We Need to Wean Ourselves of Foreign Fuels! How? By ditching the Green Crap which is aiming to wean us off fossil fuels. Thereby making petrol and energy cheaper so that we can continue to use exactly the same amount.
You are missing the point
We will need oil and gas for years to come and the more we produce ourselves during the transition period the more secure our energy supply is and we do not import the same oil and gas we can produce, from Russia and elsewhere
It is a simple proposition that should receive widespread popular support post this war
Yep. It’s the same with the nonsense over the Cumbrian coal mine.
I have no idea if it’s deliberate, but the Green twats have been very useful to Putin.
You voted Leave.
That really is the political betting equivalent of “your mum”.
Not really. It's meant to remind you that some of us can be in favour of things that also happen to benefit Putin, and we need to keep in mind that "usefulness to Putin" is not the only standard by which to judge things.
Also: your mum.
Do you really think Russia wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine without Brexit?
Remember, Crimea was annexed in 2014.
No, I do not think that. I'm saying Putin believed the breakup of the EU to be in his interests and has actively supported Western politicians who advocate for that. Hence supporting leaving the EU is "useful" to Putin. That doesn't make it wrong.
I do sometimes wonder if Merkel was recruited by the KGB on one of her trips to Moscow during her GDR days.
If Russia wanted a leader to weaken Western unity they could do with someone who:
1) Allows Germany to get hooked on Russian energy 2) Allows German banks to get hooked on Russian criminal finance 3) Runs down German military capabilities 4) Emphasises German trade profits over human rights 5) Causes maximum disruption in the EU and NATO 6) Invites anyone in the Middle East to migrate to Europe
And there is the precedent of Gerhard Schroeder of course.
As usual the pb.com braintrust hasn't really paid attention. Operation Krautwickel began much earlier. It was the first grand coalition under Kiesinger that began talking to the evil Soviets in the late sixties. Early BLM mole Herbert Frahm, famous for introducing the kneefall into the world of political virtue signalling (being bought off with a nobel peace prize), ultimately caved in. Once he was taken out of the picture by the Guillaume gambit, his successor ordered Thyssen to supply the pipes, Erich sent some engineering crews to assemble the whole shebang, and from that point on everything unravelled as planned. Germany - hooked on Russian gas for 45 years running - was isolated from "the west", NATO was hollowed out from within and then disbanded, the Forces of Good ended the cold war with their capitulation because the Soviets made some promises they later reneged on, and a look at the map today shows us Mexico and Canada as Warshaw pact members with Soviet missiles stationed in Alberta and Yucatan. Just like Valentin Falin dreamed it all up 1965.
Wow, as a way of showing how superificial I was being that is an impressive effort. At the risk of being even more foolish it seems that German policy was heavily influenced by their approach to France and then the EU. Basically, they wanted their economies to become so integrated that any further war between them was not only inconceivable but impractical. They have tried the same with Russia, leading the charge to integrate them into the world economy and, in particular, with the German economy.
What we have seen in the last week looks like a fairly radical departure from a very long term strategy from outside. Would you agree?
Radical but not irreversable. People sometimes forget how quickly things can change. The whole world in general, and Russia in particular, may look completely different in a couple of years. Long term strategies from 1986 looked quite outdated in 1989.
That's nothing. On 1st February this year Russia was thought to have the third most powerful army in the world.
Now superseded by the 1st Ukrainian Armoured Farmers Brigade.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
Sinn Fein has 7 MPs so that changes things a little. Perhaps one or two of the other 11 NI MPs might back the Government.
So you've got 315 Labour, LD and Greens on one side - 257 Conservative plus 55 SNP on the other equals 312.
The Speaker would support the Government on a tied vote so that leaves 4 Plaid and assuming the same as in 2019, 8 DUP, 2 SDLP and 1 Alliance MP.
Let's put the DUP eight with the Con/SNP side which equals 320 but if you put Plaid, SDLP and Alliance with the Lab/LD/Greens you'd have 322 (leaving the Speaker and the 7 absent SF MPs)
That makes the kingmakers Plaid Cymru and if they back the Government, Starmer doesn't need the SNP.
There is no point discussing predictions without allowing for the boundary changes.
Look at the New Statesman's map. The constituencies in Wales have not been redrawn.
There won't be 4 Plaid Cymru seats after the boundary changes.
