There you go @leon. There are literally hundreds of articles I could have posted on it. 2 of the 3 posted are 4 years old. There is a research paper that has research dating back 8 years.
Just because you have discovered something it doesn't mean others haven't been aware of it before. Worth remembering when you scoff at the rest of us for not knowing something.
Yes. That’s how science proceeds. Evidence builds until it reaches a breaking point and public policy changes
We’ve reached a stage where these vet treatments should be banned immediately, and in the long run pet owners need to get a grip, grow up, and give up Fluffy
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Why does it matter if cats kill birds?
If cats were wild creatures and they killed the birds to feed themselves, then it wouldn't matter. If the cats killed so many birds that they ran out of food, then the number of cats would decrease, and the relative population's would reach a stable equilibrium.
But cats as domestic pets are subsidised hunters. However many birds they kill they will never go hungry. And so there is the potential for them to predate birds to extinction. This would have serious knock-on effects for the insects, slugs, etc, that the birds would no longer be eating, or the wild predator birds like sparrowhawks who would no longer have any prey.
After farming, keeping cats as pets is possibly the second most destructive thing that humans do to wildlife. And agriculture is a bit more important.
I have read that cats are crepuscular hunters, and if you can keep them inside around dawn and dusk, then you greatly reduce their hunting. But I'm not convinced. It sounds like a comforting self-deception. A bit like those people who think they are doing their bit to combat global warming by recycling plastic.
I understand that cats have created serious problems for wildlife in Australia and New Zealand. To the extent that consideration is being given to banning them from 'outdoors'.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Why does it matter if cats kill birds?
If cats were wild creatures and they killed the birds to feed themselves, then it wouldn't matter. If the cats killed so many birds that they ran out of food, then the number of cats would decrease, and the relative population's would reach a stable equilibrium.
But cats as domestic pets are subsidised hunters. However many birds they kill they will never go hungry. And so there is the potential for them to predate birds to extinction. This would have serious knock-on effects for the insects, slugs, etc, that the birds would no longer be eating, or the wild predator birds like sparrowhawks who would no longer have any prey.
After farming, keeping cats as pets is possibly the second most destructive thing that humans do to wildlife. And agriculture is a bit more important.
I have read that cats are crepuscular hunters, and if you can keep them inside around dawn and dusk, then you greatly reduce their hunting. But I'm not convinced. It sounds like a comforting self-deception. A bit like those people who think they are doing their bit to combat global warming by recycling plastic.
I understand that cats have created serious problems for wildlife in Australia and New Zealand. To the extent that consideration is being given to banning them from 'outdoors'.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Not sure bells do that much - cats move very stealthily when hunting.
Yes, apparently the bells are ineffective
Half my friends and family have cats or dogs. Maybe more. And every single one of them says “well actually MY pet doesn’t do any of this”
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about it, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
What hypocrisy have I evinced?
If you are more consistent in defence of free speech than the many right-wingers who have started going on about it, great. I warn you that your new allies are unreliable.
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
Bird and insect populations across the UK are in terrible decline. Which could be catastrophic for all of us in the long run. Just think of a world without bees
Now it looks like we have found at least one culprit - pet medicines. @kjh knew about it years ago but didn’t tell us and instead he got a pet
How can it be a “strange obsession” to want to save Britain’s rivers and wildlife and bees and songbirds and beautiful butterflies?
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
What hypocrisy have I evinced?
If you are more consistent in defence of free speech than the many right-wingers who have started going on about it, great. I warn you that your new allies are unreliable.
You are the one apparently supporting proposals to curtail free speech on issues you object to whilst condemning (rightly) those who would suggest doing so on other issues. That to me is hypocrisy.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
Bird and insect populations across the UK are in terrible decline. Which could be catastrophic for all of us in the long run. Just think of a world without bees
Now it looks like we have found at least one culprit - pet medicines. @kjh knew about it years ago but didn’t tell us and instead he got a pet
How can it be a “strange obsession” to want to save Britain’s rivers and wildlife and bees and songbirds and beautiful butterflies?
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
Well it’s new to Chris Packham, he said so, and he knows 20 times more about nature and science than all of PB; so I am content for it to be new to me
If it’s not new to you, how on earth have you morally justified getting a pet?!
Where is the evidence about Packham's extensive knowledge? He's on TV with a script. I don't doubt he knows his stuff, but PB has plenty of experts too. We have at least one poster who is an expert on everything.
(Still waiting for UAP disclosure, by the way. Ain't happening).
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
What hypocrisy have I evinced?
If you are more consistent in defence of free speech than the many right-wingers who have started going on about it, great. I warn you that your new allies are unreliable.
You are the one apparently supporting proposals to curtail free speech on issues you object to whilst condemning (rightly) those who would suggest doing so on other issues. That to me is hypocrisy.
What proposal to curtail free speech have I supported?
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
The Ukraine figure is bonkers - except I guess MAGA understand it as 'to abandon Ukraine'.
Dunno, there is occasionally-spotted-on-here Trump will abandon Ukraine forcing pesky Europeans to step up which will actually be good for Ukraine delusion.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
Well it’s new to Chris Packham, he said so, and he knows 20 times more about nature and science than all of PB; so I am content for it to be new to me
If it’s not new to you, how on earth have you morally justified getting a pet?!
Where is the evidence about Packham's extensive knowledge? He's on TV with a script. I don't doubt he knows his stuff, but PB has plenty of experts too. We have at least one poster who is an expert on everything.
(Still waiting for UAP disclosure, by the way. Ain't happening).
Are you seriously claiming Packham doesn’t know his field?! That’s like claiming I don’t know much about travel. Or booze
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
What are these government proposals that are getting everyone so excited ?
