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Allegra Stratton is right to raise questions about EVs – politicalbetting.com

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,212
    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    I'm also yet to be convinced of this aspect, too. Making those batteries isn't exactly environmentally friendly, and what are we going to do with the billions of old batteries?
    https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/07/electric-cars-have-much-lower-life-cycle-emissions-new-study-confirms/

    The old batteries will be recycled for the materials in them. There is already a fair price to be got for Prius batteries out of scraped cars, for recycling.
  • AslanAslan Posts: 1,673

    AlistairM said:

    Messi apparently confirmed at PSG for €35M net per season for 2 seasons. Likely to set off a chain-reaction of other deals.

    Personally I think as great a player as Messi has been he is at the age where he will be declining. PSG will I'm sure be hoping that the marketing benefits he brings will pay for it all. Likely they will now have to sell a number of players.

    According to the analysts, he is still more effective and valuable than basically any other player, and that he manages his efforts. He is more consistent than Ronaldo for instance, scoring above expectation every season (only Harry Kane is basically in this category), and then you have the creativity from dribbling and passing.

    What you now don't get with Messi is any sort of defensive effort, he can't do the attacking elements and also close down the opposition. Earlier in his career, he also was effective at pushing the opposition when they had the ball

    The problem I can foresee for PSG is they already have a number of other players who can't or won't do much defensive work either e.g Neymar.
    This is why Pele is still the GOAT. He could press, tackle, compete in the air, dribble and score with both feet. The complete footballer.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    I'm also yet to be convinced of this aspect, too. Making those batteries isn't exactly environmentally friendly, and what are we going to do with the billions of old batteries?
    Recycle them into new batteries - which will be a growth industry for the next X years.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,174
    Alistair said:

    Pulpstar said:
    I feel there must be context I am missing to that statement otherwise WTAF.
    Shades of Dingwall tbh - hopefully other nations will force our hand on jabs for 12-15 with travel restrictions.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,976
    edited August 2021
    Alistair said:

    Pulpstar said:
    I feel there must be context I am missing to that statement otherwise WTAF.
    I am guessing the context might be that vaccinatiom reduces the severity to the extent that although you can catch it, it isn't anywhere near as dangerous.....said with fingers crossed that is what he was getting at.

    What I am a bit confused about is that us humans whipped up a highly effective vaccine in a year, the mRNA tech worked brilliantly and can be easily adapted. So why is he so down ok9 new variants not being able to be again tackled by updated vaccines? If we all have to have a shot every year, that really isn't that big a deal.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,212

    MrEd said:

    Haven't seen this story on the Guardian website. Maybe because their mother talks about "discipline" being important at school, and the pic has a picture of the school flying the Union Jack....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58156170

    I feel for the one twin who got the one A among all the A*s.
    I recall reading the grades for one private school, for GCSE. A torrent of A************...

    And one C.

    My daughter and I both envisaged a Dreyfus style parade at which the school badge was torn off the blazer in front of the whole school etc......
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,775
    Mr. G, cheers for that snippet (I tend not to listen to the radio).
  • BalrogBalrog Posts: 207

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    DavidL said:

    I am going to Glasgow HC this morning. I am taking the car because I have 4 bags and some papers. It is approximately 85 miles. I will be staying at an hotel for a few days I then have to come home again.

    In optimal conditions this should be fine for the latest generation of electric cars but, like Allegra, I am cautious. If EVs are to really take off the makers need to persuade people like me that this journey, including the sitting time, is nothing to worry about. They haven't done it yet.

    I have an electric car (not a Tesla). From fully charged, it will comfortably do 230 miles.

    If I were going to a hotel and it were (say) 100 miles away, I might call and see if they have a charger. (Spoiler, nearly all hotels do these days.) But for an 85 mile trip, I wouldn’t bother.

    Every year, the infrastructure gets better. Every year, charging rates increase. Every year, battery capacity improves. And every year the difference with an ICE narrows.
    ICE cars are going to be unsellable soon, like film cameras after digital started to beat them on quality and price. The trade in value of a 2021 diesel will be so low that you might as well burn the money.
    Its still not good enough. My diesel eu 6 compliant will go 660 miles on a tank if carefull driven. I need that so i never have to be extorted by motorway service stations who are chsrging over 1.60 for a litre of diesel. Until an electric car has a 500 mile range.. forget it.. i don't want to hang around for an hour filling up and queue for that "pleasure" either. .
    Don't drive a diesel, but our petrol car will do almost 300 miles on a tank. Some places we visit we could probably get a charge, but by no means all, so long trips would involve more planning than I want to do. For example, looks, from the last map I looked at, two or three months ago, that one of our relations lives about 10 miles from somewhere where could get a charge, and AIUI, one can't just run a cable from an ordinary 240v plug in a house.
    Unless I'm wrong, and someone here will, unquestionably, know!
    Someone else has probably replied, but just in case they haven't...

    Standard home charger is about 7.8kw, so around 10% an hour for typical battery size.
    Plugging in using an extension is about 3kw, so about 24 hours to fully charge. But overnight gives you a half charge, so 100 to 150 miles.

    I tend to keep an extension in the car if going to hotel without a charger, though not so many without these days.
  • AslanAslan Posts: 1,673

    MrEd said:

    Haven't seen this story on the Guardian website. Maybe because their mother talks about "discipline" being important at school, and the pic has a picture of the school flying the Union Jack....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58156170

    I feel for the one twin who got the one A among all the A*s.
    She will get over it. Fairly small in the scheme of things. Remember there were three Charlton brothers!
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    edited August 2021
    Aslan said:

    Philip Cowley
    @philipjcowley
    ·
    Aug 18, 2016
    Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.

    Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.


    Got a place where?
    Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki.
    Straight outta Harrow.
    How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
    Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
    In other words: corruption.

    Glad we got that clarified.
    I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
    Eek Jr 1 has this morning switched from Geography at Newcastle (confirmed place) to Horology at Birmingham City because she's decided that she wants to do something practical.

    And there is likely to always be very wealthy people wanting status symbol watches....

    But the important thing is that personable people will get ahead if they can speak to the right person as most people will give people a chance.
  • AslanAslan Posts: 1,673
    Aslan said:

    MrEd said:

    Haven't seen this story on the Guardian website. Maybe because their mother talks about "discipline" being important at school, and the pic has a picture of the school flying the Union Jack....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58156170

    I feel for the one twin who got the one A among all the A*s.
    She will get over it. Fairly small in the scheme of things. Remember there were three Charlton brothers!
    Also on this... Nigerians in the UK have a phenomenal level of performance in both academics and the employment market. Yet it never gets any attention. I can't work out if it's selection bias (the ones that come here are the kids of oil executives) or just an amazing education/parenting culture. Examples like this suggest the latter.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,212
    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Philip Cowley
    @philipjcowley
    ·
    Aug 18, 2016
    Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.

    Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.


    Got a place where?
    Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki.
    Straight outta Harrow.
    How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
    Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
    In other words: corruption.

    Glad we got that clarified.
    I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
    Eek Jr 1 has this morning switched from Geography at Newcastle (confirmed place) to Horology at Birmingham City because she's decided that she wants to do something practical.

    And there is likely to always be very wealthy people wanting status symbol watches....
    Would be interesting to see what is in the Horology syllabus - engineering, computer design, computer science, mathematics, history, could all be in there.....
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,174
    Good to see Sky News resisting political correctness. Lots of very good looking girls opening their results today.
  • tlg86 said:

    Good to see Sky News resisting political correctness. Lots of very good looking girls opening their results today.

    Very creepy.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,576
    Floater said:
    Wow, it managed to outclimb the chasing helo into the flight levels.

    Sounds like one of Raytheon’s drones being taken for a joyride - it’s definitely not an off-the-shelf DJI, that’s for sure!
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,174

    tlg86 said:

    Good to see Sky News resisting political correctness. Lots of very good looking girls opening their results today.

    Very creepy.
    To be clear, I think it’s appalling, but it’s symptomatic of life in general. Those girls have a big advantage in life.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,721
    edited August 2021

    Would anyone care to hazard a guess at what the Gavster means by Bradford being exotic?

    Giles MacDonogh
    @GilesMacDonogh

    Lor' lumme Gav Williamson is piss-poor! He can't remember his A-Level results (!), says Bradford was exotic (bet he didn't put it first), waffles, repeats himself... Meanwhile Ferrari asks about A*s. Don't think they had them 27 years ago?
    I reckon he got 2 Es.

    They do have some exotic life-forms there with integrated TV screens
    image
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,549
    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Philip Cowley
    @philipjcowley
    ·
    Aug 18, 2016
    Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.

    Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.


    Got a place where?
    Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki.
    Straight outta Harrow.
    How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
    Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
    In other words: corruption.

    Glad we got that clarified.
    I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
    Eek Jr 1 has this morning switched from Geography at Newcastle (confirmed place) to Horology at Birmingham City because she's decided that she wants to do something practical.

    And there is likely to always be very wealthy people wanting status symbol watches....
    Congrats to Eek Jr 1, and I'd just like to say what a wonderful subject to study.

    I assume she's seen this video:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xtbhr

    Oh, and when she's graduated, we have a marine Smiths clock that needs some maintenance. ;)

    (As an aside, the lock has an unusual dial, with larger minute numbers and smaller hours. i.e. 5,10,15,20... rather than 1,2,3,4... Apparently this is because it was in a ship's engine room, where you had to do things at regular intervals based on minutes, rather than hours. I have seen very few clocks like it.)
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366

    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Philip Cowley
    @philipjcowley
    ·
    Aug 18, 2016
    Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.

    Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.


    Got a place where?
    Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki.
    Straight outta Harrow.
    How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
    Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
    In other words: corruption.

    Glad we got that clarified.
    I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
    Eek Jr 1 has this morning switched from Geography at Newcastle (confirmed place) to Horology at Birmingham City because she's decided that she wants to do something practical.

    And there is likely to always be very wealthy people wanting status symbol watches....
    Would be interesting to see what is in the Horology syllabus - engineering, computer design, computer science, mathematics, history, could all be in there.....
    It's at https://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/horology-ba-hons-2021-22#course_in_depth

    Compared to most courses (even ones at Poly's) it does seem to focus on practical skills and doesn't have the rather nasty placement year out where we are still going to bill you £9250 that a lot of places do.
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    Joyous & Civic:

    Tim Ridout:
    So that was 16 medals for Team Scotland (over 24% of UK total) which would put an Indy Scotland at 17 in the World. BTW Sport Scotland has about £40m pa budget.

    Actually 7 of these medals were with UK Teammates. Scotland alone won zero individual golds. Even dismissing the advantage of being part of UK Sport, alone, we’d have been 67th. Behind Colombia but just ahead of Azerbaijan. Facts and Nats seldom meet.

    https://twitter.com/ianssmart/status/1424757887709102084?s=20
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    Interesting that she admits why she changed her earlier, much more hardline zero Covid perspective (vaccines basically).

    Also "now even the countries that pursued this model, such as Australia and New Zealand, need a more sustainable strategy" is very.....


    https://twitter.com/RufusSG/status/1425062748971540500?s=20

    The Covid vaccines mean we can start living again – in Britain, at least
    Devi Sridhar


    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/10/covid-vaccines-britain-scientific-solution-jabs
  • theProletheProle Posts: 1,206

    Why are hybrid cars so rubbish?

    Here we have OGH extolling its virtues with 60+ mpg, but the two Skoda Octavia cars we've had both managed that fine with a late 90s diesel engine.

    80mpg and I'd be impressed, but 60mpg does not look like progress.

    Firstly you shouldn't compare petrol hybrid with diesel - diesel is more energy dense (i.e. intrinsically more energy per litre (or gallon). I drive a petrol hydrid. All electric drive, with petrol charging the batteries. Has the advantages of electic drive (simple, no gears, good characteristics) but no range anxiety. I am getting a reported 62 mpg on a Yaris on a standard 17 mile, hilly commute. That drops in winter. I used to drive an Aygo, all petrol. Quite fuel efficient (sy up to 58 mpg at best) but the car had no frills, was small, lacked oomph. the current Yaris is nice, has oomph and space (not huge amounts, but enough to two adults and a hound).
    It is a con really though - it is just a more efficient petrol car.
    I don't like to disappoint you, but the Yaris hybrid is pretty much a waste of time. I've a 2008 1.3 petrol manual Yaris, my dad has a 2019 petrol hybrid Yaris. We've done some journeys together with both cars, if you know how to drive economically the manual gives pretty much identical performance. Last time we tried, he got 65mpg, I got 64.9mpg.