All the parties in Wales will lose seats as the total is down by eight.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We Need to Wean Ourselves of Foreign Fuels! How? By ditching the Green Crap which is aiming to wean us off fossil fuels. Thereby making petrol and energy cheaper so that we can continue to use exactly the same amount.
You are missing the point
We will need oil and gas for years to come and the more we produce ourselves during the transition period the more secure our energy supply is and we do not import the same oil and gas we can produce, from Russia and elsewhere
It is a simple proposition that should receive widespread popular support post this war
Yep. It’s the same with the nonsense over the Cumbrian coal mine.
I have no idea if it’s deliberate, but the Green twats have been very useful to Putin.
You voted Leave.
That really is the political betting equivalent of “your mum”.
Not really. It's meant to remind you that some of us can be in favour of things that also happen to benefit Putin, and we need to keep in mind that "usefulness to Putin" is not the only standard by which to judge things.
Also: your mum.
Do you really think Russia wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine without Brexit?
Remember, Crimea was annexed in 2014.
No, I do not think that. I'm saying Putin believed the breakup of the EU to be in his interests and has actively supported Western politicians who advocate for that. Hence supporting leaving the EU is "useful" to Putin. That doesn't make it wrong.
I do sometimes wonder if Merkel was recruited by the KGB on one of her trips to Moscow during her GDR days.
If Russia wanted a leader to weaken Western unity they could do with someone who:
1) Allows Germany to get hooked on Russian energy 2) Allows German banks to get hooked on Russian criminal finance 3) Runs down German military capabilities 4) Emphasises German trade profits over human rights 5) Causes maximum disruption in the EU and NATO 6) Invites anyone in the Middle East to migrate to Europe
And there is the precedent of Gerhard Schroeder of course.
As usual the pb.com braintrust hasn't really paid attention. Operation Krautwickel began much earlier. It was the first grand coalition under Kiesinger that began talking to the evil Soviets in the late sixties. Early BLM mole Herbert Frahm, famous for introducing the kneefall into the world of political virtue signalling (being bought off with a nobel peace prize), ultimately caved in. Once he was taken out of the picture by the Guillaume gambit, his successor ordered Thyssen to supply the pipes, Erich sent some engineering crews to assemble the whole shebang, and from that point on everything unravelled as planned. Germany - hooked on Russian gas for 45 years running - was isolated from "the west", NATO was hollowed out from within and then disbanded, the Forces of Good ended the cold war with their capitulation because the Soviets made some promises they later reneged on, and a look at the map today shows us Mexico and Canada as Warshaw pact members with Soviet missiles stationed in Alberta and Yucatan. Just like Valentin Falin dreamed it all up 1965.
Wow, as a way of showing how superificial I was being that is an impressive effort. At the risk of being even more foolish it seems that German policy was heavily influenced by their approach to France and then the EU. Basically, they wanted their economies to become so integrated that any further war between them was not only inconceivable but impractical. They have tried the same with Russia, leading the charge to integrate them into the world economy and, in particular, with the German economy.
What we have seen in the last week looks like a fairly radical departure from a very long term strategy from outside. Would you agree?
Radical but not irreversable. People sometimes forget how quickly things can change. The whole world in general, and Russia in particular, may look completely different in a couple of years. Long term strategies from 1986 looked quite outdated in 1989.
That's nothing. On 1st February this year Russia was thought to have the third most powerful army in the world.
And everyone knew BJ was an FLSOJ, so at least something is and will stay constant (except Tories’ interpretation of that fact).
I said a week or two back that Mercedes were probably a good lay at less than evens for the F1 championship. Looking as though that might be a decent bet. Hamilton absolutely emphatic that Mercedes is not in a good position right now. He doesn't expect Mercedes to fight for wins in its current form and says if people don't believe that, they will be surprised next weekend.
Asked if he can fight for the title this year, he says: "Obviously it’s a little bit too early to have those kinds of thoughts. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is potential within our car to get us there. We’ve just got to extract it and fix our problems.
"That’s what we’re working on. Everyone’s doing a fantastic job, working as hard as they can.
"We have hurdles to overcome. Next week we will have a better showing of our pace. People will be surprised maybe - people think we are talking ourselves down but it’s different this year."…
As someone on the receiving end of writ threats as an occupational hazard, it is not my inclination to sue for defamation, this internet meme that I advised the Kremlin is clearly defamatory, particularly so in the contemporary context. The only advice I gave them was unpaid, in public and it was to free Alexi Navalny and stop locking up political opponents. I’m proud of that advice and would tell them the same today.
The original tweet (above that one in the thread) has been evanished.