A fairly interesting video about the impact of the size of Fire Trucks on the size of streets in the USA.
That's not one I had thought about particularly, but it seems the Fire Depts sometimes oppose road diets and traffic calming, including roundabouts, so they can drive across town faster in their fire trucks which are substantially larger than used in Europe and Asia.
An interesting tension with preventing casualties by better road design which would reduce the need for said Fire Trucks, which in the USA also do many medical calls, to be haring around at all.
If anybody wants a correctly-sized fire truck there are a bunch of them here with really low mileage. I would go with the Subaru Sambar, fabulous truck.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
Well it’s new to Chris Packham, he said so, and he knows 20 times more about nature and science than all of PB; so I am content for it to be new to me
If it’s not new to you, how on earth have you morally justified getting a pet?!
So are you suggesting that no sole actually read any of the those articles on the internet or in their newspapers? Not even ones in mainstream newspapers? The Guardian article is the same as the one it ran 4 years ago.
I doubt very much that it is new to Chris Packham. If he did say it I suspect that was for effect.
@leon you are better than this. Go on admit that this has been known about for years and is not new. The evidence is in front of your own eyes. You can do it. A stiff gin and go for it.
I am happy to admit I don't know most of the stuff on the internet.
With regard to my own pooch you have no idea what we do plus all of life is a balance. On the same basis we should give up cars and that will save humans and animals. That is not to say something shouldn't be done about it, but banning pets is as ridiculous as banning cars.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
I thought Labour's whole raison d'etre was to challenge the status quo? 🤔
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
Edit: and I wouldn't stand up on the high moors, in nice wet tweeds and brogues, waving a conductive metal stick above my head, either.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
That is not strictly the case. They subcontract it out to other groups and regulators to work within a framework. They will have guidelines but will be the ones doing the interpretation.
So my interest is how will this be managed and how will it be made up. Something like the PCC or BBFC perhaps.
Snipped the rest of your comment as it was not pertinent to my comment and nothing I am suggesting.
To address this, ministers are putting forward changes to compensation rules, first reported by the Times, which will “remove inflated values of land based on the prospect of planning permission” and ensure schemes that are in the public interest can progress.
If a price cannot be agreed, the government is considering giving powers to allow local authorities and Homes England, the government’s housing delivery agency, to “take a proactive role in the assembly of the land supported where necessary by compulsory purchase powers”...
My daughter has 2 cats. I blame myself, her favourite story as a child was the cat that walked by itself which tells you everything you need to know about cat psychology, and it was a regular bedtime story.
The bells do seem to work to some extent because they have stopped bringing dead birds home since they were fitted.
But cats kill for fun, not just because they are hungry. They’re vicious.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
It is a tad damp. And wandering around a moor today with a metal pipe in your hands is strictly for the profoundly foolish. Not heard thunder like this morning in this country for a long time.
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
It is a tad damp. And wandering around a moor today with a metal pipe in your hands is strictly for the profoundly foolish. Not heard thunder like this morning in this country for a long time.
Beautiful and sunny in london. If anything, a bit too hot
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
Bird and insect populations across the UK are in terrible decline. Which could be catastrophic for all of us in the long run. Just think of a world without bees
Now it looks like we have found at least one culprit - pet medicines. @kjh knew about it years ago but didn’t tell us and instead he got a pet
How can it be a “strange obsession” to want to save Britain’s rivers and wildlife and bees and songbirds and beautiful butterflies?
You are still struggling with this aren't you? It is not 'Now' but 'A long time ago'
And I'm sorry but are you really telling me that everyday I discover something new to me I have to put it on PB. I mean really. I learn new stuff every day. I'm sure most people do. We will fill the internet within a week.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
Outlawing in context of (a demonstration) using it as fighting words.
On topic Biden only lost NC by a little over 1% so if Harris is about where he was, which is roughly what the other polling is showing right now, you'd expect some polls showing her about tied there.
The Ohio thing is too vague to conclude anything from. A poll including RFK Jr with Trump on 49% would still be "Trump on course to win Ohio" which is what we'd expect.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
Well it’s new to Chris Packham, he said so, and he knows 20 times more about nature and science than all of PB; so I am content for it to be new to me
If it’s not new to you, how on earth have you morally justified getting a pet?!
Where is the evidence about Packham's extensive knowledge? He's on TV with a script. I don't doubt he knows his stuff, but PB has plenty of experts too. We have at least one poster who is an expert on everything.
(Still waiting for UAP disclosure, by the way. Ain't happening).
Are you seriously claiming Packham doesn’t know his field?! That’s like claiming I don’t know much about travel
It is a big field. I knew about this but there's plenty of other disasters that I probably don't know about.
Ivermectin given to cattle was probably where these problems were first seen in the environment but the link to Fluffy and Rover might have been less obvious.
Chris Packham doesn't know everything even if he's good at giving the impression he does on TV.
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
It is a tad damp. And wandering around a moor today with a metal pipe in your hands is strictly for the profoundly foolish. Not heard thunder like this morning in this country for a long time.
Beautiful and sunny in london. If anything, a bit too hot
A fairly interesting video about the impact of the size of Fire Trucks on the size of streets in the USA.
That's not one I had thought about particularly, but it seems the Fire Depts sometimes oppose road diets and traffic calming, including roundabouts, so they can drive across town faster in their fire trucks which are substantially larger than used in Europe and Asia.
An interesting tension with preventing casualties by better road design which would reduce the need for said Fire Trucks, which in the USA also do many medical calls, to be haring around at all.
If anybody wants a correctly-sized fire truck there are a bunch of them here with really low mileage. I would go with the Subaru Sambar, fabulous truck.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
It's the same as the other sentences for essentially bullshitting on Facebook. If the country is in the middle of mass disturbances and you start fanning the flames, that is a different context to bullshitting at regular times.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
Well it’s new to Chris Packham, he said so, and he knows 20 times more about nature and science than all of PB; so I am content for it to be new to me
If it’s not new to you, how on earth have you morally justified getting a pet?!