    I gave £2k for my Yaris and have wound 105k miles out of it so far... I think dad's was about £14k, he'd need to do a million miles in it just to equal the saving I've made on depreciation.
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
    And who could that be !!!!!!!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,239
    edited August 2021

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
    I remember that, but it does not contradict my point. Meeks is very smart (and I genuinely miss his insight) and I think he realised he was getting too angry, too often, and he needed to calm down - and he could only do that by quitting

    It's worth noting that he he is much more relaxed and measured on Twitter, probably because you have to be, if you use your real name

    I hope one day he returns
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,212
    Aslan said:

    Aslan said:

    MrEd said:

    Haven't seen this story on the Guardian website. Maybe because their mother talks about "discipline" being important at school, and the pic has a picture of the school flying the Union Jack....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58156170

    I feel for the one twin who got the one A among all the A*s.
    She will get over it. Fairly small in the scheme of things. Remember there were three Charlton brothers!
    Also on this... Nigerians in the UK have a phenomenal level of performance in both academics and the employment market. Yet it never gets any attention. I can't work out if it's selection bias (the ones that come here are the kids of oil executives) or just an amazing education/parenting culture. Examples like this suggest the latter.
    Large chunks of West African culture seem to have an "Education, education, education" philosophy, which reminded me of the stereotypes about the Chinese....
  • Carnyx said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Wonder how Prince Andrew did in his A-levels.

    Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
    Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
    Contemperaneous with a young Isaac Newton; quite a lot going on, scientifically.
    Prince Albert was a big patron of science and engineering....
    Married into the Royal Family.
    Speaking of marrying, didn't Prince William and Kate meet on their degree course?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,239
    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    The irony is that the universities will now have to bring in SAT tests (or something like them) to find the most talented. SATS are right now being discarded in the USA as "racist" and "biased"

    What a mess
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,950
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
    I remember that, but it does not contradict my point. Meeks is very smart (and I genuinely miss his insight) and I think he realised he was getting too angry, too often, and he needed to calm down - and he could only do that by quitting

    It's worth noting that he he is much more relaxed and measured on Twitter, probably because you have to be, if you use your real name

    I hope one day he returns
    What is this using your real name thing of which you speak?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,239

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
    I remember that, but it does not contradict my point. Meeks is very smart (and I genuinely miss his insight) and I think he realised he was getting too angry, too often, and he needed to calm down - and he could only do that by quitting

    It's worth noting that he he is much more relaxed and measured on Twitter, probably because you have to be, if you use your real name

    I hope one day he returns
    What is this using your real name thing of which you speak?
    It's name is Madness
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    theProle said:

    Why are hybrid cars so rubbish?

    Here we have OGH extolling its virtues with 60+ mpg, but the two Skoda Octavia cars we've had both managed that fine with a late 90s diesel engine.

    80mpg and I'd be impressed, but 60mpg does not look like progress.

    Firstly you shouldn't compare petrol hybrid with diesel - diesel is more energy dense (i.e. intrinsically more energy per litre (or gallon). I drive a petrol hydrid. All electric drive, with petrol charging the batteries. Has the advantages of electic drive (simple, no gears, good characteristics) but no range anxiety. I am getting a reported 62 mpg on a Yaris on a standard 17 mile, hilly commute. That drops in winter. I used to drive an Aygo, all petrol. Quite fuel efficient (sy up to 58 mpg at best) but the car had no frills, was small, lacked oomph. the current Yaris is nice, has oomph and space (not huge amounts, but enough to two adults and a hound).
    It is a con really though - it is just a more efficient petrol car.
    I don't like to disappoint you, but the Yaris hybrid is pretty much a waste of time. I've a 2008 1.3 petrol manual Yaris, my dad has a 2019 petrol hybrid Yaris. We've done some journeys together with both cars, if you know how to drive economically the manual gives pretty much identical performance. Last time we tried, he got 65mpg, I got 64.9mpg.

    I gave £2k for my Yaris and have wound 105k miles out of it so far... I think dad's was about £14k, he'd need to do a million miles in it just to equal the saving I've made on depreciation.
    It does depend on the journey - on a long motorway trip with relatively little braking, my hybrid is only marginally better than my old Golf, but in London or on country lanes the hybrid is significantly better on economy.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    edited August 2021

    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Philip Cowley
    @philipjcowley
    ·
    Aug 18, 2016
    Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.

    Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.


    Got a place where?
    Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki.
    Straight outta Harrow.
    How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
    Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
    In other words: corruption.

    Glad we got that clarified.
    I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
    Eek Jr 1 has this morning switched from Geography at Newcastle (confirmed place) to Horology at Birmingham City because she's decided that she wants to do something practical.

    And there is likely to always be very wealthy people wanting status symbol watches....
    Congrats to Eek Jr 1, and I'd just like to say what a wonderful subject to study.

    I assume she's seen this video:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xtbhr

    Oh, and when she's graduated, we have a marine Smiths clock that needs some maintenance. ;)

    (As an aside, the lock has an unusual dial, with larger minute numbers and smaller hours. i.e. 5,10,15,20... rather than 1,2,3,4... Apparently this is because it was in a ship's engine room, where you had to do things at regular intervals based on minutes, rather than hours. I have seen very few clocks like it.)
    It's an Admiralty clock if it's got larger minutes than hours.

    There is a completely wrecked one on ebay at the moment BTW - who sanely removes a working mechanism and puts a cheap quartz one in it's place.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,546
    A lot of denial around today, that 45% of students getting A or A* grades doesn't represent grade inflation, when most 5 year olds would be able to understand that it does.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,952
    edited August 2021
    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    Andy_JS said:

    A lot of denial around today, that 45% of students getting A or A* grades doesn't represent grade inflation, when most 5 year olds would be able to understand that it does.

    Is it?

    It's perfectly possible that the grades are correct and the lower grades of previous years are 100% due to exam pressure and the need to remember a lot of things on a temporary basis.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814
    Rather taken aback to find that that 99 in the URL is not N = 99 but a percentage ...
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,174
    edited August 2021
    eek said:

    Andy_JS said:

    A lot of denial around today, that 45% of students getting A or A* grades doesn't represent grade inflation, when most 5 year olds would be able to understand that it does.

    Is it?

    It's perfectly possible that the grades are correct and the lower grades of previous years are 100% due to exam pressure and the need to remember a lot of things on a temporary basis.
    If what you're saying is correct, why bother with exams at all ?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,239
    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Tell me about it


    I'm trying to fly to Athens today, and the conflicting advice is driving me nuts. The Greek and UK government websites insist that I only need proof of vaccination (plus a PLForm). But BA keeps sending me emails saying No I also need a negative test. Then I call BA and you can't get through because everyone has been pinged home and they have no staff

    I'm off to Heathrow in an hour or two, I literally have no idea if I will make it to Greece
  • HYUFD said:

    ydoethur said:

    AlistairM said:

    Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.

    image

    Yes, but see my earlier post about the issues in comparing. Certainly you should not use any grade from before 2015 as the exam system was different.