And on to the agility finals for the young handlers…aged 12-17
I'm surprised PB isn't discussing the odds more on those. I mean, they were happy to discuss the Olympic horse thingies, and those horses were positively uncooperative on occasion. At least the dogs are trying.
We Need to Wean Ourselves of Foreign Fuels! How? By ditching the Green Crap which is aiming to wean us off fossil fuels. Thereby making petrol and energy cheaper so that we can continue to use exactly the same amount.
You are missing the point
We will need oil and gas for years to come and the more we produce ourselves during the transition period the more secure our energy supply is and we do not import the same oil and gas we can produce, from Russia and elsewhere
It is a simple proposition that should receive widespread popular support post this war
With respect I'm not at all. Any plan which focuses only on increasing supply whilst doing nothing to address demand is simply magical thinking.
This comment always surprises me. We have been addressing demand reduction successfully literally for decades, and it is well known in the public domain.
Here are the numbers for 2000 to 2020 for households (despite soft-pedalling Energy Efficiency in the owner occupied sector).
The reduction in the domestic sector total energy use over that period is around 20-25%.
Then you need to add in that there are at least 15% more dwellings, and the population has gone from 59m in 2000 to 67m in 2020.
Still that overall reduction has been achieved; the progress is remarkable.
Can anyone find a stated per-household energy consumption figure since say 2000 to now. TO me it looks like approximately 40% or a little more.
What's really amazing is that there are some very significant energy saving innovations that have yet to have an impact, as many homes have not updated appliances or lighting on a decade, and there are the next generation of heat pumps and air conditioners still to make any impact.
We had our local Ukraine all-party rally (a couple of hundred people) organised by Jeremy Hunt, with the focus on refugees. I took a straw poll of whether people in Godalming would be prepared to accept 10 Ukrainians without visas as part of a national welcome to 20,000 as a start - pretty much everyone raised their hands. Obviously a biased sample of people who care about the issue, but I do think Patel or Johnson or whoever it is has been behind the curve on this. People are uneasy about chaos immigration - hiding in lorries, taking dinghies over the Channel - but they're absolutely up for a Government-sponsored programme to host large numbers. The local Council is completely swamped with offers to put people up indefinitely.
After the rally, incidentally, an elderly Tory-looking lady (I know one can't generalise, but posh coat and pearls) came up to me and said she'd never been a member of any political party but had now joined Labour "since I have come to the conclusion that the Government is corrupt". 1 person is ultimate anecdata, but I do think the Blue Wall is quietly crumbling.
Interesting way to look at the numbers. You say "20,000" and it's easy to think gosh, that's a lot of people. But then you work out that it's 1 person coming to Banff and you think gosh, what's all the fuss? Presentation is key.
Yes, that was my point. I think it would actually take 100 refugees to come to Godalming, population 21,000, (equivalent to 200,000 nationally) before most people noticed at all.
How do you pronounce Godalming? My brain just says "goddamning" but I guess the people who live there tend to emphasise the L to make it sound less like that. It's a funny place name either way.
GOD-all-ming with the stress on the first syllable
Foreigners (I don't mean Ukrainians, just anyone from anywhere else) tend to say godALming. But John is right.
I say godALming to take the piss, to be honest. A bit like how I say Isle of Widget.
Presumably you tell people you are going for ghoti and chips on the seafront at Ryde.
I said a week or two back that Mercedes were probably a good lay at less than evens for the F1 championship. Looking as though that might be a decent bet. Hamilton absolutely emphatic that Mercedes is not in a good position right now. He doesn't expect Mercedes to fight for wins in its current form and says if people don't believe that, they will be surprised next weekend.
Asked if he can fight for the title this year, he says: "Obviously it’s a little bit too early to have those kinds of thoughts. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is potential within our car to get us there. We’ve just got to extract it and fix our problems.
"That’s what we’re working on. Everyone’s doing a fantastic job, working as hard as they can.
"We have hurdles to overcome. Next week we will have a better showing of our pace. People will be surprised maybe - people think we are talking ourselves down but it’s different this year."…
First race is only a week away.
Heard it all before!
Did you see the Mercedes’ porpoising ? As I said at the time, this is a new formula, with quite strictly limited spending; there’s no good reason to think Merc are better than evens favourites.
