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The Planning Problem – politicalbetting.com

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  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    Leon said:

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    26. Why can't anyone give accounts in ordinary English of how replicable life might have started?
    27. How come mirrors reflect the wrong way round yet we all accept this as totally normal?
    Mysteriously they reflect the wrong way round right/left but not top and bottom.
    Yes exactly. It’s obviously fake, and not even a good fake, mirrors are a load of bullshit. Don’t trust them. I don’t even look at reflections in spoons any more - if you do you’re just playing their game

    'spoons' is ambiguous there. Do I have to avoid looking at the thing I stir my tea with or avoid all mirrors/windows in the popular drinking establishments?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,694
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Good to see Mrs Starmer there too. Pity though that while the PM mentioned families and communities coming together for Christmas the atheist First Lord did not mention Jesus Christ once
    Mrs Starmer? Starmer's mother? Thought she was dead!

    Or do you mean LADY Starmer, wife of Sir Keir?
    If you insist
    Common courtesy, surely.

    I don't like titles if hereditary but this was earned.
    By marrying a senior lawyer and politician I suppose
    Her husbands title was earned and the wife of a knight is traditionally described as 'Lady'.
    I thought that, as a traditionalist, you would have accepted that!
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,352
    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    The obvious (26) is "Has the person who posted these to twatter been imbibing too many drugs?" or "Who let the Fortean Times escape?" or "What did my 9 year old child say today?", I'll give you one.

    26 - Why are Chinese Coolie Hats shaped like the cap of a stove pipe chimney?
    Obviously created by the secret fraternity who designed Manchester city centre and kick started
    the Industrial revolution


  • algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Starmer is John Major without all the razzamatazz.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,330

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Good to see Mrs Starmer there too. Pity though that while the PM mentioned families and communities coming together for Christmas the atheist First Lord did not mention Jesus Christ once
    Mrs Starmer? Starmer's mother? Thought she was dead!

    Or do you mean LADY Starmer, wife of Sir Keir?
    If you insist
    Common courtesy, surely.

    I don't like titles if hereditary but this was earned.
    By marrying a senior lawyer and politician I suppose
    Her husbands title was earned and the wife of a knight is traditionally described as 'Lady'.
    I thought that, as a traditionalist, you would have accepted that!
    They don't count. They're not Tories so don't deserve your rational and just analysis based on the facts. Apparently.

  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,437
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    No, they're just random shite. And the problem is that it's exactly the sort of shite you seem to like.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Starmer is John Major without all the razzamatazz.
    Omg he is excruciating
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,934

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Starmer is John Major without all the razzamatazz.
    Ooof!
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,352
    edited December 3
    HYUFD said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Italy: Grillo admits defeats in his battle to retain his job as 'guarantor' of M5S by conducting interviews from a hearse he was driving to symbolise the death of the movement's founding principles.

    Completes his epic falling out with Conte who has won member votes to sideline Grillo, define M5S as being on the left and removing 2 term limits for all M5S politicians.

    With the centre looking weak (the centre is where Italian political egos go to die, perhaps Grillo too?) this may open up the long hoped big tent left at all electoral levels: PD have eaten M5S votes during the feud and the left-greens have gained ground too.

    They haven't eaten into the right bloc vote
    much yet, but a more united left that can manage its various crazies will be far more competitive.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/01/the-guardian-view-on-italys-divided-opposition-a-five-star-revolution-can-help-unite-the-left

    Latest Italian polls give Meloni's rightwing coalition 47% combined, 13% more than the PD and M5S on 34% combined
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_Italian_general_election#Graphical_summary
    About 48/42ish, including Noi Moderati on the right and assuming AVS and +E would be on board for the left (these, but not M5S, who were shunned for their role in collapsing the Draghi government, were on board last time).

    It all depends on the exact alliance that can be formed and held together.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,330
    edited December 3

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    26. Why can't anyone give accounts in ordinary English of how replicable life might have started?
    27. How come mirrors reflect the wrong way round yet we all accept this as totally normal?
    Mysteriously they reflect the wrong way round right/left but not top and bottom.
    28 Could a hermaphrodite make themselves pregnant?
    Yes.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28282768/

    And don't bother with the next, please.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    No, they're just random shite. And the problem is that it's exactly the sort of shite you seem to like.
    Oh dear. Whooosh

    Let’s move on, eh
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,934

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Good to see Mrs Starmer there too. Pity though that while the PM mentioned families and communities coming together for Christmas the atheist First Lord did not mention Jesus Christ once
    Mrs Starmer? Starmer's mother? Thought she was dead!

    Or do you mean LADY Starmer, wife of Sir Keir?
    If you insist
    Common courtesy, surely.

    I don't like titles if hereditary but this was earned.
    By marrying a senior lawyer and politician I suppose
    Her husbands title was earned and the wife of a knight is traditionally described as 'Lady'.
    I thought that, as a traditionalist, you would have accepted that!
    A friend of mine who is a "Sir" took rather unneccessary delight in informing his wife that she could no longer use "Lady" upon their divorce...
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,030

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Good to see Mrs Starmer there too. Pity though that while the PM mentioned families and communities coming together for Christmas the atheist First Lord did not mention Jesus Christ once
    Mrs Starmer? Starmer's mother? Thought she was dead!

    Or do you mean LADY Starmer, wife of Sir Keir?
    If you insist
    Common courtesy, surely.

    I don't like titles if hereditary but this was earned.
    By marrying a senior lawyer and politician I suppose
    Her husbands title was earned and the wife of a knight is traditionally described as 'Lady'.
    I thought that, as a traditionalist, you would have accepted that!
    I'll let you tell Lady Nugee that.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,694
    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Good to see Mrs Starmer there too. Pity though that while the PM mentioned families and communities coming together for Christmas the atheist First Lord did not mention Jesus Christ once
    Mrs Starmer? Starmer's mother? Thought she was dead!

    Or do you mean LADY Starmer, wife of Sir Keir?
    If you insist
    Common courtesy, surely.

