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Both the coming by-elections present problems for LAB – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 12,158
edited May 2021 in General
imageBoth the coming by-elections present problems for LAB – politicalbetting.com

After LAB lost Hartlepool and their lackluster performance in this year’s locals the next two electoral tests also look problematical for Keir Starmer and his party.

Read the full story here

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Comments

  • MikeSmithsonMikeSmithson Posts: 7,382
    !st
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,228
    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,722
    3rd
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808
    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,158
    Wonder if Boris has googled "black fungus" yet..
  • rpjsrpjs Posts: 3,787

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Absolutely. The similarities are striking.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,747
    Re header: Tories are rightly favs for Batley and Spen. In C&A I think that you're right too that what happens on the undercard matters. I think it matters more for the LDs than it does for Labour though. I can't see a Green vote here, but who knows.
  • rpjsrpjs Posts: 3,787
    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Mass hallucinations don't appear on video recordings usually though. Of course, maybe we're all mass hallucinating that we've seen the recordings!
  • JBriskin3JBriskin3 Posts: 1,254
    Just to make you aware people I'm on Pulsisic first goal scorer.

    Did anyone else notice my cheeky double I got yesterday?
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    rpjs said:

    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Mass hallucinations don't appear on video recordings usually though. Of course, maybe we're all mass hallucinating that we've seen the recordings!
    OR maybe our memories have been "photo-shopped" by civilizations way beyond human ken for a VERY long (earth) time?
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,767
    rpjs said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Absolutely. The similarities are striking.
    An acquaintance of mine from uni was convinced he'd seen aliens multiple times. Saw UFOs often. Talked about three distinct sorts of aliens, some of whom were benign, some weren't - all of whom he'd encountered. Was genuinely terrified of repeating the experience.
    He was from Lincolnshire, and very much valued being at uni in a city (Sheffield) where he never saw them and felt infinitely safer.
    I have no idea what can be learned from this. But he was quite sincere.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,747
    JBriskin3 said:

    Just to make you aware people I'm on Pulsisic first goal scorer.

    Did anyone else notice my cheeky double I got yesterday?

    73 posts and you expect attention! I will say though that MalcolmG did just class you as an 'idiot' - not many here have received such faint criticism.

  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,112
    edited May 2021
    Looking at some of Angela Rayner's recent activity, she is making allegations about 'Ministers on the take", and 'Ministers and advisers using the public purse as a personal cashpoint', and other stuff, in non-Parliamentary - ie non-privileged - forums.

    I think she may turn out to be the new, and more blatant, Sally Bercow.
  • rpjsrpjs Posts: 3,787

    rpjs said:

    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Mass hallucinations don't appear on video recordings usually though. Of course, maybe we're all mass hallucinating that we've seen the recordings!
    OR maybe our memories have been "photo-shopped" by civilizations way beyond human ken for a VERY long (earth) time?
    Or we're all just Boltzmann brains

    (Or rather, I am. The rest of you are all figments of my deranged imagination.)
  • JBriskin3JBriskin3 Posts: 1,254
    Omnium said:

    JBriskin3 said:

    Just to make you aware people I'm on Pulsisic first goal scorer.

    Did anyone else notice my cheeky double I got yesterday?

    73 posts and you expect attention! I will say though that MalcolmG did just class you as an 'idiot' - not many here have received such faint criticism.

    Me and Malky are "frenemies"
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350
    Mike, there’s an error in this heading. It says ‘electoral pact.’ You mean ‘suicide pact.’ Labour has to at least pretend it can win in its own strength. Apart from anything else, electoral pacts are usually very unsuccessful. Look at the infamous ‘Remain Alliance.’ It may even have cost the Liberal Democrats some seats, by making them look even more like a fringe party than they were.

    From a personal perspective, I would vote Labour or Liberal Democrat, but no way would I vote Green in a national election. They’re far too authoritarian for my tastes. So if I lived in a seat where Labour stood down for the Greens, I would be spoiling my ballot paper again.
  • MonkeysMonkeys Posts: 757

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350
    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    So Amelia Earhart really did travel in time?
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,639
    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164
    MattW said:

    Looking at some of Angela Rayner's recent activity, she is making allegations about 'Ministers on the take", and 'Ministers and advisers using the public purse as a personal cashpoint', and other stuff, in non-Parliamentary - ie non-privileged - forums.

    I think she may turn out to be the new, and more blatant, Sally Bercow.

    That would be Angela 'Apple Airpods at public expense' Rayner!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,228
    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    Think altered states of conciousness...
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,058
    I've always found Foo Fighters an interesting phenomenon

    (No, not the band...)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter
  • JBriskin3JBriskin3 Posts: 1,254

    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.