In any event, I have laid on Betfair, and hope to trade out at a good profit.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
We had our local Ukraine all-party rally (a couple of hundred people) organised by Jeremy Hunt, with the focus on refugees. I took a straw poll of whether people in Godalming would be prepared to accept 10 Ukrainians without visas as part of a national welcome to 20,000 as a start - pretty much everyone raised their hands. Obviously a biased sample of people who care about the issue, but I do think Patel or Johnson or whoever it is has been behind the curve on this. People are uneasy about chaos immigration - hiding in lorries, taking dinghies over the Channel - but they're absolutely up for a Government-sponsored programme to host large numbers. The local Council is completely swamped with offers to put people up indefinitely.
After the rally, incidentally, an elderly Tory-looking lady (I know one can't generalise, but posh coat and pearls) came up to me and said she'd never been a member of any political party but had now joined Labour "since I have come to the conclusion that the Government is corrupt". 1 person is ultimate anecdata, but I do think the Blue Wall is quietly crumbling.
Interesting way to look at the numbers. You say "20,000" and it's easy to think gosh, that's a lot of people. But then you work out that it's 1 person coming to Banff and you think gosh, what's all the fuss? Presentation is key.
Yes, that was my point. I think it would actually take 100 refugees to come to Godalming, population 21,000, (equivalent to 200,000 nationally) before most people noticed at all.
How do you pronounce Godalming? My brain just says "goddamning" but I guess the people who live there tend to emphasise the L to make it sound less like that. It's a funny place name either way.
GOD-all-ming with the stress on the first syllable
Foreigners (I don't mean Ukrainians, just anyone from anywhere else) tend to say godALming. But John is right.
I say godALming to take the piss, to be honest. A bit like how I say Isle of Widget.
Presumably you tell people you are going for ghoti and chips on the seafront at Ryde.
To my shame, I have never actually visited the Isle of Wight. It's something I should probably do at some point.
Alex Kokcharov @AlexKokcharov In #Russia, one of the top Kremlin propagandists Solovyov says during his talk show: “With the sanctions like these, why should we stop at the borders of #Ukraine?”
Translation: Kremlin propaganda is promoting invasion of NATO member states.
We had our local Ukraine all-party rally (a couple of hundred people) organised by Jeremy Hunt, with the focus on refugees. I took a straw poll of whether people in Godalming would be prepared to accept 10 Ukrainians without visas as part of a national welcome to 20,000 as a start - pretty much everyone raised their hands. Obviously a biased sample of people who care about the issue, but I do think Patel or Johnson or whoever it is has been behind the curve on this. People are uneasy about chaos immigration - hiding in lorries, taking dinghies over the Channel - but they're absolutely up for a Government-sponsored programme to host large numbers. The local Council is completely swamped with offers to put people up indefinitely.
After the rally, incidentally, an elderly Tory-looking lady (I know one can't generalise, but posh coat and pearls) came up to me and said she'd never been a member of any political party but had now joined Labour "since I have come to the conclusion that the Government is corrupt". 1 person is ultimate anecdata, but I do think the Blue Wall is quietly crumbling.
Interesting way to look at the numbers. You say "20,000" and it's easy to think gosh, that's a lot of people. But then you work out that it's 1 person coming to Banff and you think gosh, what's all the fuss? Presentation is key.
Yes, that was my point. I think it would actually take 100 refugees to come to Godalming, population 21,000, (equivalent to 200,000 nationally) before most people noticed at all.
How do you pronounce Godalming? My brain just says "goddamning" but I guess the people who live there tend to emphasise the L to make it sound less like that. It's a funny place name either way.
GOD-all-ming with the stress on the first syllable
Foreigners (I don't mean Ukrainians, just anyone from anywhere else) tend to say godALming. But John is right.
I say godALming to take the piss, to be honest. A bit like how I say Isle of Widget.
Presumably you tell people you are going for ghoti and chips on the seafront at Ryde.
To my shame, I have never actually visited the Isle of Wight. It's something I should probably do at some point.
I said a week or two back that Mercedes were probably a good lay at less than evens for the F1 championship. Looking as though that might be a decent bet. Hamilton absolutely emphatic that Mercedes is not in a good position right now. He doesn't expect Mercedes to fight for wins in its current form and says if people don't believe that, they will be surprised next weekend.
Asked if he can fight for the title this year, he says: "Obviously it’s a little bit too early to have those kinds of thoughts. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is potential within our car to get us there. We’ve just got to extract it and fix our problems.
"That’s what we’re working on. Everyone’s doing a fantastic job, working as hard as they can.