    I don't like titles if hereditary but this was earned.
    By marrying a senior lawyer and politician I suppose
    Her husbands title was earned and the wife of a knight is traditionally described as 'Lady'.
    I thought that, as a traditionalist, you would have accepted that!
    I'll let you tell Lady Nugee that.
    Touche'
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,978
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    Some people here are unfailingly literal. Laurence Logic from Viz types.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,882

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Good to see Mrs Starmer there too. Pity though that while the PM mentioned families and communities coming together for Christmas the atheist First Lord did not mention Jesus Christ once
    Mrs Starmer? Starmer's mother? Thought she was dead!

    Or do you mean LADY Starmer, wife of Sir Keir?
    If you insist
    Common courtesy, surely.

    I don't like titles if hereditary but this was earned.
    By marrying a senior lawyer and politician I suppose
    Her husbands title was earned and the wife of a knight is traditionally described as 'Lady'.
    I thought that, as a traditionalist, you would have accepted that!
    A friend of mine who is a "Sir" took rather unneccessary delight in informing his wife that she could no longer use "Lady" upon their divorce...
    My habit is not to use titles where they have come up with the rations rather than being earned.

    If it were ever to mean that some chinless wonder worked themselves up into a strop ... there's the door, darling. Oh Dear ,What a Pity, Never Mind.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,934
    edited December 3
    Nigelb said:

    Finland announces that another undersea telecommunications cable between Sweden and Finland was cut in 2 locations a few hours ago.

    They suspect sabotage

    https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1863868168302735392

    Does anyone know you repair these massive bundles of fibre-optic cables?
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,835
    Selebian said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    I say we give him a hard hat, high-vis vest and a pickaxe and let him crack on :smile:
    I want a Dublin-Belfast-Liverpool-Birmingham-London night train first. All it needs is a modified ferry and shitloads of subsidy.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,173
    Selebian said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    I say we give him a hard hat, high-vis vest and a pickaxe and let him crack on :smile:
    We could even give him an assist by providing a very deep hole to start in.
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,811
    algarkirk said:

    HYUFD said:

    President elect Trump will attend a ceremony for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral which will also be attended by 50 heads of state
    https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20241203-trump-to-attend-notre-dame-cathedral-reopening-ceremony-in-paris

    For an entirely secular state this refurbishment of a relic of superstitious medieval buffoonery is getting a lot of attention from the state.
    I don't really think it's anything to do with "superstitious medieval buffoonery". The French, and their Presidents in particular, have always had a liking for grand prestige projects. Hence Pompidou Centre, and the Grand Projets of Mitterrand, etc. Just the latest iteration and good for them, and Macron. Wish we, in the UK, did more of it.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,694

    algarkirk said:

    HYUFD said:

    President elect Trump will attend a ceremony for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral which will also be attended by 50 heads of state
    https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20241203-trump-to-attend-notre-dame-cathedral-reopening-ceremony-in-paris

    For an entirely secular state this refurbishment of a relic of superstitious medieval buffoonery is getting a lot of attention from the state.
    I don't really think it's anything to do with "superstitious medieval buffoonery". The French, and their Presidents in particular, have always had a liking for grand prestige projects. Hence Pompidou Centre, and the Grand Projets of Mitterrand, etc. Just the latest iteration and good for them, and Macron. Wish we, in the UK, did more of it.
    HS2?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,864
    edited December 3
    MattW said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Watching Starmer turn on the Christmas lights at No 10 as if he was opening an archive of medieval charters with an audience of retired bishops sort of reminds you of how Boris did that sort of thing.

    https://news.sky.com/video/prime-minster-sir-keir-starmer-turns-on-downing-street-christmas-lights-13265536

    Good to see Mrs Starmer there too. Pity though that while the PM mentioned families and communities coming together for Christmas the atheist First Lord did not mention Jesus Christ once
    Mrs Starmer? Starmer's mother? Thought she was dead!

    Or do you mean LADY Starmer, wife of Sir Keir?
    If you insist
    Common courtesy, surely.

    I don't like titles if hereditary but this was earned.
    By marrying a senior lawyer and politician I suppose
    Her husbands title was earned and the wife of a knight is traditionally described as 'Lady'.
    I thought that, as a traditionalist, you would have accepted that!
    A friend of mine who is a "Sir" took rather unneccessary delight in informing his wife that she could no longer use "Lady" upon their divorce...
    My habit is not to use titles where they have come up with the rations rather than being earned.

    If it were ever to mean that some chinless wonder worked themselves up into a strop ... there's the door, darling. Oh Dear ,What a Pity, Never Mind.
    By contrast in my view titles belong to the aristocracy and are inherited and knighthoods to the original knights of the shires, everything else including life peerages and knighthoods to show you did well career wise are a bit nouveau for people who are normally rich from their careers anyway. MBEs and OBEs by contrast are often better reflections of voluntary work done outside career
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,437
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    No, they're just random shite. And the problem is that it's exactly the sort of shite you seem to like.
    Oh dear. Whooosh

    Let’s move on, eh
    You are a UFOlogist nutter with a penchant for believing anything you read on t'Internet, and for spamming us with low-IQ rubbish. I'm surprised you didn't write that list.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,864
    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,632
    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    26. Why can't anyone give accounts in ordinary English of how replicable life might have started?
    27. How come mirrors reflect the wrong way round yet we all accept this as totally normal?
    Mysteriously they reflect the wrong way round right/left but not top and bottom.
    I've just tested that by rotating my head 90 degrees in front of the mirror so as to get a top and bottom eye as well as a right and left one. Yes, it's true.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,882
    edited December 3
    carnforth said:

    Selebian said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    I say we give him a hard hat, high-vis vest and a pickaxe and let him crack on :smile:
    I want a Dublin-Belfast-Liverpool-Birmingham-London night train first. All it needs is a modified ferry and shitloads of subsidy.
    You already have one of those, for about £50 one way.

    All you need is to spend the afternoon-evening on the train from London, take a karrimat for the ferry, and I'm not 100% sure the ferry will arrive directly in Dublin.

    And it may be Holyhead, not Liverpool.

    Next? :wink:

    (Can we build a shaft instead, and put BJ at the bottom of it, under a concrete plug?)
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,437
    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    Some people here are unfailingly literal. Laurence Logic from Viz types.
    And some people on here are unfailingly stupid. Most typically, those who repeatedly boast about their own high IQ. ;)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,173
    I think this possibly applies to many walks of life.