    I find the LD obsession with EU very odd. They've got democratic in their name yet the kafka EU just doesn't look very democratic to me. PS - I abstained at 2016
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Cookie said:

    rpjs said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Absolutely. The similarities are striking.
    An acquaintance of mine from uni was convinced he'd seen aliens multiple times. Saw UFOs often. Talked about three distinct sorts of aliens, some of whom were benign, some weren't - all of whom he'd encountered. Was genuinely terrified of repeating the experience.
    He was from Lincolnshire, and very much valued being at uni in a city (Sheffield) where he never saw them and felt infinitely safer.
    I have no idea what can be learned from this. But he was quite sincere.
    IF he talked like that AND came from Seattle, we'd be advising him to have his house checked for toxic mold. Seriously.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747
    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
  • FossFoss Posts: 1,019
    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Just to stir the pot, it is a year since UC Berkeley’s Seti@Home project decided to shut itself down...
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,392
    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    Jacques Vallee - now we’re talking. I live in Warminster, home of the infamous Warminster thing. A topic close to my heart. Not seen a ufo yet... Lots of flares, and military lights etc
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,046
    rpjs said:

    rpjs said:

    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Mass hallucinations don't appear on video recordings usually though. Of course, maybe we're all mass hallucinating that we've seen the recordings!
    OR maybe our memories have been "photo-shopped" by civilizations way beyond human ken for a VERY long (earth) time?
    Or we're all just Boltzmann brains

    (Or rather, I am. The rest of you are all figments of my deranged imagination.)
    It would make quite a bit of sense. I dread to think what part of your subconcious I am.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    Alleviation of ennui on the high seas, by sailors bored out of their gourds?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,046

    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    Jacques Vallee - now we’re talking. I live in Warminster, home of the infamous Warminster thing. A topic close to my heart. Not seen a ufo yet... Lots of flares, and military lights etc
    Not infamous enough, I'd never heard of it despite not being all that far away.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350

    OT -- back from jabbing. A long wait, then out into a downpour and the best rainbow I've seen in years. The road was blocked for some sort of emergency services convention, and I got conned into buying groceries for two women who, now I think of it, were not wearing masks. Anyway, £30 down and three hours later, I'm knackered. No UFOs.

    That last sentence shows is the microchip is functioning with normal parameters.
  • solarflaresolarflare Posts: 3,705

    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

    No Chesham and Amersham skits?
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    JBriskin3 said:

    Omnium said:

    JBriskin3 said:

    Just to make you aware people I'm on Pulsisic first goal scorer.

    Did anyone else notice my cheeky double I got yesterday?

    73 posts and you expect attention! I will say though that MalcolmG did just class you as an 'idiot' - not many here have received such faint criticism.

    Me and Malky are "frenemies"
    We’ve all made that mistake
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,228
    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
    I reckon it's normalcy bias and a kind of snobbery. A British class thing. People who believe in UFOs are idiot proles - hahaha, laugh at the credulous plebs. But now we have Obama saying they're maybe "real".

    Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559

    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    Jacques Vallee - now we’re talking. I live in Warminster, home of the infamous Warminster thing. A topic close to my heart. Not seen a ufo yet... Lots of flares, and military lights etc
    Would like to see Warminster Thing versus Sasquatch.


    Or maybe a triple bill, WT v 'Squatch v the Honey Island Swamp Monster?
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    edited May 2021

    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

    No Chesham and Amersham skits?
    I forget, who's got first billing?

    EDIT - Anyway, personally see Chesham & Amersham as the PERFECT name for retail website aimed at upwardly-mobile Americans, hungry for over-priced doo-dads with a "touch of class" of the kind only our English cousins can provide!
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,866

    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.

    That is of course nonsense.

    Pacts happen at most elections in individual or other seats. At local elections, they are widespread - one of the reasons the Conservatives took such a pounding in Surrey (apart from the fact the County Council was perceived as not being capable of running a bath) was the fact LDs, Greens and some Residents groups got together to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.

    At the last GE, the LDs didn't contest Brighton Pavilion and the Greens didn't contest Richmond Park among other examples.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    Alleviation of ennui on the high seas, by sailors bored out of their gourds?
    Don’t you people get it? These “UFOs” are Covid-19 variants. The virus has mutated to a stage even more technologically advanced than us. The Alpha Centuri variant will overtake the puny India and Kent strains within hours.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    edited May 2021

    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

    This from the country that brought us the City of Truth or Consequences

    EDIT - 5,000th post! And every one quality,
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808
    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    I have a great book called "Supernatural - Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind", by Graham Hancock that covers cave art, ayahuasca, elves, fairies, UFO abductions and DNA! As opposed to his usual "lost civilization" theory.