"We have hurdles to overcome. Next week we will have a better showing of our pace. People will be surprised maybe - people think we are talking ourselves down but it’s different this year."…
I said a week or two back that Mercedes were probably a good lay at less than evens for the F1 championship. Looking as though that might be a decent bet. Hamilton absolutely emphatic that Mercedes is not in a good position right now. He doesn't expect Mercedes to fight for wins in its current form and says if people don't believe that, they will be surprised next weekend.
Asked if he can fight for the title this year, he says: "Obviously it’s a little bit too early to have those kinds of thoughts. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is potential within our car to get us there. We’ve just got to extract it and fix our problems.
"That’s what we’re working on. Everyone’s doing a fantastic job, working as hard as they can.
"We have hurdles to overcome. Next week we will have a better showing of our pace. People will be surprised maybe - people think we are talking ourselves down but it’s different this year."…
First race is only a week away.
Heard it all before!
Did you see the Mercedes’ porpoising ? As I said at the time, this is a new formula, with quite strictly limited spending; there’s no good reason to think Merc are better than evens favourites.
In any event, I have laid on Betfair, and hope to trade out at a good profit.
To be honest I have little knowledge about the technicalities. I'm just wary about teams and drivers playing down their chances.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
No, you're right. Already some claim that the Total Cost of Ownership of an electric car is less than an iCE vehicle. Most of this analysis I've seen is based on US costs. I would expect the UK would be more favourable to electric cars except perhaps the purchasing incentives. I think 5 to 10 years is pessimistic.
We had our local Ukraine all-party rally (a couple of hundred people) organised by Jeremy Hunt, with the focus on refugees. I took a straw poll of whether people in Godalming would be prepared to accept 10 Ukrainians without visas as part of a national welcome to 20,000 as a start - pretty much everyone raised their hands. Obviously a biased sample of people who care about the issue, but I do think Patel or Johnson or whoever it is has been behind the curve on this. People are uneasy about chaos immigration - hiding in lorries, taking dinghies over the Channel - but they're absolutely up for a Government-sponsored programme to host large numbers. The local Council is completely swamped with offers to put people up indefinitely.
After the rally, incidentally, an elderly Tory-looking lady (I know one can't generalise, but posh coat and pearls) came up to me and said she'd never been a member of any political party but had now joined Labour "since I have come to the conclusion that the Government is corrupt". 1 person is ultimate anecdata, but I do think the Blue Wall is quietly crumbling.
Interesting way to look at the numbers. You say "20,000" and it's easy to think gosh, that's a lot of people. But then you work out that it's 1 person coming to Banff and you think gosh, what's all the fuss? Presentation is key.
Yes, that was my point. I think it would actually take 100 refugees to come to Godalming, population 21,000, (equivalent to 200,000 nationally) before most people noticed at all.
How do you pronounce Godalming? My brain just says "goddamning" but I guess the people who live there tend to emphasise the L to make it sound less like that. It's a funny place name either way.
GOD-all-ming with the stress on the first syllable
Foreigners (I don't mean Ukrainians, just anyone from anywhere else) tend to say godALming. But John is right.
I say godALming to take the piss, to be honest. A bit like how I say Isle of Widget.
Presumably you tell people you are going for ghoti and chips on the seafront at Ryde.
To my shame, I have never actually visited the Isle of Wight. It's something I should probably do at some point.
Sinn Fein has 7 MPs so that changes things a little. Perhaps one or two of the other 11 NI MPs might back the Government.
So you've got 315 Labour, LD and Greens on one side - 257 Conservative plus 55 SNP on the other equals 312.
The Speaker would support the Government on a tied vote so that leaves 4 Plaid and assuming the same as in 2019, 8 DUP, 2 SDLP and 1 Alliance MP.
Let's put the DUP eight with the Con/SNP side which equals 320 but if you put Plaid, SDLP and Alliance with the Lab/LD/Greens you'd have 322 (leaving the Speaker and the 7 absent SF MPs)
That makes the kingmakers Plaid Cymru and if they back the Government, Starmer doesn't need the SNP.
If Labour take seats off the SNP, although it won’t change the numbers required for an overall majority, it will affect the arithmetic for a minority government.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
No, you're right. Already some claim that the Total Cost of Ownership of an electric car is less than an iCE vehicle. Most of this analysis I've seen is based on US costs. I would expect the UK would be more favourable to electric cars except perhaps the purchasing incentives. I think 5 to 10 years is pessimistic.