    One thing it is worth remembering is that the exam system itself before Covid was not very reliable.
    Why in the real world would anyone want to compare 2005 and 2021 cohorts based on A-levels? Who is giving out jobs to people in the mid-30s based on their A-level results?
    Most lawyers and doctors went to Russell group universities (which include Oxbridge), as do most MPs and most bishops.

    You get to Russell group universities with good A levels


    https://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/where-to-start/newsletter/law-firms-preferred-universities
    https://russellgroup.ac.uk/about/
    https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/39680-newly-elected-mps-now-more-likely-to-have-been-educated-at-state-schools
    https://www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2016/04/church-of-england-bishops-are-more-elitist-than-david-camerons-cabinet
    Most doctors go where the medical schools are (and for the last couple of years we've been importing more new doctors than we train, so if your son/daughter/niece did not get into medical school, blame the scandalous lack of places and not A-level grade inflation).

    Many lawyers did not even study law as their first degree, so it does not really matter where they didn't study it. Likewise MPs.

    Basically, most students use universities as a finishing school. And most employers are either snobs, or more rationally figure that if someone got into a university that is hard to get into, they must be good.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Tell me about it


    I'm trying to fly to Athens today, and the conflicting advice is driving me nuts. The Greek and UK government websites insist that I only need proof of vaccination (plus a PLForm). But BA keeps sending me emails saying No I also need a negative test. Then I call BA and you can't get through because everyone has been pinged home and they have no staff

    I'm off to Heathrow in an hour or two, I literally have no idea if I will make it to Greece
    So much easier to go to Skegness.
  • Aslan said:

    MrEd said:

    Haven't seen this story on the Guardian website. Maybe because their mother talks about "discipline" being important at school, and the pic has a picture of the school flying the Union Jack....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58156170

    I feel for the one twin who got the one A among all the A*s.
    She will get over it. Fairly small in the scheme of things. Remember there were three Charlton brothers!
    How do you imagine Charlie Kray felt?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    eek said:

    Andy_JS said:

    A lot of denial around today, that 45% of students getting A or A* grades doesn't represent grade inflation, when most 5 year olds would be able to understand that it does.

    Is it?

    It's perfectly possible that the grades are correct and the lower grades of previous years are 100% due to exam pressure and the need to remember a lot of things on a temporary basis.
    Yet apparently the disparity is greater in languages and lowest in maths.

    The chance of getting an A grade (including starred) is roughly twice as high this year as in 2019.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,546
    edited August 2021
    eek said:

    Andy_JS said:

    A lot of denial around today, that 45% of students getting A or A* grades doesn't represent grade inflation, when most 5 year olds would be able to understand that it does.

    Is it?

    It's perfectly possible that the grades are correct and the lower grades of previous years are 100% due to exam pressure and the need to remember a lot of things on a temporary basis.
    Yes it is. I know things are difficult at the moment because of Covid-19, but we urgently need to get back to the time when only a small percentage of people were awarded the top grades.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,174
    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,240
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Tell me about it


    I'm trying to fly to Athens today, and the conflicting advice is driving me nuts. The Greek and UK government websites insist that I only need proof of vaccination (plus a PLForm). But BA keeps sending me emails saying No I also need a negative test. Then I call BA and you can't get through because everyone has been pinged home and they have no staff

    I'm off to Heathrow in an hour or two, I literally have no idea if I will make it to Greece
    Is it simply the case that BA require a test to fly?

    What puts me off booking a foreign trip is the pre-departure test. What if I test positive before my flight home? I won't be allowed into the UK and will have to quarantine in my destination.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,952
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Tell me about it


    I'm trying to fly to Athens today, and the conflicting advice is driving me nuts. The Greek and UK government websites insist that I only need proof of vaccination (plus a PLForm). But BA keeps sending me emails saying No I also need a negative test. Then I call BA and you can't get through because everyone has been pinged home and they have no staff

    I'm off to Heathrow in an hour or two, I literally have no idea if I will make it to Greece
    I'm going to Greece too shortly. I think it is the carrier's (ie BA's) requirement for a negative test; Greece just needs to know that you are 2x vaxxed for over 14 days before you arrive. I have the same thing (LFT not PCR). Coming back I think you need a PCR on Day 2 if you are fully vaxxed (vs one on Day 2 and one on Day 8) although I'm wondering who checks this.

    I am also going to call the carrier.
  • OT Sainsbury's sitrep. Lots of masks and a few empty shelves.
  • jayfdeejayfdee Posts: 618
    eek said:

    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    I'm also yet to be convinced of this aspect, too. Making those batteries isn't exactly environmentally friendly, and what are we going to do with the billions of old batteries?
    Recycle them into new batteries - which will be a growth industry for the next X years.
    I spent almost my entire career designing, building and operating a recycling plant,I literally recycled millions of tons of waste, many problems, but the recycling industry is very innovative.
    If I were starting again I would be very interested in tackling the used battery problem.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,174
    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    Not looked at this myself, but I'm always suspicious of claims of "99%". Almost certainly bullshit from Twitter.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,174
    Big Sheffield Tesco. Mixed on mask wearing, ridiculous one way system for entering and exiting (But not within) the store.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    Pulpstar said:

    eek said:

    Andy_JS said:

    A lot of denial around today, that 45% of students getting A or A* grades doesn't represent grade inflation, when most 5 year olds would be able to understand that it does.

    Is it?

    It's perfectly possible that the grades are correct and the lower grades of previous years are 100% due to exam pressure and the need to remember a lot of things on a temporary basis.
    If what you're saying is correct, why bother with exams at all ?
    We were moving in that direction until Gove changed everything round.

    And because Gove changed everything there is no basis to sanely compare results with previous years hence the impossibility of dealing with the current results.

    Covid has rendered our entire exam system unsuitable and no-one has a clue how to fix it. Heck our entire education system is unsuitable but that is a very different issue.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    It's interesting reading this BBC article on Jet Blue's new routes from London to New York.

    Mainly to read the later paragraphs where it becomes very clear the journalist doesn't understand how flights are priced...
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,812
    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    Not necessarily. Racist abuse against twitter guidelines is different from racist abuse which is a criminal offence. It is possible that the domestic abuse is milder, partly because they don't want to get in trouble and partly because the criminal tweets may be heavily from foreign govts trying to provoke division so are as extreme as possible.

    Of course it could just be one or both are wrong.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,950
    Pulpstar said:

    Big Sheffield Tesco. Mixed on mask wearing, ridiculous one way system for entering and exiting (But not within) the store.