    "There are two kinds of biologists: sons of bitches and bastards. The former make stuff up in papers. The latter point it out." - biologists at the University of Chicago to physicist Leo Szilard.
    https://x.com/curiouswavefn/status/1316699348957159425
  • HYUFD said:

    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
    He was utter rubbish - great he has gone
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,811
    Actually it is. (Interesting, that is). Here's the text:

    Here are two jarring facts. The chancellor has just appointed a special Covid corruption commissioner to examine an eye-watering £7.6bn of dodgy and fraudulent contracts awarded for Covid equipment, and the PM has just appointed as cabinet secretary Chris Wormald, who is the top official in the Department of Health and Social Care, which oversaw the awarding of the dodgy contracts.

    The juxtaposition of the appointments is astonishing, quite literally.

    I am intrigued by what Keir Starmer asked Wormald about his financial stewardship of DHSC during the job interview. What is Wormald’s explanation for how such spectacularly loss-making medical procurement - that has explicitly and repeatedly been described by Rachel Reeves as a scandal - happened on his watch, when he was the accounting officer?

    Who does Wormald think was to blame for awarding the disastrous loss-making contracts? Where does the buck stop for the debacle?

    It can’t be his fault, surely, or presumably Starmer would not have promoted him to run the entire civil service? So who was at fault?

    Tricky to blame the tooth fairy for this one.

    Is it plausible that the corruption commissioner and the separate Covid Inquiry will give the DHSC a clean bill of health as they go through purchasing procedures and the books? That seems a stretch after the National Audit Office has said the department has written off a staggering £9.9bn on unusable and over-priced personal protective equipment? If they savage the DHSC, does Downing St already have a media plan to protect Wormald and blame others.

    Everyone tells me that Wormald is sensible and impressive. “He is interested in substance and not just a courtier” says someone who knows him and rates him highly. And lest we forget, the country and the government were in panic mode during the early Covid months, so accidents were bound to happen, milk was inevitably going to be spilled.

    It was a crisis after all and the NHS was chronically short of PPE protective equipment - though whose faults was that? But the difficulty with saying forgive and forget, don’t get worked up, is that the Chancellor says precisely the opposite. She insists the lost billions are a scandal and we should all be very angry. Though presumably Starmer has misplaced her memo
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    No, they're just random shite. And the problem is that it's exactly the sort of shite you seem to like.
    Oh dear. Whooosh

    Let’s move on, eh
    You are a UFOlogist nutter with a penchant for believing anything you read on t'Internet, and for spamming us with low-IQ rubbish. I'm surprised you didn't write that list.
    In your favour, no one is ever going to mistake you for a person with a sophisticated sense of humour, and an appreciation of irony and nuance, so at least you won’t ever be asked to write amusing prose or make funny speeches leading to catastrophic explosions of cringe

    Unlike our dear prime minister
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    In America, with the billionaires they have over there and how money talks, this might conceivably happen.

    Here? Nah.

    PS. The business case would also be shite.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 63,114
    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,882
    Nigelb said:

    Finland announces that another undersea telecommunications cable between Sweden and Finland was cut in 2 locations a few hours ago.

    They suspect sabotage

    https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1863868168302735392

    Contrary to reports in the media on Tuesday 03 December 2024, the Finnish police are not currently conducting criminal investigation into the damage caused to a fibre-optic cable between Finland and Sweden.

    The police are establishing what has happened, together with other authorities.

    https://poliisi.fi/en/-/police-have-no-on-going-criminal-investigation-into-the-damage-caused-to-a-cable-between-finland-and-sweden-at-this-stage
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,864

    HYUFD said:

    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
    He was utter rubbish - great he has gone
    He wasn't, he won the highest number of Welsh Conservative Senedd seats ever in 2021
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,352
    carnforth said:
    A sad day.

    Drakeford Vs RT was truly the Disraeli / Gladstone of our times.
  • Actually it is. (Interesting, that is). Here's the text:

    Here are two jarring facts. The chancellor has just appointed a special Covid corruption commissioner to examine an eye-watering £7.6bn of dodgy and fraudulent contracts awarded for Covid equipment, and the PM has just appointed as cabinet secretary Chris Wormald, who is the top official in the Department of Health and Social Care, which oversaw the awarding of the dodgy contracts.

    The juxtaposition of the appointments is astonishing, quite literally.

    I am intrigued by what Keir Starmer asked Wormald about his financial stewardship of DHSC during the job interview. What is Wormald’s explanation for how such spectacularly loss-making medical procurement - that has explicitly and repeatedly been described by Rachel Reeves as a scandal - happened on his watch, when he was the accounting officer?

    Who does Wormald think was to blame for awarding the disastrous loss-making contracts? Where does the buck stop for the debacle?

    It can’t be his fault, surely, or presumably Starmer would not have promoted him to run the entire civil service? So who was at fault?

    Tricky to blame the tooth fairy for this one.

    Is it plausible that the corruption commissioner and the separate Covid Inquiry will give the DHSC a clean bill of health as they go through purchasing procedures and the books? That seems a stretch after the National Audit Office has said the department has written off a staggering £9.9bn on unusable and over-priced personal protective equipment? If they savage the DHSC, does Downing St already have a media plan to protect Wormald and blame others.

    Everyone tells me that Wormald is sensible and impressive. “He is interested in substance and not just a courtier” says someone who knows him and rates him highly. And lest we forget, the country and the government were in panic mode during the early Covid months, so accidents were bound to happen, milk was inevitably going to be spilled.

    It was a crisis after all and the NHS was chronically short of PPE protective equipment - though whose faults was that? But the difficulty with saying forgive and forget, don’t get worked up, is that the Chancellor says precisely the opposite. She insists the lost billions are a scandal and we should all be very angry. Though presumably Starmer has misplaced her memo
    If the findings are as suggested, many will be eating humble pie not least the much embattled Reeves
  • CookieCookie Posts: 14,069
    Nigelb said:

    Selebian said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    I say we give him a hard hat, high-vis vest and a pickaxe and let him crack on :smile:
    We could even give him an assist by providing a very deep hole to start in.
    This is delightfully stupid.
    I wonder if he's noticed that England and Scotland are already connected?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,694
    deleted
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    In America, with the billionaires they have over there and how money talks, this might conceivably happen.

    Here? Nah.

    PS. The business case would also be shite.
    Cost: absolutely massive.
    Demand: minimal.