On Li batteries, we don't seem to be at the end of the cost reduction curve yet.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
Of course this is when, ideally, we’d have selected our two 500+ Test wicket players.
Yes, it's important that they play every series so that when they retire they are replaced with completely inexperienced players.
I don’t recall the Aussies “resting” McGrath and Warne much. And you can manage them within a series whilst still having them in the squad, if you really want to.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I don’t think so. Batteries are set to get a lot cheaper as the new factories get built. On existing tech electric vehicles ought to be cheaper to build within five years, and likely much cheaper within ten.
And of course China already has an ultra cheap car, albeit with limited size and range, which is the best selling model in the Chinese market. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56178802
We had our local Ukraine all-party rally (a couple of hundred people) organised by Jeremy Hunt, with the focus on refugees. I took a straw poll of whether people in Godalming would be prepared to accept 10 Ukrainians without visas as part of a national welcome to 20,000 as a start - pretty much everyone raised their hands. Obviously a biased sample of people who care about the issue, but I do think Patel or Johnson or whoever it is has been behind the curve on this. People are uneasy about chaos immigration - hiding in lorries, taking dinghies over the Channel - but they're absolutely up for a Government-sponsored programme to host large numbers. The local Council is completely swamped with offers to put people up indefinitely.
After the rally, incidentally, an elderly Tory-looking lady (I know one can't generalise, but posh coat and pearls) came up to me and said she'd never been a member of any political party but had now joined Labour "since I have come to the conclusion that the Government is corrupt". 1 person is ultimate anecdata, but I do think the Blue Wall is quietly crumbling.
Interesting way to look at the numbers. You say "20,000" and it's easy to think gosh, that's a lot of people. But then you work out that it's 1 person coming to Banff and you think gosh, what's all the fuss? Presentation is key.
Yes, that was my point. I think it would actually take 100 refugees to come to Godalming, population 21,000, (equivalent to 200,000 nationally) before most people noticed at all.
How do you pronounce Godalming? My brain just says "goddamning" but I guess the people who live there tend to emphasise the L to make it sound less like that. It's a funny place name either way.
GOD-all-ming with the stress on the first syllable
Foreigners (I don't mean Ukrainians, just anyone from anywhere else) tend to say godALming. But John is right.
I say godALming to take the piss, to be honest. A bit like how I say Isle of Widget.
Presumably you tell people you are going for ghoti and chips on the seafront at Ryde.
To my shame, I have never actually visited the Isle of Wight. It's something I should probably do at some point.
Oh, it's lovely. Friends of ours used to live near Freshwater on the quieter western half. It helps if you like scenery, Victorian fortifications, and geology, too.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Have you read The Men Who Stare At Goats?
Saw the movie and know the thesis
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Jon Ronson's original CH4 series 'Crazy Rulers of the World' (where the 'Men Who State At Goats' first appeared) is worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The "madness" has been there for quite a time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437000/
I said a week or two back that Mercedes were probably a good lay at less than evens for the F1 championship. Looking as though that might be a decent bet. Hamilton absolutely emphatic that Mercedes is not in a good position right now. He doesn't expect Mercedes to fight for wins in its current form and says if people don't believe that, they will be surprised next weekend.
Asked if he can fight for the title this year, he says: "Obviously it’s a little bit too early to have those kinds of thoughts. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is potential within our car to get us there. We’ve just got to extract it and fix our problems.
"That’s what we’re working on. Everyone’s doing a fantastic job, working as hard as they can.
"We have hurdles to overcome. Next week we will have a better showing of our pace. People will be surprised maybe - people think we are talking ourselves down but it’s different this year."…
First race is only a week away.
Heard it all before!
Did you see the Mercedes’ porpoising ? As I said at the time, this is a new formula, with quite strictly limited spending; there’s no good reason to think Merc are better than evens favourites.
In any event, I have laid on Betfair, and hope to trade out at a good profit.
To be honest I have little knowledge about the technicalities. I'm just wary about teams and drivers playing down their chances.
Mercedes are genuinely struggling in terms of car handling, which is nothing to do with ‘sandbagging’, and the first race is a week away. The Red Bull looks planted - and is a second quicker.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
Well, that did seem like an option, but you'd have to build the battery in a way that it was easy to remove and replace. And you'd want as standardised a battery as possible, to maximise the chance of the right one being ready and charged for you to swap in - effectively something like an AA battery for cars.
Those considerations make it harder than you'd think, especially as the batteries can weigh about half a tonne.