Where is the evidence about Packham's extensive knowledge? He's on TV with a script. I don't doubt he knows his stuff, but PB has plenty of experts too. We have at least one poster who is an expert on everything.
(Still waiting for UAP disclosure, by the way. Ain't happening).
Are you seriously claiming Packham doesn’t know his field?! That’s like claiming I don’t know much about travel
It is a big field. I knew about this but there's plenty of other disasters that I probably don't know about.
Ivermectin given to cattle was probably where these problems were first seen in the environment but the link to Fluffy and Rover might have been less obvious.
Chris Packham doesn't know everything even if he's good at giving the impression he does on TV.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6 Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
What are these government proposals that are getting everyone so excited ?
Apparently Sir Keir is going to re-introduce the 'legal but harmful' clause into the Online Safety Bill. It was originally Boris's idea by the looks of things, so what a pair of rotters.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
It's the same as the other sentences for essentially bullshitting on Facebook. If the country is in the middle of mass disturbances and you start fanning the flames, that is a different context to bullshitting at regular times.
It's the potential effect that is the problem.
Shouting "fire!" vs. shouting "fire!" in a really crowded theatre.
Blooming hard to frame as a law; the true law and punishment is "don't act like a dick, or you will be shunned by polite society". We know the catches there. One is the old one that acting like a dick is fun. The other is the new one that mass and social media means that impolite society keeps impinging on the polite version.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
What are these government proposals that are getting everyone so excited ?
Apparently Sir Keir is going to re-introduce the 'legal but harmful' clause into the Online Safety Bill. It was originally Boris's idea by the looks of things, so what a pair of rotters.
The Ukraine figure is bonkers - except I guess MAGA understand it as 'to abandon Ukraine'.
Dunno, there is occasionally-spotted-on-here Trump will abandon Ukraine forcing pesky Europeans to step up which will actually be good for Ukraine delusion.
No way would Europe "step up". Who actually believes that?
Harris would just be continuity Biden. Just enough to stop Ukraine from getting completely fucked and fingers crossed it doesn't spiral out of control into WW3.
"What we are about to witness in the UK is a concerted clampdown on "legal but harmful" speech, opinions the elite don't like, political parties like Reform, & media like GB News & X. Sorry, but no. This is Britain. Not North Korea. We must resist"."
There's something about Matt Goodwin that has - over time - become increasingly annoying. Is me choosing not to follow him on Twitter any more, me shutting down free speech? Or is it me simply deciding that I can't be arsed to hear from him any more?
But here he is raising, in a round about way with melodramatic language (nonsense about the elite for example", an important point. Who gets to decide what is legal but harmful ? Who decides that ?
The democratically elected government, as has been the case since before we were born.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
So if a future democratically elected Government did decide they wanted to ban 'Allahu Ahbar' then you would make no comment and not object?
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
What are these government proposals that are getting everyone so excited ?
Apparently Sir Keir is going to re-introduce the 'legal but harmful' clause into the Online Safety Bill. It was originally Boris's idea by the looks of things, so what a pair of rotters.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
Bird and insect populations across the UK are in terrible decline. Which could be catastrophic for all of us in the long run. Just think of a world without bees
Now it looks like we have found at least one culprit - pet medicines. @kjh knew about it years ago but didn’t tell us and instead he got a pet
How can it be a “strange obsession” to want to save Britain’s rivers and wildlife and bees and songbirds and beautiful butterflies?
You are still struggling with this aren't you? It is not 'Now' but 'A long time ago'
And I'm sorry but are you really telling me that everyday I discover something new to me I have to put it on PB. I mean really. I learn new stuff every day. I'm sure most people do. We will fill the internet within a week.
Your argument is both specious and boring, so let's end it
However, I will yield to you on one point: looking back, i probably was a bit too mean to @Roger. You're right on that
He can be a touch pompous and silly but I am sure - if I am brutally honest - that I might have the odd human flaw, as well, mad as that seems
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
It is a tad damp. And wandering around a moor today with a metal pipe in your hands is strictly for the profoundly foolish. Not heard thunder like this morning in this country for a long time.
Beautiful and sunny in london. If anything, a bit too hot
It's the kind of weather that gives one a powerful thirst.
However, I fear the walk to the nearest pub with a nice beer garden might actually kill me. It is *too* damn hot out there today.
Oh god, PB free speech warriors. Just shut the fuck up you precious little cherries.
Is that a joke? A good one if so but I suspect not. As for precious little cherries, that's usually in reference to people who want to stop free speech out of offence not maintain it. Maybe you trust Sir Keir as a benign despot to supervise speech appropriately?
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6 Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
Not one, but three separate delivery systems...
I eagerly devoured books and papers about parasites for a couple of years. They are so crazy. The ones that take over the brain and make animals commit suicide, painfully, to benefit the parasite? EEEK
I'm surprised more horror movies haven't exploited them. The Last of Us is the obvious example of how superbly gruesome that plot device can be
The Ukraine figure is bonkers - except I guess MAGA understand it as 'to abandon Ukraine'.
Dunno, there is occasionally-spotted-on-here Trump will abandon Ukraine forcing pesky Europeans to step up which will actually be good for Ukraine delusion.
No way would Europe "step up". Who actually believes that?
Harris would just be continuity Biden. Just enough to stop Ukraine from getting completely fucked and fingers crossed it doesn't spiral out of control into WW3.
Hey, you were telling us a week or so back that we were stuck in trench warfare for the foreseeable.