    I cannot vouch for the more "trippy" aspects personally, but Hancock did put his life on the line by actually taking ayahuasca in a ceremony in Brazil!
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,392
    kle4 said:

    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    Jacques Vallee - now we’re talking. I live in Warminster, home of the infamous Warminster thing. A topic close to my heart. Not seen a ufo yet... Lots of flares, and military lights etc
    Not infamous enough, I'd never heard of it despite not being all that far away.
    It’s an odd one. Seriously big thing in the 60s, now pretty much forgotten, or actively mocked ‘in the field’. Obviously a lot of nonsense went on, and a lot of people saw mundane things and saw what they wanted to see. But at the start the Warminster thing was noises, not lights or objects in the sky, and that is the part that interests me. The best, and highly sceptical book about it is called ‘In alien heat’, and it’s a good read, and interstellar in the psychology of the flap. Tangential a relative of mine was involved (ex wwII pilot and namesake).
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,228
    edited May 2021

    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    I have a great book called "Supernatural - Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind", by Graham Hancock that covers cave art, ayahuasca, elves, fairies, UFO abductions and DNA! As opposed to his usual "lost civilization" theory.

    I cannot vouch for the more "trippy" aspects personally, but Hancock did put his life on the line by actually taking ayahuasca in a ceremony in Brazil!
    Taking ayahuasca is not a life-threatening process
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808

    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

    No Chesham and Amersham skits?
    Far too "Metropolitan" for our @SeaShantyIrish2 !
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    DougSeal said:

    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

    This from the country that brought us the City of Truth or Consequences

    EDIT - 5,000th post! And every one quality,
    Quality? Luxury!
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,397
    Leon said:

    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
    I reckon it's normalcy bias and a kind of snobbery. A British class thing. People who believe in UFOs are idiot proles - hahaha, laugh at the credulous plebs. But now we have Obama saying they're maybe "real".

    Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
    They believed Donald Trump to be a suitable person to run the country though...
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,399
    Leon said:

    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
    I reckon it's normalcy bias and a kind of snobbery. A British class thing. People who believe in UFOs are idiot proles - hahaha, laugh at the credulous plebs. But now we have Obama saying they're maybe "real".

    Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
    Any real aliens would visit The British first.

    Obvs.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,228
    Gadi Schwartz
    @GadiNBC
    ·
    24m
    With Obama weighing in today & Rubio’s statements this weekend, you’ve got to hope the issue of UAPs has finally transcended questions of political partisanship. Whatever they are, they seem to represent an inflection point for society as a whole.


    https://twitter.com/GadiNBC/status/1394740524343463936?s=20
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,207
    stodge said:

    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.

    That is of course nonsense.

    Pacts happen at most elections in individual or other seats. At local elections, they are widespread - one of the reasons the Conservatives took such a pounding in Surrey (apart from the fact the County Council was perceived as not being capable of running a bath) was the fact LDs, Greens and some Residents groups got together to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.

    At the last GE, the LDs didn't contest Brighton Pavilion and the Greens didn't contest Richmond Park among other examples.
    Voters don't like pacts until they do.

    In 2019, there were sufficient people who thought Boris was the bee's knees that pacting against him was seen as cheating. The same had been true of John Major in 1992.

    By contrast, in 1997 the key thing was to identify the best way of Kicking The Tories, and kicking away. It doesn't really matter if there was a pact or not (let's be honest, there probably was a soft, behind the scenes pact). The voting public was smart enough to work out what to do, and then they did the necessary.

    At the moment, there are enough Boris lovers to stop a pact working. But it's probably fairly finely balanced, and if the roof falls in, it has the potential to fall in big time.

    At some point in the next decade.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,397
    stodge said:

    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.

    That is of course nonsense.

    Pacts happen at most elections in individual or other seats. At local elections, they are widespread - one of the reasons the Conservatives took such a pounding in Surrey (apart from the fact the County Council was perceived as not being capable of running a bath) was the fact LDs, Greens and some Residents groups got together to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.

    At the last GE, the LDs didn't contest Brighton Pavilion and the Greens didn't contest Richmond Park among other examples.
    Not to mention N Ireland in 2019.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808

    Leon said:

    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
    I reckon it's normalcy bias and a kind of snobbery. A British class thing. People who believe in UFOs are idiot proles - hahaha, laugh at the credulous plebs. But now we have Obama saying they're maybe "real".

    Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
    Any real aliens would visit The British first.

    Obvs.
    You secure that shit, Casino_Royale!
  • mwadamsmwadams Posts: 3,587
    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Two obvious possibilities:

    1) they are Chinese tech and the US have no idea how they work despite years of espionage
    2) they are US tech and turn out to be not very useful to combat being geo-economically outcompeted by the Chinese.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808
    Leon said:

    Monkeys said:

    rpjs said:



    4) They're not human but they are terrestrial

    Elves or demons anyone? Stories of extra-dimensional, supernatural beings living alongside us but not exactly with us go back to the roots of human folklore. Given how these entities seem to behave in those stories, I think I'd prefer the aliens.

    The descriptions of "aliens" by UFO-abductees are uncannily similar to the descriptions of "fairies" or "elves" dating from the middle ages.
    Just as late 19th century America saw waves of mystery airships, not flying saucers. Our world view frames what we see (or think we see). It’s striking that Kenneth Arnold, the originator of the term flying saucers, never described what he saw as saucer shaped, only that they moved like flying saucers. Yet from that we had the whole field of circular ufos. Then aliens have trended down to become little grey men. Much earlier contact stories almost always had very much humanoid aliens, and often came from within the solar system. The whole field is riddled with misidentification of the mundane, with a tiny kernel of unexplained. But that doesn’t make those unexplained cases unexplainable... Just we haven’t yet done so.
    I have a good book called Wonders In The Sky, by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubek that covers that, but also includes saucer reports dating back many hundreds of years. One I remember is of a saucer in Japan in the late 18th Century, where a small female with extremely pale skin came out and greeted the onlookers. Some of it is very cute.
    I have a great book called "Supernatural - Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind", by Graham Hancock that covers cave art, ayahuasca, elves, fairies, UFO abductions and DNA! As opposed to his usual "lost civilization" theory.

    I cannot vouch for the more "trippy" aspects personally, but Hancock did put his life on the line by actually taking ayahuasca in a ceremony in Brazil!
    Taking ayahuasca is not a life-threatening process
    Ha! I was exaggerating, though it's the projectile vomiting that puts me off!
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,009
    This evening's Covanecdote: One of my colleagues got phoned by his GP surgery to come in for his second jab early. Just over the 8 week mark.

    I'm still waiting for Bozo to get in touch. Tomorrow is 8 weeks and 2 days.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    How on earth did Chelsea not get a pen for that foul on Werner?! The football world has gone crazy because of VAR - nothing makes sense anymore
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,767
    stodge said:

    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.

    That is of course nonsense.

    Pacts happen at most elections in individual or other seats. At local elections, they are widespread - one of the reasons the Conservatives took such a pounding in Surrey (apart from the fact the County Council was perceived as not being capable of running a bath) was the fact LDs, Greens and some Residents groups got together to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.

    At the last GE, the LDs didn't contest Brighton Pavilion and the Greens didn't contest Richmond Park among other examples.
    Yes, and the LDs didn't contest Ynys Mon. And look what happened there.
    Voters are unpredictable; they can't simply be shuffled from one party to another, and they don't appreciate it when parties assume that they will.

    I don't understand what commonality there is between the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party. They are like the right and the hard left of the Labour Party.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808
    dixiedean said:

    stodge said:

    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.

    That is of course nonsense.

    Pacts happen at most elections in individual or other seats. At local elections, they are widespread - one of the reasons the Conservatives took such a pounding in Surrey (apart from the fact the County Council was perceived as not being capable of running a bath) was the fact LDs, Greens and some Residents groups got together to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.

    At the last GE, the LDs didn't contest Brighton Pavilion and the Greens didn't contest Richmond Park among other examples.
    Not to mention N Ireland in 2019.
    Ah, but the APNI are the LDs' sister party in NI, you see.
  • Time_to_LeaveTime_to_Leave Posts: 2,547

    Leon said:

    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
    I reckon it's normalcy bias and a kind of snobbery. A British class thing. People who believe in UFOs are idiot proles - hahaha, laugh at the credulous plebs. But now we have Obama saying they're maybe "real".

    Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
    Any real aliens would visit The British first.

    Obvs.
    You’re almost on to it. The real story is of course that we never abandoned our space programme and advanced jet programmes in the 50s and 60s, they just just went dark. All these UFO sightings are actually British and at a moment of our choosing we’re going to reclaim the Empire. Brexit was a curtain raiser.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    Tony Stark trying out his new technology is more plausible than it being interstellar travel.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,399

    Leon said:

    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
    I reckon it's normalcy bias and a kind of snobbery. A British class thing. People who believe in UFOs are idiot proles - hahaha, laugh at the credulous plebs. But now we have Obama saying they're maybe "real".

    Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
    Any real aliens would visit The British first.

    Obvs.
    You secure that shit, Casino_Royale!
    Hey, maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    I wonder how Saint Jacinda is going to weather this....

    New Zealand has become an increasingly appealing destination for those seeking a haven – from Covid-19, economic recession or chaotic international politics. In recent years, the country gained a reputation for “billionaires’ boltholes”, as mega-rich speculators including Peter Thiel bought up remote properties in scenic, isolated regions.

    But in a post-Covid world, the emigration dream will be less accessible – at least for those who don’t fall into the mega-rich category. On Monday, the New Zealand government announced it would be narrowing pathways for those hoping to migrate and work in the country, particularly those it classed as “low-skill” and low-wage workers. It simultaneously announced new measures to attract rich investors.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/17/new-zealand-to-cut-low-skill-immigration-and-refocus-on-wealthy
  • solarflaresolarflare Posts: 3,705
    edited May 2021
    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    Alleviation of ennui on the high seas, by sailors bored out of their gourds?
    Don’t you people get it? These “UFOs” are Covid-19 variants. The virus has mutated to a stage even more technologically advanced than us. The Alpha Centuri variant will overtake the puny India and Kent strains within hours.
    It's actually mutating back in time now. Adam and Eve will have it by the end of the month. Or had it already. Or something.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,585
    Could someone explain what effect the double counting of positive tests has had on which case numbers datasets ?

    The daily summary really should give before and after details of what has happened but doesn't SFAICS.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883

    This evening's Covanecdote: One of my colleagues got phoned by his GP surgery to come in for his second jab early. Just over the 8 week mark.

    I'm still waiting for Bozo to get in touch. Tomorrow is 8 weeks and 2 days.

    I rang my health board today (Hywel Dda) about my second jab as it is now just over 8 weeks from my first AZN. I was given short shrift by the operator saying that we in Wales are working to 10-12 weeks whatever they may say in England!!
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    Alleviation of ennui on the high seas, by sailors bored out of their gourds?
    Don’t you people get it? These “UFOs” are Covid-19 variants. The virus has mutated to a stage even more technologically advanced than us. The Alpha Centuri variant will overtake the puny India and Kent strains within hours.
    It's actually mutating back in time now. Adam and Eve will have it by the end of the month.
    Are you relying on Sir Isaac Newton's calculations? Or those of Edward Poots?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,228
    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Two obvious possibilities:

    1) they are Chinese tech and the US have no idea how they work despite years of espionage
    2) they are US tech and turn out to be not very useful to combat being geo-economically outcompeted by the Chinese.
    Don't believe 1. China is not that advanced - and the first sightings of hypersonic UAPs go back to 2004 (or waaay beyond). China was still eating raw turnips in 2004

    2 is even more surreal. Why then all this talk about aliens? How did they hide this tech for decades? What the actual F?

    There is no credible coherent answer. Which of course means maybe one of your incredible answers is right
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,397
    Anyone watching the Eurovision Semi final?
  • rpjsrpjs Posts: 3,787

    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

    Weren't Batley and Spen the undertakers "Billy Liar" worked for in the novel?
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Two obvious possibilities:

    1) they are Chinese tech and the US have no idea how they work despite years of espionage
    2) they are US tech and turn out to be not very useful to combat being geo-economically outcompeted by the Chinese.
    Don't believe 1. China is not that advanced - and the first sightings of hypersonic UAPs go back to 2004 (or waaay beyond). China was still eating raw turnips in 2004

    2 is even more surreal. Why then all this talk about aliens? How did they hide this tech for decades? What the actual F?

    There is no credible coherent answer. Which of course means maybe one of your incredible answers is right
    Obama etc aren't talking about aliens, they're talking about UAPs. And the reason they renamed UFO to UAP is because fools were linking UFOs with aliens, so its a term deliberately chosen to NOT mean aliens.

    There's a logical explanation for everything, it just isn't always obvious sometimes what it is at first glance.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited May 2021



    @kinabalu

    It is pretty isn’t it?! For some reason I really like blue & orange. A programme on BBC4 about Matisse’s colour wheel introduced me to the combo
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808

    This evening's Covanecdote: One of my colleagues got phoned by his GP surgery to come in for his second jab early. Just over the 8 week mark.