Back in ~2001 I had a phone that was able to use AAA batteries as an emergency backup for when the normal battery was flat, and I suppose you might be able to have something like that - the battery equivalent of a jerrycan of fuel - where you could have a battery pack that weighed a few kilos and would give you enough power to reach the nearest charging point.
Alex Kokcharov @AlexKokcharov In #Russia, one of the top Kremlin propagandists Solovyov says during his talk show: “With the sanctions like these, why should we stop at the borders of #Ukraine?”
Translation: Kremlin propaganda is promoting invasion of NATO member states.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
A friend of mine tried to do that in Israel with a business called Better Place. Now he was a bit early, but I think the barriers to doing it that way are far from trivial.
Battery charging is being better and better (and faster and faster). The first Tesla superchargers could add four miles of range per minute. The latest great chargers can add 15. If we get to 30, then - sure - its slower than pumping gas... But it's only something you'd do on road trips, and is 10-15 minutes to full that big a deal?
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
That lease model was used by Nissan/Renault, but they seem to have backed away from it as batteries become more established.
I think there are third party battery leasing services available, however.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
Well, that did seem like an option, but you'd have to build the battery in a way that it was easy to remove and replace. And you'd want as standardised a battery as possible, to maximise the chance of the right one being ready and charged for you to swap in - effectively something like an AA battery for cars.
Those considerations make it harder than you'd think, especially as the batteries can weigh about half a tonne.
Back in ~2001 I had a phone that was able to use AAA batteries as an emergency backup for when the normal battery was flat, and I suppose you might be able to have something like that - the battery equivalent of a jerrycan of fuel - where you could have a battery pack that weighed a few kilos and would give you enough power to reach the nearest charging point.
A 100Kwh Tesla battery weighs 625 kg and has a volume of 0.4m3. For a range of 315 miles.... Even a few miles of range is going to weigh a lot.
In addition, many electric car designs (including Tesla) use the battery partly as structure - replacing the battery is possible, but you have to bolt the car to a special jig first. Big workshop job.
Various battery swap scheme has been looked at, but the increases in the size of batteries and the increases in charging speed seem to have killed them off, mostly.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
A friend of mine tried to do that in Israel with a business called Better Place. Now he was a bit early, but I think the barriers to doing it that way are far from trivial.
Battery charging is being better and better (and faster and faster). The first Tesla superchargers could add four miles of range per minute. The latest great chargers can add 15. If we get to 30, then - sure - its slower than pumping gas... But it's only something you'd do on road trips, and is 10-15 minutes to full that big a deal?
No - and it will steadily improve, so there’s zero incentive to spend billions on designing and building factories for new vehicles with swappable batteries, which no one other than a couple of efforts in China is currently doing.
It might be viable for a standardised small form battery and electric scooters/motorbikes, though.
Now it’s Lightning Strikes, three collies and a crossbreed, versus the Belgian team, Road Runners - reigning European champions and the first non-UK team to reach Crufts Flyball.
A fault by the Runners, then by the Strikes, the Strikes given the first round.
And the Runners take the second with a brilliant run - a new course record at 14.95 seconds!
Now the decider - and the Belgian Roadrunners take it - another course record - 14.84 seconds! (European record is 14.53)
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Have you read The Men Who Stare At Goats?
Saw the movie and know the thesis
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Jon Ronson's original CH4 series 'Crazy Rulers of the World' (where the 'Men Who State At Goats' first appeared) is worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The "madness" has been there for quite a time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437000/
My best guess - right now - is that there is a hardcore of people in the US military/politics who really DO think there is something deeply mysterious going on, and it’s not ordinarily human. Are they mad? Dunno. Possibly
There’s a wider circle of politicians and the like who are clueless but perplexed, and hedging their bets
This confusion has been weaponised by others to freak out the Chinese, who must be staring at this and thinking “does the US have amazing technology and this is a hint?”
At the same time there might be countervailing forces who want this info suppressed. Either because the US DOES have the tech but wants it kept secret, or because they are scared that if the public does discover we are being visited by inexplicable forces, society might break down entirely
Complicated. But I think that explains what we see. Probably
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
Well, that did seem like an option, but you'd have to build the battery in a way that it was easy to remove and replace. And you'd want as standardised a battery as possible, to maximise the chance of the right one being ready and charged for you to swap in - effectively something like an AA battery for cars.
Those considerations make it harder than you'd think, especially as the batteries can weigh about half a tonne.