    Ha, they stopped that one way entering and exiting thing in my nearest Glasgow Tescos a few weeks ago (still in operation at adjacent Aldi, a store I prefer). Obviously lots of arbitrary interpretations going around.
  • pingping Posts: 3,805
    edited August 2021
    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    All being well my boys will be taking their A Levels in the late 2030s. If they don’t get at least three A********s, I’ll be gutted!
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366
    edited August 2021
    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this now necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    Why?

    And I'm being serious here - once you've got your first or second job which employer really looks at your GCSE or A level results.

    They will at best look at your highest qualification (so Uni for most people with A levels) and most of the time will only care that you can do the job they are asking you to do.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,812
    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    Very old fashioned. Lets go for 1-5 and start students off at 3.5.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,174
    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    How about

    Exams for all. Students ranked from 1 - 10, 1 = top 10%, 2 = 11 -> 20%............
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    edited August 2021
    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Travel is like planning a military operation right now. My paperwork checklist for my forthcoming road trip:

    DONE:

    - complete vaccination and health declaration for Eurotunnel
    - Apply for Green Card for the car
    - purchased day 2 testing pack for return
    - purchased pre-departure testing pack to take with me
    - obtained NHS vacc certificate with covering letters in French and Italian
    - obtained German low emission sticker

    TO DO:

    - health certificate for the dog (appointment booked)
    - complete and print sworn declaration for France
    - online registration before entering Italy
    - book video call slot for the pre-departure covid test
    - apply for an IDP (optional, may not bother)
    - book German vet appointment for the dog
    - keep checking for any changes to the rules
    - buy Swiss motorway pass
    - pay online for a Austrian motorway pass

    TO DO while away:

    - complete online UK passenger locator form
    - complete return covid declaration for Eurotunnel
    - vet appointment to complete the AHC

    Other travellers with animals are warning to allow two to three hours for all the admin checks both sides of the channel.
  • pingping Posts: 3,805
    edited August 2021
    Pulpstar said:

    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    How about

    Exams for all. Students ranked from 1 - 10, 1 = top 10%, 2 = 11 -> 20%............
    Or just rank students nationally and give them a percentage score.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,174

    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    Not necessarily. Racist abuse against twitter guidelines is different from racist abuse which is a criminal offence. It is possible that the domestic abuse is milder, partly because they don't want to get in trouble and partly because the criminal tweets may be heavily from foreign govts trying to provoke division so are as extreme as possible.

    Of course it could just be one or both are wrong.
    There's also a discrepancy in those police numbers - 34+123 = 157, so what about the other 50?

    But let's assume that the criminal tweets also contravene Twitter's guidelines. To get to 98.5% from UK accounts that would need the raw numbers to be:

    8,077 from UK and 123 from abroad. And that assumes that the only ones from abroad are criminal.

    I don't think the figures are credible to be honest.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,546
    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Travel is like planning a military operation right now. My paperwork checklist for my forthcoming road trip:

    DONE:

    - complete vaccination and health declaration for Eurotunnel
    - Apply for Green Card for the car
    - purchased day 2 testing pack for return
    - purchased pre-departure testing pack to take with me
    - obtained NHS vacc certificate with covering letters in French and Italian
    - obtained German low emission sticker

    TO DO:

    - health certificate for the dog (appointment booked)
    - complete and print sworn declaration for France
    - online registration before entering Italy
    - book video call slot for the pre-departure covid test
    - apply for an IDP (optional, may not bother)
    - book German vet appointment for the dog
    - keep checking for any changes to the rules
    - buy Swiss motorway pass
    - pay online for a Austrian motorway pass

    TO DO while away:

    - complete online UK passenger locator form
    - complete return covid declaration for Eurotunnel
    - vet appointment to complete the AHC

    Other travellers with animals are warning to allow two to three hours for all the admin checks both sides of the channel.
    If you wanted to stop most ordinary people from travelling abroad, this is how to do it.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    Pulpstar said:

    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    How about

    Exams for all. Students ranked from 1 - 10, 1 = top 10%, 2 = 11 -> 20%............
    That’s how it used to work within most exam boards, until the Tories had the bright idea of allowing exam boards to compete with each other with schools allowed to choose the one they prefer.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,549
    eek said:

    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Philip Cowley
    @philipjcowley
    ·
    Aug 18, 2016
    Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.

    Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.


    Got a place where?
    Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki.
    Straight outta Harrow.
    How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
    Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
    In other words: corruption.

    Glad we got that clarified.
    I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
    Eek Jr 1 has this morning switched from Geography at Newcastle (confirmed place) to Horology at Birmingham City because she's decided that she wants to do something practical.

    And there is likely to always be very wealthy people wanting status symbol watches....
    Congrats to Eek Jr 1, and I'd just like to say what a wonderful subject to study.

    I assume she's seen this video:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xtbhr

    Oh, and when she's graduated, we have a marine Smiths clock that needs some maintenance. ;)

    (As an aside, the lock has an unusual dial, with larger minute numbers and smaller hours. i.e. 5,10,15,20... rather than 1,2,3,4... Apparently this is because it was in a ship's engine room, where you had to do things at regular intervals based on minutes, rather than hours. I have seen very few clocks like it.)
    It's an Admiralty clock if it's got larger minutes than hours.

    There is a completely wrecked one on ebay at the moment BTW - who sanely removes a working mechanism and puts a cheap quartz one in it's place.
    That's brilliant thanks, I didn't know that's what they're called.

    I assume this is the Ebay one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124652282445 ? If so, it's almost identical to ours: except ours has an original mechanism, has been very much bashed about, the centre (hour) dial is smaller, and the hands finer.

    It hasn't been serviced in a couple of decades, and has probably been overwound many times, so it's a little pernickity, but runs well most of the time. I remember my dad winding it religiously every morning ...
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,546
    Pulpstar said:

    Big Sheffield Tesco. Mixed on mask wearing, ridiculous one way system for entering and exiting (But not within) the store.

    Something interesting has happened with masks over the last week or so. A lot of places where most people were wearing them are now mostly mask-free. I don't know whether it happened gradually or suddenly on one day.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Tell me about it


    I'm trying to fly to Athens today, and the conflicting advice is driving me nuts. The Greek and UK government websites insist that I only need proof of vaccination (plus a PLForm). But BA keeps sending me emails saying No I also need a negative test. Then I call BA and you can't get through because everyone has been pinged home and they have no staff

    I'm off to Heathrow in an hour or two, I literally have no idea if I will make it to Greece
    Is it simply the case that BA require a test to fly?