FWIW, I think Europe may actually show a bit of spine, now it's become apparent how vulnerable long borders are. That, and the demonstration that they can't rely on the US to bail them out with any degree of certainty in the future.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6 Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
Not one, but three separate delivery systems...
There's quite number of parasites and infections that are persistent. "Mad Cat Lady" is almost certainly a thing and of course the Toxoplasma parasite also modifies mouse behaviour to make it more likely to be caught by a cat.
There is reasonable evidence that some of these persistent infections are causing Alzheimer's through inflammation.
Mrs Flatlander had Lyme, which is another one that can hide away for decades with unknown effects.
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
Edit: and I wouldn't stand up on the high moors, in nice wet tweeds and brogues, waving a conductive metal stick above my head, either.
Better weather for salmon fishing, if you want to kill something Scottish.
The Ukraine figure is bonkers - except I guess MAGA understand it as 'to abandon Ukraine'.
Dunno, there is occasionally-spotted-on-here Trump will abandon Ukraine forcing pesky Europeans to step up which will actually be good for Ukraine delusion.
No way would Europe "step up". Who actually believes that?
Harris would just be continuity Biden. Just enough to stop Ukraine from getting completely fucked and fingers crossed it doesn't spiral out of control into WW3.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
@leon thinks I should give up my dog because of the damage he does to the environment - fair point
@leon are you going to give up flying because of the damage you do to the environment?
lol, you've only just thought of that???
No, I won't give up flying because it is my job. I minimise my footprint elsewhere, I have no car, I use public transport, I HAVE NO PETS, I have a small flat, I tread as lightly as I can
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Oh I agree that most won't know, just like most people don't know most things and just like I don't know lots of things.
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
Well it’s new to Chris Packham, he said so, and he knows 20 times more about nature and science than all of PB; so I am content for it to be new to me
If it’s not new to you, how on earth have you morally justified getting a pet?!
Where is the evidence about Packham's extensive knowledge? He's on TV with a script. I don't doubt he knows his stuff, but PB has plenty of experts too. We have at least one poster who is an expert on everything.
(Still waiting for UAP disclosure, by the way. Ain't happening).
Are you seriously claiming Packham doesn’t know his field?! That’s like claiming I don’t know much about travel. Or booze
No, just your assumption that he knows 20 times more about nature and science. Bullshit on that.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
No, he's definitely wheeled out this hobbyhorse before. I certainly remember it during covid.
Yes, I return to it every six months or so. Partly because it particularly winds up people I like to wind up. but also because I genuinely believe it, with a passion. Dogs and cats are desperately bad for the environment, and old/new science now shows that they are actually killing our rivers and decimating our bees
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
No riots either. I see BBC Scotland have actually addressed that rather obvious lacuna in the official BBC term "UK riots" but tried to conclude that of course we Scots are gagging for a riot or three really.
Sat in a queue for the Channel Tunnel. It is fucking sweltering.Slightly reluctant to idle for the next however many minutes fir the sake of aircon because petrol is rather low.
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
Edit: and I wouldn't stand up on the high moors, in nice wet tweeds and brogues, waving a conductive metal stick above my head, either.
Better weather for salmon fishing, if you want to kill something Scottish.
Oh god, PB free speech warriors. Just shut the fuck up you precious little cherries.
Must be pretty difficult to have longed for Labour all this time, and when they come in they are a deeply sinister and ugly cadre without any element of 'Labour' but with a death hold on democracy. "Are we the baddies?" springs to mind.
@MrHarryCole Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
Edit: and I wouldn't stand up on the high moors, in nice wet tweeds and brogues, waving a conductive metal stick above my head, either.
Better weather for salmon fishing, if you want to kill something Scottish.
The neighbour's cats have probably done my quota already ... not to mention Mrs C with the hordes of gastropods also infesting the garden with the relentlessly wet weather. Pity none of the latter are edible species.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
No riots either. I see BBC Scotland have actually addressed that rather obvious lacuna in the official BBC term "UK riots" but tried to conclude that of course we Scots are gagging for a riot or three really.
Genuinely think there is a potential anti pet movement out there waiting to coalesce. Particularly since the pandemic, pets have encroached on what were human only spaces.
We have dog friendly cafes and restaurants. Near me there is a normal swimming pool with a dog friendly day.
But the English love their pets. Perhaps more than they love their children.
I'm not a dog person, and I see nothing wrong with those. It becomes a problem when the thing is enforced universally - like the movement to vegetarian options in work restaurants, which is fine until suddenly a day is implemented which BANS non-vegetarian options.
That's where Brighton Greens got it wrong a decade ago, when the Councillors tried to ban bacon butties for bin men.
I think one area we need to look at is dogs off leads in public environments, which is one of those things that causes real problems despite "close control" being a legal requirement. "He's only being friendly" is what some dog owners always reliably say immediately before their hound bites you.
I think one trigger will be in the needed debate about countryside access, and within that the many thousands of livestock killed by "pet" dogs every year. 15,000 or so sheep a year, for example, are killed by dog owners with their dogs (I use that form as the agency and responsibility is with the owner).
Exactly. Dog attacks and bites are not rare.
Just because he's "friendly" to the owner doesn't mean that he's not a threat to anyone else.
Dogs are animals and should be on leads by default.
Cats are animals, should they be on leads too?
Just get rid of your pet cat. It is destroying Britain’s birdlife and fouling our waterways. Pet ownership is quite incredibly selfish, malign, and wanky
My cat is not destroying Britain's birdlife or fouling our waterways. It's a delightful creature.
It's also better at assessing probabilities than you are.
I'm sure it is. I had cats, and they were delightful too, sort of. But no longer. They kill millions of birds every year and, effectively, make huge areas of otherwise suitable habitat, unavailable to ground-nesting birds.
