising way to realize sustainable water supply. Recent advances in multistage solar distillation attract particular interest because it enables a multifold enhancement in water production rate. However, existing solar-powered multistage distillers suffer from reliability and limited lifetime. The undesirable reliability makes the distilled water cost much higher than the tap water price, which significantly impedes the practical adoption. A key underlying limiting factor of device reliability is the evaporator fouling induced by salt accumulation. Inspired by a natural phenomenon, thermohaline convection in the deep ocean, we demonstrate multistage solar distillation with both record-high water production efficiency and extreme resistance to salt accumulation via temperature and salinity gradient manipulation across a novel confined-saline-layer evaporator. This promises a real-world impact of solar distillation technologies.
It’s just a shame that the health one will get you, in the end.
Although the modern world is more complex than those times, I wonder if people aged between thirteen and nineteen had many of the same issues our kids face nowadays - after all, the biology of the bodily changes is much the same. The problems were just ignored.
It's a great shame Robert's son has proved to be such an arse.
It doesn't matter what you believe about gender and trans. You can believe you need to have a penis to be a man. Or you can believe that people have the right to self identify.
This is about simple respect for people's choices. If someone calls themselves - oh, I don't know - Tau Techno Mechanicus, then I will say "Hi Tau Techno Mechanicus".
If someone says, "I wish to be referred to as 'they'/'them'", then I shall say "Of course".
Because that is simple human courtesy. If it doesn't put me out, and they want to be referred to as "they" or "X Æ A-12", then I shall obviously do it.
It's like, if someone believed in God, and I didn't, I obviously wouldn't refer to them as believing in a "giant sky fairy". Simply just because someone has different beliefs, doesn't mean I shouldn't treat them - and their beliefs - with a modicum of respect*.
Basic fucking human courtesy and respect for others.
* There are exceptions, obviously.
My mother used to say a teenager is a beautiful statue wrapped in black plastic sheeting. When they emerge from the covering, around the time they start sixth form, it’s like a butterfly after metamorphosis. Suddenly you find yourself living with a proto-adult, with interesting things to say and their own dreams to follow.
Apparently.
Extraordinary heat in Spain,records were obliterated with huge margins allover the country
Most important records 🧵
38.0 Badajoz National October record
37.2 Seville Tablada 36.7 Aero
36.7 Cordoba
35.8 Granada AP
33.6 Jaen
34.1 Toledo
33.1 C. Real
30 MADRID TIE 32.6 Barajas
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1708559890082410817?s=46
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1708533944147124624?s=46
I'm not entirely convinced it will work for them.
The recent history of people telling them want they can have and when explains why.
Overseas firms investing in Britain do so because its in their interests too, not out of the goodness of their heart.
The fact that its a warzone is all the more reason why why it is a smart idea to invest in war related manufacturing there.
It was a glib generalisation, but there is research to back it up.
About yourself, I should have clarified. Worries about children and grandchildren are worries about the young, by proxy.
Just sometimes driving a car simply isn't sufficient.
At this scale they will need multiple new factories to support this. And they are determined that they should be under their control.
And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace,
This applies especially true for children of all ages.
If my daughter says today she is a butterfly, then today she is a butterfly.
If my daughter says today she is a boy, then today they are a boy.
There is no reason to take anything to extremes. Just treat people with respect, but that doesn't lock things in stone either.
People who either react with horror at people who may just experimenting with who they are, or who go to the other extreme and want to medically 'affirm' what might just be a phase is utterly unnecessary. Just treat people with respect and within reason call them what they want to be called and let them experiment.
I like a travel sweet.
Going all the way from London to Wolverhampton to do the new tram extension to the railway station (no more than half a mile) and getting soaking wet for my troubles
Sorry, them's the rules. I don't make them, I just rigourously enforce them.
If somebody wants to be called "them" which is a third party singular word anyway, then what's the bloody harm in calling them by what they want to be called?
Who have done a deal with S Korea's Hanwa to build production of their tanks and howitzers in Poland.
The centre of Pompeii town (the modern one...) was very nice, and just what you imagine an Italian town to be like. But as I walked out of it, particularly to the north, the buildings and surroundings were really shabbby. In particular the render/plaster was invariably really, really grimy, or even patchy. There was a fair bit of litter, and lots of graffiti.
(I also liked the way rubbish bags would hang down from balconies; a small van was going around collecting them.)
Or is that 'tricky' too ?
Sadly, since, Rowntree have withdrawn the blackcurrant-only rolls, and then made the recipe vegan, fucking up both the taste and the texture. Oh, and they cancelled tooty-fruities. Arseholes.
Put them in chains with the Mars corporation for cancelling Bounty Dark.
The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II needs dynamiting.
All my life, British public spaces have looked cheap, run-down, and littered with clumsy signage and utilities.
Not always, but often.
I’ve wondered why this is for a long time, and I ended up concluding that these things are usually the domain of local government, which is notably feeble and underfunded by Western standards.
Which indeed seems a power play.
Musk's actions certainly were.
And language issues are tricky.