    I'm still waiting for Bozo to get in touch. Tomorrow is 8 weeks and 2 days.

    I rang my health board today (Hywel Dda) about my second jab as it is now just over 8 weeks from my first AZN. I was given short shrift by the operator saying that we in Wales are working to 10-12 weeks whatever they may say in England!!
    10-12 weeks? Hey man, I don't wanna rain on your parade, but we're not gonna last 10-12 HOURS! Those variants are gonna come in here just like they did before. And they're gonna come in here... and they're gonna come in here AND THEY'RE GONNA GET US!
  • JBriskin3JBriskin3 Posts: 1,254
    dixiedean said:

    Anyone watching the Eurovision Semi final?

    Yes - but I'm more keen on Pulisic scorring first via livesocres.com and theguardian.com/football
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,948
    edited May 2021
    It's actually quite easy to explain if quite pedestrian.

    After the battering we have all taken psychologically over the past year we are in such a febrile state that people are prepared to believe anything as their critical defences are weak.

    UFOs, UAPs, OAPs, whatever. After being told that it's illegal to have sex with whomever you want for the past year many people are prepared to believe anything. They have had it with critical thinking. We have jumped the shark.

    VAR meanwhile...who knows...
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747
    Leon said:

    Gadi Schwartz
    @GadiNBC
    ·
    24m
    With Obama weighing in today & Rubio’s statements this weekend, you’ve got to hope the issue of UAPs has finally transcended questions of political partisanship. Whatever they are, they seem to represent an inflection point for society as a whole.


    https://twitter.com/GadiNBC/status/1394740524343463936?s=20

    There’s been an assumption even from the likes of Lue Elizondo that the June report to Congress won’t reveal too much new but will be the start of a longer process that might reveal a lot in time. Could be Elizondo is wrong and that the Biden government has decided to rip the plaster off. Hard to think of a more obvious proxy to float something out there for Biden than Obama.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,046
    Now that's more like the fun politics I like to see - 23 year incumbent in Samoa set to be ousted after a new party is created, wins equal seats and has backing of lone independent, election commission adds seat to incumbent due to gender quota rules, then fresh vote called, then supreme court says original outcome stands.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56811379
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,399

    I wonder how Saint Jacinda is going to weather this....

    New Zealand has become an increasingly appealing destination for those seeking a haven – from Covid-19, economic recession or chaotic international politics. In recent years, the country gained a reputation for “billionaires’ boltholes”, as mega-rich speculators including Peter Thiel bought up remote properties in scenic, isolated regions.

    But in a post-Covid world, the emigration dream will be less accessible – at least for those who don’t fall into the mega-rich category. On Monday, the New Zealand government announced it would be narrowing pathways for those hoping to migrate and work in the country, particularly those it classed as “low-skill” and low-wage workers. It simultaneously announced new measures to attract rich investors.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/17/new-zealand-to-cut-low-skill-immigration-and-refocus-on-wealthy

    It's an interesting lesson for those interested in Labour's path back to power here, which doesn't go through "throw the borders open".
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,158
    Labour really ought to be competitive in Batley and Spen. Tory target 31 for the next GE, and we've had a conservative government for the past 11 years !
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,392

    Could someone explain what effect the double counting of positive tests has had on which case numbers datasets ?

    The daily summary really should give before and after details of what has happened but doesn't SFAICS.

    I don’t think it’s been double counting. Rather cases that were counted as positive from a lateral flow only and then turned up as negative by PCR, have been removed. This means the local figures look a bit odd. I think it’s removed a few thousand ‘positives’. For once these are genuine false positives...
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,808
    dixiedean said:

    Anyone watching the Eurovision Semi final?

    Yes - Ireland looked OK :)
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    Well said that man:

    A GP elected as a Conservative MSP has condemned fellow parliamentarians for “inciting” Scots to blockade an immigration enforcement raid in Glasgow....

    Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Gulhane said: “My concern really is our elected officials inciting people to come out in the southside and put themselves at risk. The safety of everyone with the pandemic and the increase of the Indian variant in the southside is my concern. I really hope that nobody does contract coronavirus as a result of that.”


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/84a941b6-b758-11eb-98e3-d1306649ebf7?shareToken=6ad228b1298804d32277c464406312bf
  • solarflaresolarflare Posts: 3,705
    Just don't get confused between UFO and UAP and call it a U FAP.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,660

    This evening's Covanecdote: One of my colleagues got phoned by his GP surgery to come in for his second jab early. Just over the 8 week mark.

    I'm still waiting for Bozo to get in touch. Tomorrow is 8 weeks and 2 days.