Dogs are not much better. Roving hounds, off the lead, deter birds from breeding. In fact their very presence, even on a lead, has a serious impact.
If you need a pet, buy a hamster. Or a goldfish.
Yes. Exactly
Every cat owner convinces themselves that “their” cat is different. It’s absurd
LOOK AT THE STATS
And last night on springwatch (on catch up) they reported new science that says veterinary treatments for cats and dogs (for ticks etc) which are leaching into the water system are killing billions of insects, and crashing the entire UK ecosystem
How can this possibly be justifiable merely because some selfish dorks want an enslaved animal in the house because it’s “delightful”
Ugh
@leon. It is not new science. The information has been around for years. I make the point because you are very harsh on people who don't know things eg Roger the other day, yet this is an old issue that has been around for many years that you have just discovered and are treating as a revelation. We aren't calling you all sorts of names because you have only just become aware of it. Worth bearing in mind.
If it is not new science, it is new public awareness.
Bees are especially sensitive to the tick medicines. I went on a moth-trapping session last year and the landowner really went off on oen about how dog-owners were demolishing our wildlife.
I suppose on the bright side, when all wildlife is dead, we won't need tick medicines...
Not even sure that is true. A Google search comes up with a 4 year old Guardian article straight away. I have certainly read umpteen articles over the years.
The point being however @Leon shouldn't be so harsh when people don't know things. As I said the other day - I apologise for not knowing everything, which seems to be an unacceptable admission for a PBer.
You are the exception. I would sggest that 90% of pet owners who have tick meds for their pet (which, admittedly, might not be most Bully XL owners) would be appalled at the loss of bee - unaware they are making a big contribution to that through their pet.
All cats BY LAW should be required to be fitted with a bell when they are outdoors.
Preferably something modelled on Big Ben.
(BTW, cats are one factor in the decline of birds, but flying into glass probably does as much damage.)
Not sure bells do that much - cats move very stealthily when hunting.
I've heard of a pet cat who actually held his bell silent with a paw whilst hunting.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6 Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
Not one, but three separate delivery systems...
There's quite number of parasites and infections that are persistent. "Mad Cat Lady" is almost certainly a thing and of course the Toxoplasma parasite also modifies mouse behaviour to make it more likely to be caught by a cat.
There is reasonable evidence that some of these persistent infections are causing Alzheimer's through inflammation.
Mrs Flatlander had Lyme, which is another one that can hide away for decades with unknown effects.
Poor Mrs F. That's definitely one to be aware of, esp if bitten by a tick.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
No riots either. I see BBC Scotland have actually addressed that rather obvious lacuna in the official BBC term "UK riots" but tried to conclude that of course we Scots are gagging for a riot or three really.
Didn't Scotland also escape riots in 2011? Although the weather was rather damper in North Britain at the time.
There is, however, another possibility. Perhaps having an avowedly nationalistic government in power north of the border gives a more centrist home to those who love their country? While down south to be English and proud is to be despised?
A fairly interesting video about the impact of the size of Fire Trucks on the size of streets in the USA.
That's not one I had thought about particularly, but it seems the Fire Depts sometimes oppose road diets and traffic calming, including roundabouts, so they can drive across town faster in their fire trucks which are substantially larger than used in Europe and Asia.
An interesting tension with preventing casualties by better road design which would reduce the need for said Fire Trucks, which in the USA also do many medical calls, to be haring around at all.
If anybody wants a correctly-sized fire truck there are a bunch of them here with really low mileage. I would go with the Subaru Sambar, fabulous truck.
"Self-checkouts have been a self-inflicted disaster for Britain Crime-ridden grocery giants forget that speaking to a human is all customers want Lucy Burton"
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
No riots either. I see BBC Scotland have actually addressed that rather obvious lacuna in the official BBC term "UK riots" but tried to conclude that of course we Scots are gagging for a riot or three really.
No bags of rubbish rotting in the street either. The BBC Scotland bodies lying unburied correspondent is poised though.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6 Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
Not one, but three separate delivery systems...
There's quite number of parasites and infections that are persistent. "Mad Cat Lady" is almost certainly a thing and of course the Toxoplasma parasite also modifies mouse behaviour to make it more likely to be caught by a cat.
There is reasonable evidence that some of these persistent infections are causing Alzheimer's through inflammation.
Mrs Flatlander had Lyme, which is another one that can hide away for decades with unknown effects.
So cats also breach the Geneva convention on biological warfare? Figures.
@leon thinks I should give up my dog because of the damage he does to the environment - fair point
@leon are you going to give up flying because of the damage you do to the environment?
lol, you've only just thought of that???
No, I won't give up flying because it is my job. I minimise my footprint elsewhere, I have no car, I use public transport, I HAVE NO PETS, I have a small flat, I tread as lightly as I can
Owning a pet is not a job, it is your CHOICE
Unless you're a slave, your job is your choice too.
Anyway, I accept you do you bit for the environment by not having a pet and that offsets to some extent the ridiculous amount of flying you do.
We don't fly, that offsets our pet.
Now, stop trying to interfere with everyone else's lives.
Guess what electoral system is used to elect the president of Iceland? Answer = FPTP. Unusual for a Nordic country. They just had an election on 27th June and the new president took office on 1st August. The winner received 34%.
Oh god, PB free speech warriors. Just shut the fuck up you precious little cherries.
Must be pretty difficult to have longed for Labour all this time, and when they come in they are a deeply sinister and ugly cadre without any element of 'Labour' but with a death hold on democracy. "Are we the baddies?" springs to mind.