    What puts me off booking a foreign trip is the pre-departure test. What if I test positive before my flight home? I won't be allowed into the UK and will have to quarantine in my destination.
    You’re right that this is the worst risk, and there are some horror stories of people trapped in prison-like Spanish ‘quarantine hotels’ after getting a surprise positive test.

    I am working on the assumption that double vaccinated and having tested positive for antibodies after the first dose, my chances are low, multiplied by the low risk of spending most of the trip walking in the outdoors and eating outside. I am also taking a few free NHS LFTs with me so I can test mepyself before I do the official test, which will at least give me a bit of warning and/or help flag if the official test is falsely positive so I can arrange another.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,212
    IanB2 said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    How about

    Exams for all. Students ranked from 1 - 10, 1 = top 10%, 2 = 11 -> 20%............
    That’s how it used to work within most exam boards, until the Tories had the bright idea of allowing exam boards to compete with each other with schools allowed to choose the one they prefer.
    The real issue is making exams that produce a spear of results. Otherwise, what do you do when half those that take the exam get 98-100/100 ?
  • ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    Leaving aside the question of whether it matters, you also beg the question of whether it is wrong. And that depends on what the exam system is supposed to measure. If that thing is knowledge of history or number of foreign words known, then it is quite possible that with new learning techniques, and better-motivated students, that the apparent improvement, or a large part of it, really is genuine. I don't know if that is the case, but it could be.

    But if A-levels are just supposed to be a proxy intelligence test, then yes, there might be a problem, though there were different problems in the old days.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,061
    I hadn't realised the US tried to cover up the existence of radiation sickness after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
    In hindsight, quite absurd - and it also adds some context to the good faith arguments advanced for the use of the bomb.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/science/charles-loeb-atomic-bomb.html
    ...Historians say General Groves understood the radiation issue as early as 1943 but kept it so compartmentalized that it was poorly known by top American officials, including Harry S. Truman. At the time he authorized the Hiroshima bombing, President Truman, scholars say, knew almost nothing of the bomb’s radiation effects. Later, he spoke of regrets.

    Shortly after the atomic strike of Aug. 6, 1945, The Times began covering the radiation dispute between Japan and the United States. In September, the headline of Mr. Laurence’s Page 1 article said scientific readings at the American test site “Confirm That Blast, and not Radiation, Took Toll,” contradicting “Tokyo Tales” of ray victims. The next day, The Times ran an article with a Toyko dateline in which General Farrell’s investigative team, as the headline stated, found “No Radioactivity in Hiroshima Ruin.”...
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366

    eek said:

    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Philip Cowley
    @philipjcowley
    ·
    Aug 18, 2016
    Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.

    Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.


    Got a place where?
    Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki.
    Straight outta Harrow.
    How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
    Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
    In other words: corruption.

    Glad we got that clarified.
    I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
    Eek Jr 1 has this morning switched from Geography at Newcastle (confirmed place) to Horology at Birmingham City because she's decided that she wants to do something practical.

    And there is likely to always be very wealthy people wanting status symbol watches....
    Congrats to Eek Jr 1, and I'd just like to say what a wonderful subject to study.

    I assume she's seen this video:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xtbhr

    Oh, and when she's graduated, we have a marine Smiths clock that needs some maintenance. ;)

    (As an aside, the lock has an unusual dial, with larger minute numbers and smaller hours. i.e. 5,10,15,20... rather than 1,2,3,4... Apparently this is because it was in a ship's engine room, where you had to do things at regular intervals based on minutes, rather than hours. I have seen very few clocks like it.)
    It's an Admiralty clock if it's got larger minutes than hours.

    There is a completely wrecked one on ebay at the moment BTW - who sanely removes a working mechanism and puts a cheap quartz one in it's place.
    That's brilliant thanks, I didn't know that's what they're called.

    I assume this is the Ebay one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124652282445 ? If so, it's almost identical to ours: except ours has an original mechanism, has been very much bashed about, the centre (hour) dial is smaller, and the hands finer.

    It hasn't been serviced in a couple of decades, and has probably been overwound many times, so it's a little pernickity, but runs well most of the time. I remember my dad winding it religiously every morning ...
    That's the clock - it really is a monstrosity - as while they may cost more than £10 to repair even the most expensive repair won't be more than a few £100s...
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,174
    edited August 2021

    IanB2 said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    How about

    Exams for all. Students ranked from 1 - 10, 1 = top 10%, 2 = 11 -> 20%............
    That’s how it used to work within most exam boards, until the Tories had the bright idea of allowing exam boards to compete with each other with schools allowed to choose the one they prefer.
    The real issue is making exams that produce a spear of results. Otherwise, what do you do when half those that take the exam get 98-100/100 ?
    97%ers get a 6.
  • AslanAslan Posts: 1,673
    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    Twitter says 2,000 racist tweets were sent. If we assume that each racist sent an average of five racist tweets each, that is about 400 racists. While it is awful to be on the end of, and Twitter should step up its enforcement, I don't think the existence of a few hundred racists is a useful piece of evidence for how racist a country of 68 million people is.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,212
    Nigelb said:

    I hadn't realised the US tried to cover up the existence of radiation sickness after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
    In hindsight, quite absurd - and it also adds some context to the good faith arguments advanced for the use of the bomb.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/science/charles-loeb-atomic-bomb.html
    ...Historians say General Groves understood the radiation issue as early as 1943 but kept it so compartmentalized that it was poorly known by top American officials, including Harry S. Truman. At the time he authorized the Hiroshima bombing, President Truman, scholars say, knew almost nothing of the bomb’s radiation effects. Later, he spoke of regrets.

    Shortly after the atomic strike of Aug. 6, 1945, The Times began covering the radiation dispute between Japan and the United States. In September, the headline of Mr. Laurence’s Page 1 article said scientific readings at the American test site “Confirm That Blast, and not Radiation, Took Toll,” contradicting “Tokyo Tales” of ray victims. The next day, The Times ran an article with a Toyko dateline in which General Farrell’s investigative team, as the headline stated, found “No Radioactivity in Hiroshima Ruin.”...

    It's an interesting, and quite complicated story.

    People talk of radiation. This can be in the form of radiation from the explosion itself, fallout (bits of the bomb stuck to dirt etc) and secondary radiation from irradiating material in the environment. Aluminium in the soil can be made radioactive, temporarily, by a nuke...

    At Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was pretty much no fallout. This was because both were deliberately detonated as airbursts. This was done to maximise blast, and interestingly, to reduce fallout. Which was known about - see the Trinity test...

    The assumption was that anyone close enough to be effected by prompt radiation from the bomb would be killed by the blast, thermal pulse etc. It turned out that people survived from astonishingly close to both explosions. And so received varying amounts of prompt radiation from the explosions.