  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    China wandering around and snipping comms cables to show a bit of geopolitical leg and reach to the West, and warn of its soft axis with Russia, is so fucking childish.

    It's like running down the street and letting the air out of all the tyres, or taking a dump on the porch, ringing the doorbell, and then running away.

    Can't they be grown ups?
  • ManOfGwentManOfGwent Posts: 108
    HYUFD said:

    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
    It's a shame that a large minority of Tories in the Assembly cannot accept that there is a place for devo-scepticism. Hopefully a new leader will be as willing to court that part of the electorate as much, or more than RT Davies was.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
    He was utter rubbish - great he has gone
    He wasn't, he won the highest number of Welsh Conservative Senedd seats ever in 2021
    He was and thankfully he is gone no matter the conservatives did better in 21

    You do not live in Wales, nor do you listen to Welsh news every day and despair at how poor he was

    A new leader is a chance to reset and take on Reform
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,835
    MattW said:

    carnforth said:

    Selebian said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    I say we give him a hard hat, high-vis vest and a pickaxe and let him crack on :smile:
    I want a Dublin-Belfast-Liverpool-Birmingham-London night train first. All it needs is a modified ferry and shitloads of subsidy.
    You already have one of those, for about £50 one way.

    All you need is to spend the afternoon-evening on the train from London, take a karrimat for the ferry, and I'm not 100% sure the ferry will arrive directly in Dublin.

    And it may be Holyhead, not Liverpool.

    Next? :wink:

    (Can we build a shaft instead, and put BJ at the bottom of it, under a concrete plug?)
    I have done that! But I want to sleep the whole way through. Whether sleep is possible whilst a train is loaded on to a ferry I have no idea.

    Dublin <-> London is the busiest air route in Europe.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,934

    Actually it is. (Interesting, that is). Here's the text:

    Here are two jarring facts. The chancellor has just appointed a special Covid corruption commissioner to examine an eye-watering £7.6bn of dodgy and fraudulent contracts awarded for Covid equipment, and the PM has just appointed as cabinet secretary Chris Wormald, who is the top official in the Department of Health and Social Care, which oversaw the awarding of the dodgy contracts.

    The juxtaposition of the appointments is astonishing, quite literally.

    I am intrigued by what Keir Starmer asked Wormald about his financial stewardship of DHSC during the job interview. What is Wormald’s explanation for how such spectacularly loss-making medical procurement - that has explicitly and repeatedly been described by Rachel Reeves as a scandal - happened on his watch, when he was the accounting officer?

    Who does Wormald think was to blame for awarding the disastrous loss-making contracts? Where does the buck stop for the debacle?

    It can’t be his fault, surely, or presumably Starmer would not have promoted him to run the entire civil service? So who was at fault?

    Tricky to blame the tooth fairy for this one.

    Is it plausible that the corruption commissioner and the separate Covid Inquiry will give the DHSC a clean bill of health as they go through purchasing procedures and the books? That seems a stretch after the National Audit Office has said the department has written off a staggering £9.9bn on unusable and over-priced personal protective equipment? If they savage the DHSC, does Downing St already have a media plan to protect Wormald and blame others.

    Everyone tells me that Wormald is sensible and impressive. “He is interested in substance and not just a courtier” says someone who knows him and rates him highly. And lest we forget, the country and the government were in panic mode during the early Covid months, so accidents were bound to happen, milk was inevitably going to be spilled.

    It was a crisis after all and the NHS was chronically short of PPE protective equipment - though whose faults was that? But the difficulty with saying forgive and forget, don’t get worked up, is that the Chancellor says precisely the opposite. She insists the lost billions are a scandal and we should all be very angry. Though presumably Starmer has misplaced her memo
    All the fault of the Tories, innit?

    I wonder if Wormald told those Labour politicians who were promoting PPE contracts (with people who had no PPE) where to go...
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608
    edited December 3

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,352
    MattW said:

    carnforth said:

    Selebian said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    I say we give him a hard hat, high-vis vest and a pickaxe and let him crack on :smile:
    I want a Dublin-Belfast-Liverpool-Birmingham-London night train first. All it needs is a modified ferry and shitloads of subsidy.
    You already have one of those, for about £50 one way.

    All you need is to spend the afternoon-evening on the train from London, take a karrimat for the ferry, and I'm not 100% sure the ferry will arrive directly in Dublin.

    And it may be Holyhead, not Liverpool.

    Next? :wink:

    (Can we build a shaft instead, and put BJ at the bottom of it, under a concrete plug?)
    Boris may need some encouragement to enter the shaft, but probably not much.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,330

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    Some people here are unfailingly literal. Laurence Logic from Viz types.
    And some people on here are unfailingly stupid. Most typically, those who repeatedly boast about their own high IQ. ;)
    Also, if they talk bollocks for fun, they can't complain if they get treated with common respect and are concluded to talk bollocks because they have bollocks for brains.

    They'd be upset if one assumed they were talking bollocks for fun when they were being serious ...
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082
    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    The obvious (26) is "Has the person who posted these to twatter been imbibing too many drugs?" or "Who let the Fortean Times escape?" or "What did my 9 year old child say today?", I'll give you one.

    26 - Why are Chinese Coolie Hats shaped like the cap of a stove pipe chimney?
    27 - read the Wikipedia article first, for all the questions.
  • It is time to remove planning regulations altogether. It’s quite clear they are a failed idea.

    A completely lunatic idea.
    He might revisit that idea when an abbattoir gets built next door...
    Nope, build whatever you like.

    Are you the kind of person that rejects pylons and masts because of how they look?

    Would you have one on your roof? I would.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945
    "More than 600 Brazilians deported by Home Office on three secret flights
    Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK"

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/01/brazilians-deported-home-office-secret-flights-uk
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,437
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    You do realise I posted it in the spirit of levity, and I suspect the guy that wrote it composed it with the same mindset

    They’re so brilliantly random and tinged with delicate surrealism
    No, they're just random shite. And the problem is that it's exactly the sort of shite you seem to like.
    Oh dear. Whooosh

    Let’s move on, eh
    You are a UFOlogist nutter with a penchant for believing anything you read on t'Internet, and for spamming us with low-IQ rubbish. I'm surprised you didn't write that list.
    In your favour, no one is ever going to mistake you for a person with a sophisticated sense of humour, and an appreciation of irony and nuance, so at least you won’t ever be asked to write amusing prose or make funny speeches leading to catastrophic explosions of cringe

    (Snip)
    You really do not know me IRL. Thank God. :)

    How's your latest sex tourism jaunt going?
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,352

    Nigelb said:

    Finland announces that another undersea telecommunications cable between Sweden and Finland was cut in 2 locations a few hours ago.