I've noted this in lefty friends already. A kind of nervous disappointment. "Jesus are they really this pathetic? Do they have zero ideas?" - but expressed in milder terms and an anxious voice, "let's wait and see, nevertheless", "its not great but it's early days"
However my friends might be completely unrepresentative and Labour voters up and down the land could be delighted with our new government. Like you, I'd love to see a proper poll. It's time
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6 Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
Not one, but three separate delivery systems...
There's quite number of parasites and infections that are persistent. "Mad Cat Lady" is almost certainly a thing and of course the Toxoplasma parasite also modifies mouse behaviour to make it more likely to be caught by a cat.
There is reasonable evidence that some of these persistent infections are causing Alzheimer's through inflammation.
Mrs Flatlander had Lyme, which is another one that can hide away for decades with unknown effects.
Poor Mrs F. That's definitely one to be aware of, esp if bitten by a tick.
There seem to be more ticks in the environment these days. Don't know why. Climate?
They seem to be bad on the Scottish west coast in spring but the offending tick in this case was picked up in North Nottinghamshire.
It was caught early so apart from damaging the environment by taking antibiotics for 3 weeks, no obvious harm was done.
GPs seems pretty poor at knowing the correct prescription and we had to wave the NICE guidelines around. A friend got it recently and had been given only a week's worth, which is not correct.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
No riots either. I see BBC Scotland have actually addressed that rather obvious lacuna in the official BBC term "UK riots" but tried to conclude that of course we Scots are gagging for a riot or three really.
Didn't Scotland also escape riots in 2011? Although the weather was rather damper in North Britain at the time.
There is, however, another possibility. Perhaps having an avowedly nationalistic government in power north of the border gives a more centrist home to those who love their country? While down south to be English and proud is to be despised?
Wales also has it’s own government, and no riots. I don’t understand why the English don’t want their own government.
"Self-checkouts have been a self-inflicted disaster for Britain Crime-ridden grocery giants forget that speaking to a human is all customers want Lucy Burton"
@leon thinks I should give up my dog because of the damage he does to the environment - fair point
@leon are you going to give up flying because of the damage you do to the environment?
lol, you've only just thought of that???
No, I won't give up flying because it is my job. I minimise my footprint elsewhere, I have no car, I use public transport, I HAVE NO PETS, I have a small flat, I tread as lightly as I can
Owning a pet is not a job, it is your CHOICE
Unless you're a slave, your job is your choice too.
Anyway, I accept you do you bit for the environment by not having a pet and that offsets to some extent the ridiculous amount of flying you do.
We don't fly, that offsets our pet.
Now, stop trying to interfere with everyone else's lives.
Interfere with people's lives is what lefties DO
And cats and dogs are killing all the wildlife and destroying our rivers, so no, I won't shut up
Oh god, PB free speech warriors. Just shut the fuck up you precious little cherries.
Must be pretty difficult to have longed for Labour all this time, and when they come in they are a deeply sinister and ugly cadre without any element of 'Labour' but with a death hold on democracy. "Are we the baddies?" springs to mind.
I've noted this in lefty friends already. A kind of nervous disappointment. "Jesus are they really this pathetic? Do they have zero ideas?" - but expressed in milder terms and an anxious voice, "let's wait and see, nevertheless", "its not great but it's early days"
However my friends might be completely unrepresentative and Labour voters up and down the land could be delighted with our new government. Like you, I'd love to see a proper poll. It's time
The only point of a Labour government is to at least attempt to be optimistic and hopeful about the future of the country, as with Blair, Wilson, Attlee.
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
No, he's definitely wheeled out this hobbyhorse before. I certainly remember it during covid.
Yes, I return to it every six months or so. Partly because it particularly winds up people I like to wind up. but also because I genuinely believe it, with a passion. Dogs and cats are desperately bad for the environment, and old/new science now shows that they are actually killing our rivers and decimating our bees
Yuk. Ditch the dog
Horses for me. It's 2024 why do we still allow them to befoul the streets in our glorious cities?
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
No riots either. I see BBC Scotland have actually addressed that rather obvious lacuna in the official BBC term "UK riots" but tried to conclude that of course we Scots are gagging for a riot or three really.
Didn't Scotland also escape riots in 2011? Although the weather was rather damper in North Britain at the time.
There is, however, another possibility. Perhaps having an avowedly nationalistic government in power north of the border gives a more centrist home to those who love their country? While down south to be English and proud is to be despised?
Wales also has it’s own government, and no riots. I don’t understand why the English don’t want their own government.
In any case avowedly nationalistic is very much in the eye of the beholder.
'Labour is now the true party of English patriotism'
Have we discovered Leon's latest slightly strange and OTT obsession?
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
The subtlety is that cats carry brain-modifying parasites, which hop to their owners (or, rather, the people who think they own the cats).
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I seem to recall a thriller based on that. Feline toxoplasmosis - which is a genuinely weird mind bending parasite, and which has been blamed in part for the witch burning craze, because it really did send cat owning old ladies a bit mad, thus getting them labelled as “a witch”
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6 Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
Not one, but three separate delivery systems...
There's quite number of parasites and infections that are persistent. "Mad Cat Lady" is almost certainly a thing and of course the Toxoplasma parasite also modifies mouse behaviour to make it more likely to be caught by a cat.
There is reasonable evidence that some of these persistent infections are causing Alzheimer's through inflammation.
Mrs Flatlander had Lyme, which is another one that can hide away for decades with unknown effects.
Poor Mrs F. That's definitely one to be aware of, esp if bitten by a tick.
There seem to be more ticks in the environment these days. Don't know why. Climate?
They seem to be bad on the Scottish west coast in spring but the offending tick in this case was picked up in North Nottinghamshire.
It was caught early so apart from damaging the environment by taking antibiotics for 3 weeks, no obvious harm was done.
GPs seems pretty poor at knowing the correct prescription and we had to wave the NICE guidelines around. A friend got it recently and had been given only a week's worth, which is not correct.