    I rang my health board today (Hywel Dda) about my second jab as it is now just over 8 weeks from my first AZN. I was given short shrift by the operator saying that we in Wales are working to 10-12 weeks whatever they may say in England!!
    I got called today for a second jab. It is scheduled for 12 weeks and 10 minutes after the first.

    So not all of England is going for 8 weeks.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,397
    JBriskin3 said:

    dixiedean said:

    Anyone watching the Eurovision Semi final?

    Yes - but I'm more keen on Pulisic scorring first via livesocres.com and theguardian.com/football
    Unsettling to see a huge, maskless crowd with no social distancing.
    Usually the disturbing stuff happens on stage.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,948

    Just don't get confused between UFO and UAP and call it a U FAP.

    Still less a WAP.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368

    Leon said:

    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Another leaked US Navy UAP video

    lackSportsTV
    @BlacksportsTV
    ·
    3h
    Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
    @YahooNews


    It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not

    This website must be perused by at least some senior Uk policy makers? The cross channel disparity in this conversation is just so bloody weird.
    I reckon it's normalcy bias and a kind of snobbery. A British class thing. People who believe in UFOs are idiot proles - hahaha, laugh at the credulous plebs. But now we have Obama saying they're maybe "real".

    Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
    Any real aliens would visit The British first.

    Obvs.
    Why do aliens visiting the UK always chose to visit Norfolk?
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,009

    Batley - I say, my dear Spen, have you heard the news?

    Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?

    Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.

    Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?

    PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!

    No Chesham and Amersham skits?
    Gentlemen's outfitters. Formal wear for every occasion.

    'Suit you, sir!'
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    Lol:

    Big fan of the mention left to the very last line of this press release from SNP-run Glasgow city council

    "The UK Government is providing the test kits as part of its testing programme"

    https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1394680407048736770?s=20
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,228
    TOPPING said:

    It's actually quite easy to explain if quite pedestrian.

    After the battering we have all taken psychologically over the past year we are in such a febrile state that people are prepared to believe anything as their critical defences are weak.

    UFOs, UAPs, OAPs, whatever. After being told that it's illegal to have sex with whomever you want for the past year many people are prepared to believe anything. They have had it with critical thinking. We have jumped the shark.

    VAR meanwhile...who knows...

    That's a pretty plausible explanation - more believable, in a way, than the "oh we've got brilliant hypersonic tech we kept secret for decades and now we think it is aliens instead"

    It's what I'm getting at with my Plagues Being Fearful Portents thesis. Our brains have been addled by a medieval terror, so we see medieval demons, in Ye Skie

  • dr_spyndr_spyn Posts: 11,300
    Greens appear to be happy to work with Tories in Lancaster and London to some degree. Is that how a progressive coalition works.

    I see Paul Pogba needs to brush up on how to fly a Palestinian flag, after he was dancing around Old Trafford holding it Green side up.
  • JBriskin3JBriskin3 Posts: 1,254
    dixiedean said:

    JBriskin3 said:

    dixiedean said:

    Anyone watching the Eurovision Semi final?

    Yes - but I'm more keen on Pulisic scorring first via livesocres.com and theguardian.com/football
    Unsettling to see a huge, maskless crowd with no social distancing.
    Usually the disturbing stuff happens on stage.
    Yes and Rudiger 47 is upsetting for me. I would have liked to see the Leeds Utd match today but I'm fairly sure that the Aberdeen pubs would have been showing the Man U match that was playing at the same time.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,926

    Lol:

    Big fan of the mention left to the very last line of this press release from SNP-run Glasgow city council

    "The UK Government is providing the test kits as part of its testing programme"

    https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1394680407048736770?s=20

    It’s mentioned in the top line of the second image, so I don’t think they are trying to underplay it.
  • Time_to_LeaveTime_to_Leave Posts: 2,547
    edited May 2021
    moonshine said:

    Leon said:

    Gadi Schwartz
    @GadiNBC
    ·
    24m
    With Obama weighing in today & Rubio’s statements this weekend, you’ve got to hope the issue of UAPs has finally transcended questions of political partisanship. Whatever they are, they seem to represent an inflection point for society as a whole.


    https://twitter.com/GadiNBC/status/1394740524343463936?s=20

    There’s been an assumption even from the likes of Lue Elizondo that the June report to Congress won’t reveal too much new but will be the start of a longer process that might reveal a lot in time. Could be Elizondo is wrong and that the Biden government has decided to rip the plaster off. Hard to think of a more obvious proxy to float something out there for Biden than Obama.
    Let’s say “something”, whatever the “something” is, has been kept secret for many years and you’re right that there’s moves afoot to reveal it. The way I see it there’s two reasons for that:

    1) It has been concluded it’s the right thing to do; or

    2) It has been assessed that it’s about to come out anyway in an uncontrolled fashion (e.g. increased use of better drones or increased volumes of private owned space assets).