    They suspect sabotage

    https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1863868168302735392

    Does anyone know you repair these massive bundles of fibre-optic cables?
    PB is your friend:

    https://youtu.be/QiwidMEv8CM?feature=shared
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,330
    carnforth said:

    Selebian said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Can we revive Boris Roundabout?

    "Boris Johnson ‘wants to build roundabout under the Isle of Man’

    Prime minister Boris Johnson wants to build a giant roundabout under the Isle of Man, connecting England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to The Sunday Times"

    https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-wants-to-build-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man

    I say we give him a hard hat, high-vis vest and a pickaxe and let him crack on :smile:
    I want a Dublin-Belfast-Liverpool-Birmingham-London night train first. All it needs is a modified ferry and shitloads of subsidy.
    As invented here in Scotland by Thos Bouch, the chap who invented the Tay Bridge later.

    http://curiousedinburgh.org/2019/01/15/granton-ferries/

    Actually, the ferry worked fine: Bouch should have stuck to ferries.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    I know. I posted it last night

    I suspect Trump will use this to go after Fauci, Daszak and maybe our own Jeremy Farrar, and many others involved in the cover-up

    And what’s more, he should go for them. Daszak did extremely dangerous science, in stupidly risky scenarios (funded by the USA) and when it all went wrong the scientific establishment panicked, tried to cover up the likely cause, and set back our understanding of Covid by crucial months

    We do need trials. Let juries decide. They may be acquitted - who knows

    But you can’t have 28 million worldwide deaths and then just shrug and say “shit happens, move on”
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608
    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,882

    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    The obvious (26) is "Has the person who posted these to twatter been imbibing too many drugs?" or "Who let the Fortean Times escape?" or "What did my 9 year old child say today?", I'll give you one.

    26 - Why are Chinese Coolie Hats shaped like the cap of a stove pipe chimney?
    27 - read the Wikipedia article first, for all the questions.
    Point of Order. That's not a question.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,864

    HYUFD said:

    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
    It's a shame that a large minority of Tories in the Assembly cannot accept that there is a place for devo-scepticism. Hopefully a new leader will be as willing to court that part of the electorate as much, or more than RT Davies was.
    If Welsh voters want to scrap the Senedd they will vote Reform, the Tories are better off being a distinct centre right pro Union and pro devolution party
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 63,114
    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    On the other hand no one can come up with evidence that it came from bat-virus infected animals at the wet market. The report says none have ever been found.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
    It's a shame that a large minority of Tories in the Assembly cannot accept that there is a place for devo-scepticism. Hopefully a new leader will be as willing to court that part of the electorate as much, or more than RT Davies was.
    If Welsh voters want to scrap the Senedd they will vote Reform, the Tories are better off being a distinct centre right pro Union and pro devolution party
    I agree with you and certainly I do not want the Senedd scrapped, just the useless Labour government evicted from it
  • ManOfGwentManOfGwent Posts: 108
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    carnforth said:
    Pity, he did OK in my view and he won the confidence vote narrowly even if not by a big enough margin
    It's a shame that a large minority of Tories in the Assembly cannot accept that there is a place for devo-scepticism. Hopefully a new leader will be as willing to court that part of the electorate as much, or more than RT Davies was.
    If Welsh voters want to scrap the Senedd they will vote Reform, the Tories are better off being a distinct centre right pro Union and pro devolution party
    I think there is too much of a cross over of centre-right and anti devolution sentiment for that to be a viable electoral path.
  • It is time to remove planning regulations altogether. It’s quite clear they are a failed idea.

    A completely lunatic idea.
    He might revisit that idea when an abbattoir gets built next door...
    Nope, build whatever you like.

    Are you the kind of person that rejects pylons and masts because of how they look?

    Would you have one on your roof? I would.
    In beautiful landscapes absolutely reject both - put cables underground if necessary
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 63,114

    Leon said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    I know. I posted it last night

    I suspect Trump will use this to go after Fauci, Daszak and maybe our own Jeremy Farrar, and many others involved in the cover-up

    And what’s more, he should go for them. Daszak did extremely dangerous science, in stupidly risky scenarios (funded by the USA) and when it all went wrong the scientific establishment panicked, tried to cover up the likely cause, and set back our understanding of Covid by crucial months

    We do need trials. Let juries decide. They may be acquitted - who knows

    But you can’t have 28 million worldwide deaths and then just shrug and say “shit happens, move on”
    "I posted it last night"

    Sorry - I must have missed that.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    On the other hand no one can come up with evidence that it came from bat-virus infected animals at the wet market. The report says none have ever been found.
    Even if they had found infected animals at the wet market, it wouldn't preclude the lab leak. A junior technician could have been bitten by a bat, and passed the virus onto their wife who worked at a coffee place at the wet market.

    The point is, though, that there is an annoying lack of direct evidence, at least in part due to the fact that the Chinese seem to have been unconcerned with doing a proper investigation.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496




    Leon said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    I know. I posted it last night

    I suspect Trump will use this to go after Fauci, Daszak and maybe our own Jeremy Farrar, and many others involved in the cover-up

    And what’s more, he should go for them. Daszak did extremely dangerous science, in stupidly risky scenarios (funded by the USA) and when it all went wrong the scientific establishment panicked, tried to cover up the likely cause, and set back our understanding of Covid by crucial months

    We do need trials. Let juries decide. They may be acquitted - who knows

    But you can’t have 28 million worldwide deaths and then just shrug and say “shit happens, move on”
    "I posted it last night"

    Sorry - I must have missed that.
    No need to apologise. Time difference likely means I posted it at 1am your time
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,610
    edited December 3
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Actually there are flights over Antarctica taking in the fantastic scenery

    Our eldest took one such flight from Christchurch, NZ, a decade or so ago

    Though it doesn't beat actually going there
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,268
    Andy_JS said:

    "More than 600 Brazilians deported by Home Office on three secret flights
    Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK"

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/01/brazilians-deported-home-office-secret-flights-uk

    They’re going for the easy targets for the sake of a few good headlines.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082

    Nigelb said:

    Finland announces that another undersea telecommunications cable between Sweden and Finland was cut in 2 locations a few hours ago.