No hard winters of late? Worse here too in the eastern lowlands in the sense we've noticed them in ordinary local countryside rather than the moors - though we have deer living around (and in) our little town, anyway.
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
I don't think so. EVERYTHING about the riots is seen as a challenge to the status quo and so it is being quite brutally repressed. Think Sparticus.
Not been any crucifixions around here yet. Is this how you English amuse yourselves now that the Olympics are over?
No riots either. I see BBC Scotland have actually addressed that rather obvious lacuna in the official BBC term "UK riots" but tried to conclude that of course we Scots are gagging for a riot or three really.
Didn't Scotland also escape riots in 2011? Although the weather was rather damper in North Britain at the time.
There is, however, another possibility. Perhaps having an avowedly nationalistic government in power north of the border gives a more centrist home to those who love their country? While down south to be English and proud is to be despised?
Wales also has it’s own government, and no riots. I don’t understand why the English don’t want their own government.
Obviously groaning under the weight of the vast majority of Scots and Welsh MPs in the HoC, and all those Church of England bishes in the HoL.
@leon thinks I should give up my dog because of the damage he does to the environment - fair point
@leon are you going to give up flying because of the damage you do to the environment?
lol, you've only just thought of that???
No, I won't give up flying because it is my job. I minimise my footprint elsewhere, I have no car, I use public transport, I HAVE NO PETS, I have a small flat, I tread as lightly as I can
Owning a pet is not a job, it is your CHOICE
Unless you're a slave, your job is your choice too.
Anyway, I accept you do you bit for the environment by not having a pet and that offsets to some extent the ridiculous amount of flying you do.
We don't fly, that offsets our pet.
Now, stop trying to interfere with everyone else's lives.
Interfere with people's lives is what lefties DO
And cats and dogs are killing all the wildlife and destroying our rivers, so no, I won't shut up
I wonder whether social media has anything to do with the burgeoning number of mutts and kitties. People just seem to love putting "cute" posts of their pets doing amusing things, or adopting poignant/wistful attitudes. Anthropomorphism gone mad.
Comments
We’ve reached a stage where these vet treatments should be banned immediately, and in the long run pet owners need to get a grip, grow up, and give up Fluffy
Indeed getting you to shut the fuck up might become my new hobby.
There is no crisis in free speech. This is a confected crisis by right-wingers for whom outright Islamophobia is a bit too toxic right now, so they’ve retreated to talking about free speech instead. The same people 2 months ago were complaining about people waving Palestinian flags and just a few days ago, we had a Tory leadership contender wanting to outlaw the phrase “Allahu Akbar”.
(I still love cats, even if they are cuddly serial killers).
Half my friends and family have cats or dogs. Maybe more. And every single one of them says “well actually MY pet doesn’t do any of this”
Absurd
My point was about @leon scoffing at people not know stuff and is now desperate to show this is new because he just found out about it on Springwatch and Chris Packham said it was new, therefore it must be and someone has just written a report yet there are literally dozens of reports and articles on the subject in the last umpteen years.
@leon It isn't new. Come on fuss up. You can see it is true after 30 seconds on the internet as you often say. You didn't know about it, when I did so I suggest this is a lesson that in future you shouldn't scoff at PBers when they don't know something that you do know. Just a thought.
PS I agree about cats @MarqueeMark
As it happens I did post on here objecting to the idea, just as I supported the right of the Palestinian marchers to do their thing. Some of us are consistent in defence of free speech rather than only objecting when it affects their 'side'. You are revealing yourself to be a bit of a hypocrite here.
If so, can we go back to him slagging off Newent?
If it’s not new to you, how on earth have you morally justified getting a pet?!
If you are more consistent in defence of free speech than the many right-wingers who have started going on about it, great. I warn you that your new allies are unreliable.
Niche subject area, but decline latest...
A not so Glorious Twelfth...
Not a single London restaurant appears to be able to pull off serving Grouse tonight - ending a tradition that stretches back to the 1870s, the expansion of the railways and survived two world wars.
Stalwarts like Wilton's + Boisdale say "later in week" - even Rules say "maybe tomorrow". L'Escargot is closed on Mondays, but suggest tomorrow.
Has anyone managed it?
https://x.com/MrHarryCole/status/1822963479608705416
Now it looks like we have found at least one culprit - pet medicines. @kjh knew about it years ago but didn’t tell us and instead he got a pet
How can it be a “strange obsession” to want to save Britain’s rivers and wildlife and bees and songbirds and beautiful butterflies?
Yes.
No.
(Still waiting for UAP disclosure, by the way. Ain't happening).
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/12/uk-riots-starmer-court-sentencing-southport/
"An asylum seeker who broadcast a TikTok video falsely claiming he was being chased during the riots has been jailed for three months. Dimitrie Stoica’s livestream in Derby was seen by 700 people on Wednesday in what a court heard was a deliberate attempt to “stir up racial hatred”. The 35-old-old Romanian father of three told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court the video was a “joke” and he had hoped to get more followers."
https://www.goo-net.com/cgi-bin/fsearch/goo_used_search.cgi?category=USDN&body=軽トラック&phrase=消防車&query=消防車
#wonderingwhoonPBhasthemindparasite
I doubt very much that it is new to Chris Packham. If he did say it I suspect that was for effect.
@leon you are better than this. Go on admit that this has been known about for years and is not new. The evidence is in front of your own eyes. You can do it. A stiff gin and go for it.
I am happy to admit I don't know most of the stuff on the internet.
With regard to my own pooch you have no idea what we do plus all of life is a balance. On the same basis we should give up cars and that will save humans and animals. That is not to say something shouldn't be done about it, but banning pets is as ridiculous as banning cars.