    It was this effect - prompt radiation causing radiation sickness - that was a surprise.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,775
    Mr. B, nuclear tourism was a big thing in Las Vegas in the 1950s and/or 1960s, I think.
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578
    Aslan said:

    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    Twitter says 2,000 racist tweets were sent. If we assume that each racist sent an average of five racist tweets each, that is about 400 racists. While it is awful to be on the end of, and Twitter should step up its enforcement, I don't think the existence of a few hundred racists is a useful piece of evidence for how racist a country of 68 million people is.
    Given the scrutiny that the social media companies are under to crack down on this, it is in Twitter's (and Facebook's) interests to publicly state how many accounts they have shut down and that it won't be tolerated etc. The fact they haven't suggests the number of accounts involved is small and / or come from abroad or are bots / trolls (which would raise questions from advertisers as to what they are paying for).
  • TomsToms Posts: 2,478
    edited August 2021
    Put simply, as I see it cars have at least three downsides:
    One, They contribute to climate change.
    Two, they pollute.
    Three: Often misused, they contribute to accidents, obesity and general un-fitness.

    Lacking exhaust in their use electric cars will pollute less on the streets, though they will still contribute to pollution from their tire dust. But their production still involves applying industrial processes to natural resources just as before.

    I think it is flaccid self-indulgence to imagine that shifting to electric cars is a particularly big contribution to the climate change problem.

    On the other hand, if we shift to electric cars and cut their overall number on the road as well to, say, by a factor of ten then that might help.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    Farage looking to exploit Boris’s comments about pit closures.



    I wonder if Sir Keir could do worse than appear on Nigel’s show on GB News, ‘Talking Pints’
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    Exactly what I am hearing Malcolm. Advocates of EVs are not giving the public the whole picture.
  • theProletheProle Posts: 1,206
    jayfdee said:

    eek said:

    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    I'm also yet to be convinced of this aspect, too. Making those batteries isn't exactly environmentally friendly, and what are we going to do with the billions of old batteries?
    Recycle them into new batteries - which will be a growth industry for the next X years.
    I spent almost my entire career designing, building and operating a recycling plant,I literally recycled millions of tons of waste, many problems, but the recycling industry is very innovative.
    If I were starting again I would be very interested in tackling the used battery problem.
    Mate of mine is on this very mission for a large scrap metal outfit. Its proving particularly difficult, mostly because most scrapping processes involve baling or shredding everything then separating it out, but this doesn't work because this just results in everything catching fire.
    The very powerful magnets in EV's also pose interesting issues as they tend to stick to shredding plants and cause blockages and jams.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,546
    edited August 2021
    "Suspect in Nantes cathedral fire held over French priest's killing"

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58145468
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,212

    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    Exactly what I am hearing Malcolm. Advocates of EVs are not giving the public the whole picture.
    https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/07/electric-cars-have-much-lower-life-cycle-emissions-new-study-confirms/
  • jayfdeejayfdee Posts: 618
    theProle said:

    jayfdee said:

    eek said:

    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    I'm also yet to be convinced of this aspect, too. Making those batteries isn't exactly environmentally friendly, and what are we going to do with the billions of old batteries?
    Recycle them into new batteries - which will be a growth industry for the next X years.
    I spent almost my entire career designing, building and operating a recycling plant,I literally recycled millions of tons of waste, many problems, but the recycling industry is very innovative.
    If I were starting again I would be very interested in tackling the used battery problem.
    Mate of mine is on this very mission for a large scrap metal outfit. Its proving particularly difficult, mostly because most scrapping processes involve baling or shredding everything then separating it out, but this doesn't work because this just results in everything catching fire.
    The very powerful magnets in EV's also pose interesting issues as they tend to stick to shredding plants and cause blockages and jams.
    Yes indeed,plenty of problems. I used nitrogen blanketted shredders and never had a fire in that part, but a few fires elsewhere, you learn by your mistakes.
  • BannedinnParisBannedinnParis Posts: 1,884
    edited August 2021
    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    If you read the Twitter thread itself,

    "While many have quite rightly highlighted the global nature of the conversation, it is also important to acknowledge the UK was - by far - the largest country of origin for the abusive Tweets we removed."

    So, they mean a plurality and the UK Football policing unit's stat could well be true.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,678
    isam said:

    Farage looking to exploit Boris’s comments about pit closures.



    I wonder if Sir Keir could do worse than appear on Nigel’s show on GB News, ‘Talking Pints’

    You've got to admire Nigel's chutzpah. For years he's been selling himself to the British Right as Maggie's true heir ('Thatcher would have voted UKIP' etc.). Now, in a trice, he's posing as son of Scargill. Nevertheless, he's probably on to something - many working-class conservatives sympathized with the miners' plight even when they thought union domination needed to be countered. So Boris's remarks offended everyone and endeared himself to no one.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
    And who could that be !!!!!!!
    Can't remember. Cough.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,886
    Pulpstar said:

    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    How about

    Exams for all. Students ranked from 1 - 10, 1 = top 10%, 2 = 11 -> 20%............
    Yes, even 19% got an A* grade so even the A* does not distinguish the top 10% now.

    A ranking system sounds much more sensible
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
    I remember that, but it does not contradict my point. Meeks is very smart (and I genuinely miss his insight) and I think he realised he was getting too angry, too often, and he needed to calm down - and he could only do that by quitting

    It's worth noting that he he is much more relaxed and measured on Twitter, probably because you have to be, if you use your real name

    I hope one day he returns
    What is this using your real name thing of which you speak?
    It's name is Madness
    Welcome to the House of Fun.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,366

    isam said:

    Farage looking to exploit Boris’s comments about pit closures.



    I wonder if Sir Keir could do worse than appear on Nigel’s show on GB News, ‘Talking Pints’

    You've got to admire Nigel's chutzpah. For years he's been selling himself to the British Right as Maggie's true heir ('Thatcher would have voted UKIP' etc.). Now, in a trice, he's posing as son of Scargill. Nevertheless, he's probably on to something - many working-class conservatives sympathized with the miners' plight even when they thought union domination needed to be countered. So Boris's remarks offended everyone and endeared himself to no one.
    Nigel knows exactly who his audience is and it definitely is the right wing tending working class voter...

    And Boris's attack on mining plays into his hands...
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,174
    edited August 2021

    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    If you read the Twitter thread itself,

    "While many have quite rightly highlighted the global nature of the conversation, it is also important to acknowledge the UK was - by far - the largest country of origin for the abusive Tweets we removed."