    They suspect sabotage

    https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1863868168302735392

    Does anyone know you repair these massive bundles of fibre-optic cables?
    If only the British government had invested in a satellite data service.

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Great circle routes….
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,030

    Andy_JS said:

    "More than 600 Brazilians deported by Home Office on three secret flights
    Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK"

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/01/brazilians-deported-home-office-secret-flights-uk

    They’re going for the easy targets for the sake of a few good headlines.
    Better enforcement is needed in this area. Don't the airlines etc. supply passport information to the government that they can cross-check against visa expiry dates?
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Actually there are flights over Antarctica taking in the fantastic scenery

    Our eldest took one such flight from Christchurch, NZ, a decade or so ago

    Though it doesn't beat actually going there
    Nevertheless, flights over Antarctica are rare.

    There are two possible explanations for this: (1) there's a giant conspiracy, meant to prevent people from seeing what's truly at the South Pole; (2) there simply aren't many city pairs where it makes economic sense to fly that far South.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,352

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Actually there are flights over Antarctica taking in the fantastic scenery

    Our eldest took one such flight from Christchurch, NZ, a decade or so ago

    Though it doesn't beat actually going there
    They resolved the whiteout issues with doing that, then?


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Erebus_disaster?wprov=sfla1
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,708
    Andy_JS said:

    "More than 600 Brazilians deported by Home Office on three secret flights
    Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK"

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/01/brazilians-deported-home-office-secret-flights-uk

    Hmm. Sounds like Sir Keir is in earnest about persecuting immigrants. Kemi and Nigel need to get their acts together over this. If Sir Keir successfully addresses the immigration problem - and it looks increasingly like he will - then those two will be politically irrelevant. The British Right are making a massive mistake if they think it's all going to fall back into their laps as it did with Trump.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,379
    Selebian said:

    Leon said:

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    26. Why can't anyone give accounts in ordinary English of how replicable life might have started?
    27. How come mirrors reflect the wrong way round yet we all accept this as totally normal?
    The "why is left-right reversed in a mirror but not top-bottom?" was a favourite mindfuck question of one of my undergrad physics lecturers that he used to pose to freshers :lol:
    It isn't. Tilt your neck 90% (some surgery may be required) and you'll see what I mean.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608
    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
    You comment is contradictory: "Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging"

    You studied epistemology, right?

    That's not direct new evidence at all. That's merely evidence that those people had come to the same conclusion you had, they just chose to lie about it.
  • StereodogStereodog Posts: 726
    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
    Isn't this a bit like all those people who try to establish the identity of Jack the Ripper though? You can make more or less credible guesses but at the end of the day there isn't enough actual evidence to prove them one way or the other.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 63,114
    Oh...


    Unknown disease kills 143 in southwest Congo, local authorities say
    By Reuters

    December 3, 202411:31 AM GMTUpdated an hour ago

    https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/unknown-disease-kills-143-southwest-congo-local-authorities-say-2024-12-03/
  • Pro_Rata said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Actually there are flights over Antarctica taking in the fantastic scenery

    Our eldest took one such flight from Christchurch, NZ, a decade or so ago

    Though it doesn't beat actually going there
    They resolved the whiteout issues with doing that, then?


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Erebus_disaster?wprov=sfla1
    They must have
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Great circle routes….
    There are lots more cities in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern. It is therefore much more likely that there are Great Circle routes in the North, than the South.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,720
    edited December 3
    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    The obvious (26) is "Has the person who posted these to twatter been imbibing too many drugs?" or "Who let the Fortean Times escape?" or "What did my 9 year old child say today?", I'll give you one.

    26 - Why are Chinese Coolie Hats shaped like the cap of a stove pipe chimney?
    My actual 9 year old self had a big book entitled "The World Atlas of Mysteries".

    It was amusing for a while until I realised that the world was full of more interesting mysteries and this thing called science was trying to find out some of the answers, albeit that often this involved a lot of maths.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Atlas-Mysteries-Francis-Hitching/dp/0330256831

    Some of these questions are discussed.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,268

    Andy_JS said:

    "More than 600 Brazilians deported by Home Office on three secret flights
    Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK"

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/01/brazilians-deported-home-office-secret-flights-uk

    Hmm. Sounds like Sir Keir is in earnest about persecuting immigrants. Kemi and Nigel need to get their acts together over this. If Sir Keir successfully addresses the immigration problem - and it looks increasingly like he will - then those two will be politically irrelevant. The British Right are making a massive mistake if they think it's all going to fall back into their laps as it did with Trump.
    It’s a nice deal if you’re a Brazilian. Overstay on your tourist visa and work in the informal economy over the summer. Then the British government will pay for your return flight and given you a few thousand as a bonus.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,405
    edited December 3

    Andy_JS said:

    "More than 600 Brazilians deported by Home Office on three secret flights
    Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK"

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/01/brazilians-deported-home-office-secret-flights-uk

    Hmm. Sounds like Sir Keir is in earnest about persecuting immigrants. Kemi and Nigel need to get their acts together over this. If Sir Keir successfully addresses the immigration problem - and it looks increasingly like he will - then those two will be politically irrelevant. The British Right are making a massive mistake if they think it's all going to fall back into their laps as it did with Trump.
    It’s a nice deal if you’re a Brazilian. Overstay on your tourist visa and work in the informal economy over the summer. Then the British government will pay for your return flight and given you a few thousand as a bonus.
    Hmm - I definitely had to pay a (small) fine when I overstayed my visa in Thailand by a day a couple of decades ago.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,708
    Stereodog said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
    Isn't this a bit like all those people who try to establish the identity of Jack the Ripper though? You can make more or less credible guesses but at the end of the day there isn't enough actual evidence to prove them one way or the other.
    Yes. And the Lab Leak theory has now become trendy. It won't be long before the free-thinking mavericks start saying that the Wet Market is the way to go.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,632
    kinabalu said:

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    26. Why can't anyone give accounts in ordinary English of how replicable life might have started?
    27. How come mirrors reflect the wrong way round yet we all accept this as totally normal?
    Mysteriously they reflect the wrong way round right/left but not top and bottom.
    I've just tested that by rotating my head 90 degrees in front of the mirror so as to get a top and bottom eye as well as a right and left one. Yes, it's true.
    It also makes no difference if you rotate the mirror.