    1 seems unlikely so I think you’re left with 2, especially if it actually is extraterrestrial objects. That would mean no mad rush to reveal EVERYTHING in one go, but a sense it does need to come out in a controlled fashion in the next year or two.
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,639
    Pulpstar said:

    Labour really ought to be competitive in Batley and Spen. Tory target 31 for the next GE, and we've had a conservative government for the past 11 years !

    LAB don't worry! Angela is on top of things - she can step in if Keir decides to throw in the towel!

    :lol::lol:
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883

    stodge said:

    Voters don't like 'electoral pacts'. We saw LDs and their friends enter into a number of these in GE 2019 and there wasn't a lot of success!

    Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.

    That is of course nonsense.

    Pacts happen at most elections in individual or other seats. At local elections, they are widespread - one of the reasons the Conservatives took such a pounding in Surrey (apart from the fact the County Council was perceived as not being capable of running a bath) was the fact LDs, Greens and some Residents groups got together to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.

    At the last GE, the LDs didn't contest Brighton Pavilion and the Greens didn't contest Richmond Park among other examples.
    Voters don't like pacts until they do.

    In 2019, there were sufficient people who thought Boris was the bee's knees that pacting against him was seen as cheating. The same had been true of John Major in 1992.

    By contrast, in 1997 the key thing was to identify the best way of Kicking The Tories, and kicking away. It doesn't really matter if there was a pact or not (let's be honest, there probably was a soft, behind the scenes pact). The voting public was smart enough to work out what to do, and then they did the necessary.

    At the moment, there are enough Boris lovers to stop a pact working. But it's probably fairly finely balanced, and if the roof falls in, it has the potential to fall in big time.

    At some point in the next decade.
    I agree. There are enough people who support Johnson because of the 80% furlough payments tipping the balance. We will also now experience a short term boost as pubs and restaurants re-open, which will mop up some of the unemployed youth. The deaths from covid will recede into the past, ameliorated in the minds by 127000 sets of inheritance cash dropping through the generations. ( A new definition of "trickle down" economics?). The economy will need to turn to shit before Boris is usurped. Governments lose elections, oppositions don't win them. The biggest test is the future trading relationships with foreign countries to pay our bills. Coffee shops, witherspoons and Cafe Rouge won't do that.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    edited May 2021
    When I was a kid, UFOology fascinated me. Now, it's meh! Until it actually impacts my daily life or we have some semblance of irrefutable proof, I'll carry on not convinced they exist but with an open mind, paying very very little attention to it. To the extent PB posters permit.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    FPT for RJPS


    A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.

    Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?

    How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?

    And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad

    I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too

    Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie

    Two obvious possibilities:

    1) they are Chinese tech and the US have no idea how they work despite years of espionage
    2) they are US tech and turn out to be not very useful to combat being geo-economically outcompeted by the Chinese.
    Don't believe 1. China is not that advanced - and the first sightings of hypersonic UAPs go back to 2004 (or waaay beyond). China was still eating raw turnips in 2004

    2 is even more surreal. Why then all this talk about aliens? How did they hide this tech for decades? What the actual F?

    There is no credible coherent answer. Which of course means maybe one of your incredible answers is right
    Obama etc aren't talking about aliens, they're talking about UAPs. And the reason they renamed UFO to UAP is because fools were linking UFOs with aliens, so its a term deliberately chosen to NOT mean aliens.

    There's a logical explanation for everything, it just isn't always obvious sometimes what it is at first glance.
    Errr no. It’s been renamed UAP because UFO had become such a loaded term that no one was willing to report them up the chain or seriously discuss them if they were. Not because the non-human explanation has been ruled out.

    From what we know about the timing of the emergence of life on earth and the preponderance of exoplanets in the galaxy, it’s likely that et life is abundant. There’s a question mark about how easily single cell life becomes complex. But the galaxy is very large indeed and much older than our solar system. So all we are really talking about is whether other advanced species have made it here. They could achieve it at quite slow speeds if their civilisation remained stable for a relatively brief period of time.

    It is not foolish to consider this hypothesis on the evidence we are now told exists. Indeed, it is an entirely logical one. I get youre scared though, it’s a scary conversation.
This discussion has been closed.