Given the weather today here in Scotland, you'd need blindfire radar on the shotguns even if the grouse were willing to come out. In fact sometimes you'd need harpoon guns. And amtracs to get across the burns and up to the moors.
Edit: and I wouldn't stand up on the high moors, in nice wet tweeds and brogues, waving a conductive metal stick above my head, either.
So my interest is how will this be managed and how will it be made up. Something like the PCC or BBFC perhaps.
Snipped the rest of your comment as it was not pertinent to my comment and nothing I am suggesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/12/english-councils-buy-green-belt-land
..There are fears that landowners who were holding greenbelt land that had no development value before the changes could now attempt to cash in.
To address this, ministers are putting forward changes to compensation rules, first reported by the Times, which will “remove inflated values of land based on the prospect of planning permission” and ensure schemes that are in the public interest can progress.
If a price cannot be agreed, the government is considering giving powers to allow local authorities and Homes England, the government’s housing delivery agency, to “take a proactive role in the assembly of the land supported where necessary by compulsory purchase powers”...
The bells do seem to work to some extent because they have stopped bringing dead birds home since they were fitted.
But cats kill for fun, not just because they are hungry. They’re vicious.
The thesis was that religious belief itself is created by an associated parasite, making people behave in religious ways that benefit the parasite (having lots of kids etc). It all started with the Egyptians and their weird cat worship (and the monotheism of Akhenaten)
Good theory. Solid
Does he want a column at the Speccie as their runcible correspondent?
You are still struggling with this aren't you? It is not 'Now' but 'A long time ago'
And I'm sorry but are you really telling me that everyday I discover something new to me I have to put it on PB. I mean really. I learn new stuff every day. I'm sure most people do. We will fill the internet within a week.
The Ohio thing is too vague to conclude anything from. A poll including RFK Jr with Trump on 49% would still be "Trump on course to win Ohio" which is what we'd expect.
Ivermectin given to cattle was probably where these problems were first seen in the environment but the link to Fluffy and Rover might have been less obvious.
Chris Packham doesn't know everything even if he's good at giving the impression he does on TV.
Can't grouse about that.
It's the potential effect that is the problem.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01750-6
Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.
Not one, but three separate delivery systems...
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-bill-supporting-documents/overview-of-expected-impact-of-changes-to-the-online-safety-bill
Blooming hard to frame as a law; the true law and punishment is "don't act like a dick, or you will be shunned by polite society". We know the catches there. One is the old one that acting like a dick is fun. The other is the new one that mass and social media means that impolite society keeps impinging on the polite version.
Harris would just be continuity Biden. Just enough to stop Ukraine from getting completely fucked and fingers crossed it doesn't spiral out of control into WW3.
So up to now, no substantive changes ?
Anyway, thanks. I now know what to keep an eye on.
@leon thinks I should give up my dog because of the damage he does to the environment - fair point
@leon are you going to give up flying because of the damage you do to the environment?
However, I will yield to you on one point: looking back, i probably was a bit too mean to @Roger. You're right on that
He can be a touch pompous and silly but I am sure - if I am brutally honest - that I might have the odd human flaw, as well, mad as that seems
Soz, @Rog!
However, I fear the walk to the nearest pub with a nice beer garden might actually kill me. It is *too* damn hot out there today.
I'm surprised more horror movies haven't exploited them. The Last of Us is the obvious example of how superbly gruesome that plot device can be
FWIW, I think Europe may actually show a bit of spine, now it's become apparent how vulnerable long borders are.
That, and the demonstration that they can't rely on the US to bail them out with any degree of certainty in the future.
There is reasonable evidence that some of these persistent infections are causing Alzheimer's through inflammation.
Mrs Flatlander had Lyme, which is another one that can hide away for decades with unknown effects.
No, I won't give up flying because it is my job. I minimise my footprint elsewhere, I have no car, I use public transport, I HAVE NO PETS, I have a small flat, I tread as lightly as I can
Owning a pet is not a job, it is your CHOICE
Yuk. Ditch the dog
There is, however, another possibility. Perhaps having an avowedly nationalistic government in power north of the border gives a more centrist home to those who love their country? While down south to be English and proud is to be despised?
"Self-checkouts have been a self-inflicted disaster for Britain
Crime-ridden grocery giants forget that speaking to a human is all customers want
Lucy Burton"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/12/self-checkouts-self-inflicted-disaster-britain/
https://x.com/BBCScotlandNews/status/1822954766516867393
Anyway, I accept you do you bit for the environment by not having a pet and that offsets to some extent the ridiculous amount of flying you do.
We don't fly, that offsets our pet.
Now, stop trying to interfere with everyone else's lives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Icelandic_presidential_election
However my friends might be completely unrepresentative and Labour voters up and down the land could be delighted with our new government. Like you, I'd love to see a proper poll. It's time
They seem to be bad on the Scottish west coast in spring but the offending tick in this case was picked up in North Nottinghamshire.
It was caught early so apart from damaging the environment by taking antibiotics for 3 weeks, no obvious harm was done.
GPs seems pretty poor at knowing the correct prescription and we had to wave the NICE guidelines around. A friend got it recently and had been given only a week's worth, which is not correct.
And cats and dogs are killing all the wildlife and destroying our rivers, so no, I won't shut up
I am sure the dozens of fans of the brand will be devastated.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/jaguar-won-t-sell-cars-for-a-whole-year-as-it-ramps-up-ev-only-rebrand/ar-AA1oEEkh?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=582ac66f8fa94d6fb72d4255f64bc8dd&ei=14
'Labour is now the true party of English patriotism'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/labour-is-now-the-true-party-of-english-patriotism/
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/12/pro-foxhunting-group-says-uk-hunters-protected-ethnic-minority