    (no substitute for actually doing it rather than getting bogged down in theory)
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,882
    edited December 3
    carnforth said:
    Can anyone explain what happened in the Welsh Conservatives with respect to the 20mh limit, mentioned in Guardian Live Blog but not on the BBC link.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/dec/03/jess-phillips-stalking-protection-measures-violence-women-girls-labour-conservatives-uk-politics-latest-updates

    When it was voted on in the Senedd in 2020 the Conservatives were firmly in support, and Andrew RT Davies abstained.
    https://www.20splenty.org/w_faq04

    Is Was he out of step with the New Generation?
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,352
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Great circle routes….
    There are lots more cities in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern. It is therefore much more likely that there are Great Circle routes in the North, than the South.
    The population of the southern hemisphere living above 40° latitude (so closer to the pole than Naples) is around 4 million, about 3/8 each in NZ and Argentina and about 1/8 each in Chile and Tasmania.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    edited December 3
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
    You comment is contradictory: "Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging"

    You studied epistemology, right?

    That's not direct new evidence at all. That's merely evidence that those people had come to the same conclusion you had, they just chose to lie about it.
    How about this? From 2023


    “American researchers concealed their intention to conduct high-risk coronavirus research in Wuhan under lax safety standards from the Pentagon the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know.

    A 2018 grant proposal called Project DEFUSE, coauthored by the Wuhan Institute of Virology and American scientists, has stoked concern that the pandemic resulted from a lab accident.

    It proposed engineering high-risk coronaviruses of the same species as SARS and SARS-CoV-2. Most worrying to some scientists: The proposal involved synthesizing spike proteins with furin cleavage sites — the same feature that supercharged SARS-CoV-2 into the most infectious pandemic pathogen in a century. Indeed, some scientists have likened DEFUSE to a blueprint for generating SARS-CoV-2 in the lab.

    New documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know now show that these experiments were proposed to occur in part in Wuhan with fewer safety precautions than required in the U.S. — apparently to save on costs. American scientists at the center of the “lab leak theory” controversy appear to have concealed this from their desired funder — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — in order to evade any national security concerns about doing high-level biosecurity work in China.”

    I love this casual paragraph later on:


    “In a comment on the document, Baric acknowledged that U.S. researchers would “freak out” if they knew the novel coronavirus engineering and testing work would be conducted in a BSL-2 lab.”

    https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/american-scientists-misled-pentagon-on-wuhan-research/

    Is that not new evidence? Or do you need a video of Xi Jinping holding a copy of the Daily Mail for October 13th 2019 as he laughingly pathologises a bat virus and says “this will cause millions of deaths bwahahahaha!!!!”
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    Stereodog said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
    Isn't this a bit like all those people who try to establish the identity of Jack the Ripper though? You can make more or less credible guesses but at the end of the day there isn't enough actual evidence to prove them one way or the other.
    No, it is nothing like Jack the Ripper. FFS
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,561
    edited December 3

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    I've no special brief for Leon, who likes to provoke us, and think your replies are useful. But I do wonder why your posts so often stand out as the sweariest, angriest posts for anyone on PB, to the point that I hesitate to post anything that might provoke you. Have you considered responding to posts without insulting the poster and giving the impression that you're almost permanently furious?
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608
    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
    You comment is contradictory: "Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging"

    You studied epistemology, right?

    That's not direct new evidence at all. That's merely evidence that those people had come to the same conclusion you had, they just chose to lie about it.
    How about this? From 2023


    “American researchers concealed their intention to conduct high-risk coronavirus research in Wuhan under lax safety standards from the Pentagon the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know.

    A 2018 grant proposal called Project DEFUSE, coauthored by the Wuhan Institute of Virology and American scientists, has stoked concern that the pandemic resulted from a lab accident.

    It proposed engineering high-risk coronaviruses of the same species as SARS and SARS-CoV-2. Most worrying to some scientists: The proposal involved synthesizing spike proteins with furin cleavage sites — the same feature that supercharged SARS-CoV-2 into the most infectious pandemic pathogen in a century. Indeed, some scientists have likened DEFUSE to a blueprint for generating SARS-CoV-2 in the lab.

    New documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know now show that these experiments were proposed to occur in part in Wuhan with fewer safety precautions than required in the U.S. — apparently to save on costs. American scientists at the center of the “lab leak theory” controversy appear to have concealed this from their desired funder — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — in order to evade any national security concerns about doing high-level biosecurity work in China.”

    I love this casual paragraph later on:


    “In a comment on the document, Baric acknowledged that U.S. researchers would “freak out” if they knew the novel coronavirus engineering and testing work would be conducted in a BSL-2 lab.”

    https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/american-scientists-misled-pentagon-on-wuhan-research/

    Is that not new evidence? Or do you need a video of Xi Jinping holding a copy of the Daily Mail for October 13th 2019 as he laughingly pathologises a bat virus and says “this will cause millions of deaths bwahahahaha!!!!”
    See: I knew you could do it if you tried.

    That is new evidence. Not of the leak itself, but certainly that experiments were taking place in lower security facilities.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    Errr: because there aren't very many Southern Hemisphere city pairs where it would make sense?

    I mean, you would fly over Antarctica to fly from Sydney to Rio. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights.
    Great circle routes….
    There are lots more cities in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern. It is therefore much more likely that there are Great Circle routes in the North, than the South.
    Indeed - that was my point
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    I've no special brief for Leon, who likes to provoke us, and think your replies are useful. But I do wonder why your posts so often stand out as the sweariest, angriest posts for anyone on PB, to the point that I hesitate to post anything that might provoke you. Have you considered responding to posts without insulting the poster and giving the impression that you're almost permanently furious?
    Are you actually thinking of @malcolmg ?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    The problem is that we - as humans - like certainty.

    And the issue here is that it all the evidence here is entirely circumstantial. And almost entirely comes down to one thing:

    Covid (a bat virus) originated in the same city as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was possibly the leading place for studying bat viruses in the world).