    So, they mean a plurality and the UK Football policing unit's stat could well be true.
    D'Oh, I conflated the two figures when I was talking about the 99% figure - that's to do with accounts. My bad.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter

    Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points

    So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
    Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
    I recall he took particular offence at one of our most prolific poster's cavalier attitude to protecting those particularly and specifically vulnerable to Covid19. Mr Meek's took umbrage due to a family member being vulnerable.

    The poster in question always has a defence of the Johnson Government, however witheringly foolish the policy might be, unless it relates to lockdowns, when he goes all Nigel Farage on us.
    I remember that, but it does not contradict my point. Meeks is very smart (and I genuinely miss his insight) and I think he realised he was getting too angry, too often, and he needed to calm down - and he could only do that by quitting

    It's worth noting that he he is much more relaxed and measured on Twitter, probably because you have to be, if you use your real name

    I hope one day he returns
    That's not been my experience.

    I don't engage with him on Twitter.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,576
    theProle said:

    jayfdee said:

    eek said:

    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?

    Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.

    Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
    I'm also yet to be convinced of this aspect, too. Making those batteries isn't exactly environmentally friendly, and what are we going to do with the billions of old batteries?
    Recycle them into new batteries - which will be a growth industry for the next X years.
    I spent almost my entire career designing, building and operating a recycling plant,I literally recycled millions of tons of waste, many problems, but the recycling industry is very innovative.
    If I were starting again I would be very interested in tackling the used battery problem.
    Mate of mine is on this very mission for a large scrap metal outfit. Its proving particularly difficult, mostly because most scrapping processes involve baling or shredding everything then separating it out, but this doesn't work because this just results in everything catching fire.
    The very powerful magnets in EV's also pose interesting issues as they tend to stick to shredding plants and cause blockages and jams.
    Yes, recycling of batteries and large motors is going to need to be a bespoke process, and is likely to be (at least initially) a lot more labour-intensive than traditional recycling of scrap vehicles.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    I miss tim, Mark Senior and Antifrank. If and when SeanT pisses off, I won’t miss him.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,546
    Pulpstar said:

    ping said:

    IanB2 said:

    Half of all students getting an A is more than a tad of grade inflation.

    Indeed.

    We’ve done a huge disservice to past and future students. I don’t see how they can fix this now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this necessitates a complete reworking of the grades. Replace A-E with a new 1-10 national ranking system, perhaps?
    How about

    Exams for all. Students ranked from 1 - 10, 1 = top 10%, 2 = 11 -> 20%............
    Good idea. Wasn't it similar to this until about 30 or 40 years ago?
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,240
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    just been sent a mail by eurostar saying, in essence, come and use eurostar.

    Here is the text from the "coronavirus information" page. 2 years ago this would have seemed like the precursor to a mediocre Black Mirror episode (and there are no mediocre Black Mirror episodes). Now we just say yes fine got it.

    "You must follow specific rules and complete mandatory forms in order to travel. Our teams are legally required to check COVID-19 documents and may refuse travel to anyone without the correct forms. You must comply with all the travel rules in place in our destination countries. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you must comply with all travel rules and keep wearing a mask at the station and on board in all our destination countries. If you are travelling to Germany via Brussels, you must comply with the Belgian travel rules.

    IMPORTANT: Please make sure that your reason for travel is permitted by the country you are visiting, as the rules differ for each destination.

    As regulations can change at short notice, please ensure you check the latest official government information of your departure and arrival destination before travelling and read the ‘Travel’ sections below."


    JFC

    Tell me about it


    I'm trying to fly to Athens today, and the conflicting advice is driving me nuts. The Greek and UK government websites insist that I only need proof of vaccination (plus a PLForm). But BA keeps sending me emails saying No I also need a negative test. Then I call BA and you can't get through because everyone has been pinged home and they have no staff

    I'm off to Heathrow in an hour or two, I literally have no idea if I will make it to Greece
    Is it simply the case that BA require a test to fly?

    What puts me off booking a foreign trip is the pre-departure test. What if I test positive before my flight home? I won't be allowed into the UK and will have to quarantine in my destination.
    You’re right that this is the worst risk, and there are some horror stories of people trapped in prison-like Spanish ‘quarantine hotels’ after getting a surprise positive test.

    I am working on the assumption that double vaccinated and having tested positive for antibodies after the first dose, my chances are low, multiplied by the low risk of spending most of the trip walking in the outdoors and eating outside. I am also taking a few free NHS LFTs with me so I can test mepyself before I do the official test, which will at least give me a bit of warning and/or help flag if the official test is falsely positive so I can arrange another.
    People sitting round the pool with family can probably avoid COVID too. But my holidays tend to include bars, restaurants, museums, public transport etc which would put me of higher risk of catching it, even if double jabbed. I spent a pleasant socially distanced afternoon in the Rjksmuseum last year between lockdowns , but the team ride back to Centraal was anything but.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,407
    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Majority of Euro 2020 racist abuse came from UK accounts and 99% were not anonymous, says Twitter

    Twitter's data stands in contrast to that from the UK Football Policing Unit which said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 came from accounts in Britain and 123 in other countries.


    Well someone's wrong!
    If you read the Twitter thread itself,

    "While many have quite rightly highlighted the global nature of the conversation, it is also important to acknowledge the UK was - by far - the largest country of origin for the abusive Tweets we removed."

    So, they mean a plurality and the UK Football policing unit's stat could well be true.
    D'Oh, I conflated the two figures when I was talking about the 99% figure - that's to do with accounts. My bad.
    To be pedantic, they said 99% of the account owners were identifiable.

    Plenty of people adopt an "anonymous" twitter handle, but register with their real details.

    So that means the poster might look to be anonymous, but the account holder very much isn't. To truly do so, you'd have to find a way of registering and validating with fake IDs and details.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,886

    isam said:

    Farage looking to exploit Boris’s comments about pit closures.



    I wonder if Sir Keir could do worse than appear on Nigel’s show on GB News, ‘Talking Pints’

    You've got to admire Nigel's chutzpah. For years he's been selling himself to the British Right as Maggie's true heir ('Thatcher would have voted UKIP' etc.). Now, in a trice, he's posing as son of Scargill. Nevertheless, he's probably on to something - many working-class conservatives sympathized with the miners' plight even when they thought union domination needed to be countered. So Boris's remarks offended everyone and endeared himself to no one.
    Yes, plenty of northern and midlands working class ex Labour, then UKIP, Leave and now Tory voters have great sympathy with coal miners and coal mining communities.

    Wealthy left liberal diehard Remainers who live in London and the South generally could not care less, they hate Boris regardless so he is not going to win them over
This discussion has been closed.