    All that has happened in the intervening four and a half years is that more and more people have come to think "hmmmm... seems like an awfully big coincidence." Hence the phrase "more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident".

    I.e., there's no actual new evidence. There are merely more and more people who've said "we looked at what little evidence there is, and statistically, it's highly likely that the WIV was responsible".
    This really really really isn’t true. Tons more evidence, some scientific, some circumstantial, has emerged in the last four years - all favouring lab leak

    Mountains of it

    Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging

    Also Ecohealth and Daszak had made plans and
    requests to do the exact engineering on the virus that we see in Covid-19. That was another discovery

    There is much else like this. Your comment surprises me
    You comment is contradictory: "Eg all the emails slowly released under FOIA in the last four years showing that the scientists around fauci themselves thought lab leak was very probable even as they argued otherwise in public - these are still emerging"

    You studied epistemology, right?

    That's not direct new evidence at all. That's merely evidence that those people had come to the same conclusion you had, they just chose to lie about it.
    How about this? From 2023


    “American researchers concealed their intention to conduct high-risk coronavirus research in Wuhan under lax safety standards from the Pentagon the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know.

    A 2018 grant proposal called Project DEFUSE, coauthored by the Wuhan Institute of Virology and American scientists, has stoked concern that the pandemic resulted from a lab accident.

    It proposed engineering high-risk coronaviruses of the same species as SARS and SARS-CoV-2. Most worrying to some scientists: The proposal involved synthesizing spike proteins with furin cleavage sites — the same feature that supercharged SARS-CoV-2 into the most infectious pandemic pathogen in a century. Indeed, some scientists have likened DEFUSE to a blueprint for generating SARS-CoV-2 in the lab.

    New documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know now show that these experiments were proposed to occur in part in Wuhan with fewer safety precautions than required in the U.S. — apparently to save on costs. American scientists at the center of the “lab leak theory” controversy appear to have concealed this from their desired funder — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — in order to evade any national security concerns about doing high-level biosecurity work in China.”

    I love this casual paragraph later on:


    “In a comment on the document, Baric acknowledged that U.S. researchers would “freak out” if they knew the novel coronavirus engineering and testing work would be conducted in a BSL-2 lab.”

    https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/american-scientists-misled-pentagon-on-wuhan-research/

    Is that not new evidence? Or do you need a video of Xi Jinping holding a copy of the Daily Mail for October 13th 2019 as he laughingly pathologises a bat virus and says “this will cause millions of deaths bwahahahaha!!!!”
    See: I knew you could do it if you tried.

    That is new evidence. Not of the leak itself, but certainly that experiments were taking place in lower security facilities.
    There is lots of new evidence like that, which has amassed over the intervening four years since Covid debuted, that’s why I’m genuinely surprised you are unaware of it

    However I accept that you are a busier man than me, I have time to loaf about, reading obscure things
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,632
    Leon said:

    Hey @Leon - US Congress select committee final report on covid says likely that it was caused by lab leak.


    "SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident."

    https://oversight.house.gov/report/after-action-review-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-lessons-learned-and-a-path-forward/


    "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."

    I know. I posted it last night

    I suspect Trump will use this to go after Fauci, Daszak and maybe our own Jeremy Farrar, and many others involved in the cover-up

    And what’s more, he should go for them. Daszak did extremely dangerous science, in stupidly risky scenarios (funded by the USA) and when it all went wrong the scientific establishment panicked, tried to cover up the likely cause, and set back our understanding of Covid by crucial months

    We do need trials. Let juries decide. They may be acquitted - who knows

    But you can’t have 28 million worldwide deaths and then just shrug and say “shit happens, move on”
    How are you going to get a jury in America bright enough to handle a case like this? It's a population that's just elected Donald Trump ffs.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,708

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    I've no special brief for Leon, who likes to provoke us, and think your replies are useful. But I do wonder why your posts so often stand out as the sweariest, angriest posts for anyone on PB, to the point that I hesitate to post anything that might provoke you. Have you considered responding to posts without insulting the poster and giving the impression that you're almost permanently furious?
    Why have you turned into Leon's butler?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496

    Leon said:

    Just found this on TwiX. I don’t generally approve of random cutting and pasting, but this feels so acute and perceptive I’ll break my rule. It’s a simple list of simple questions, and yet it gets right to the heart


    “Questions To Ask Ourselves:

    1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

    2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

    3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

    4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

    5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

    6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

    7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

    8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

    9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

    10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

    11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

    12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

    13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

    14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

    15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

    16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

    17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

    18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

    19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

    20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

    21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

    22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

    23. Why are alcohol
    and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

    24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

    25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

    Feel free to contribute any additional questions you may have.”

    https://x.com/vegastarr/status/1863623245771235822?s=46

    How about, "why are conspiracy theorists nearly always nutjobs with poor levels of understanding and general education?"
    Leon's list of questions are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. You would have to be a really low-IQ individual to even propagate that list of shite.

    To take an example: number 5, which is an old favourite of the Moon landing hoaxers. The camera that caught him descending the ladder was in an instrument module called MESA, which was attached to the lander.

    "Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Afterwards, the camera would be detached from its mount in the MESA, mounted on a tripod and carried away from the LM to show the EVA's progress... "

    More interesting: how come there are only one or two still photos of Armstrong on the lunar surface? eh? eh? ;) (The answer is simple; he was the one holding the camera most of the time.)

    And for number 3: because there are not that many useful routes over Antarctica (unlike the Arctic...), and emergency diversions are somewhat more difficult. And AIUI, any commercial planes that do fly relatively near the south pole require special survival equipment on board. Because of the ack of diversion airfields. Oh, and the Illuminati monsters that live there.

    You can really do better than the steaming pile of shite you listed...
    I've no special brief for Leon, who likes to provoke us, and think your replies are useful. But I do wonder why your posts so often stand out as the sweariest, angriest posts for anyone on PB, to the point that I hesitate to post anything that might provoke you. Have you considered responding to posts without insulting the poster and giving the impression that you're almost permanently furious?
    In this instance I wasn’t even trying to provoke! (I accept I often do)

    I posted the list of questions because it is either

    1. An amusing example of the random strangeness of the true conspiracy theorist

    Or

    2. A clever and funny parody of the same

This discussion has been closed.