Back in ~2001 I had a phone that was able to use AAA batteries as an emergency backup for when the normal battery was flat, and I suppose you might be able to have something like that - the battery equivalent of a jerrycan of fuel - where you could have a battery pack that weighed a few kilos and would give you enough power to reach the nearest charging point.
A 100Kwh Tesla battery weighs 625 kg and has a volume of 0.4m3. For a range of 315 miles.... Even a few miles of range is going to weigh a lot.
In addition, many electric car designs (including Tesla) use the battery partly as structure - replacing the battery is possible, but you have to bolt the car to a special jig first. Big workshop job.
Various battery swap scheme has been looked at, but the increases in the size of batteries and the increases in charging speed seem to have killed them off, mostly.
An iPhone 13 Pro Max has a battery with a capacity of 16.75Wh, that's about 6,000 times smaller than the 100kWh Tesla battery. Of course people know that an electric car will lose a lot more electricity than a phone, but I think there'd be surprised at how much, and how much that makes the battery weigh. And I filled up the car earlier, after driving nearly 500 miles, and it took less than 40kg of fuel, which is another way of looking at the difference - about 20 times denser. You could have a very light smartphone, powered for a very long time, if you found a way to do it directly with oil.
According to information from the Ukrainian Chief Intelligence Directorate, President Vladimir Putin and Minister of Defence Sergei Shoygu are the last Russian statesmen left who support the war.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Have you read The Men Who Stare At Goats?
Saw the movie and know the thesis
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Jon Ronson's original CH4 series 'Crazy Rulers of the World' (where the 'Men Who State At Goats' first appeared) is worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The "madness" has been there for quite a time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437000/
My best guess - right now - is that there is a hardcore of people in the US military/politics who really DO think there is something deeply mysterious going on, and it’s not ordinarily human. Are they mad? Dunno. Possibly
There’s a wider circle of politicians and the like who are clueless but perplexed, and hedging their bets
This confusion has been weaponised by others to freak out the Chinese, who must be staring at this and thinking “does the US have amazing technology and this is a hint?”
At the same time there might be countervailing forces who want this info suppressed. Either because the US DOES have the tech but wants it kept secret, or because they are scared that if the public does discover we are being visited by inexplicable forces, society might break down entirely
Complicated. But I think that explains what we see. Probably
All nations no doubt have some secret technology.
I'm not sure any of that tech is as cool as Elon Musk's though.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Have you read The Men Who Stare At Goats?
Saw the movie and know the thesis
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Jon Ronson's original CH4 series 'Crazy Rulers of the World' (where the 'Men Who State At Goats' first appeared) is worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The "madness" has been there for quite a time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437000/
My best guess - right now - is that there is a hardcore of people in the US military/politics who really DO think there is something deeply mysterious going on, and it’s not ordinarily human. Are they mad? Dunno. Possibly
There’s a wider circle of politicians and the like who are clueless but perplexed, and hedging their bets
This confusion has been weaponised by others to freak out the Chinese, who must be staring at this and thinking “does the US have amazing technology and this is a hint?”
At the same time there might be countervailing forces who want this info suppressed. Either because the US DOES have the tech but wants it kept secret, or because they are scared that if the public does discover we are being visited by inexplicable forces, society might break down entirely
Complicated. But I think that explains what we see. Probably
If you haven't, you seriously need to read Supernatural by Graham Hancock about LSD/ayahuasca/DMT and UAP links
There is a very strong connection between psychedelics and therianthropes, incl werewolves, dating back to prehistoric cave art in Europe/S Africa
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
Well, that did seem like an option, but you'd have to build the battery in a way that it was easy to remove and replace. And you'd want as standardised a battery as possible, to maximise the chance of the right one being ready and charged for you to swap in - effectively something like an AA battery for cars.
Those considerations make it harder than you'd think, especially as the batteries can weigh about half a tonne.
Back in ~2001 I had a phone that was able to use AAA batteries as an emergency backup for when the normal battery was flat, and I suppose you might be able to have something like that - the battery equivalent of a jerrycan of fuel - where you could have a battery pack that weighed a few kilos and would give you enough power to reach the nearest charging point.
A 100Kwh Tesla battery weighs 625 kg and has a volume of 0.4m3. For a range of 315 miles.... Even a few miles of range is going to weigh a lot.
In addition, many electric car designs (including Tesla) use the battery partly as structure - replacing the battery is possible, but you have to bolt the car to a special jig first. Big workshop job.
Various battery swap scheme has been looked at, but the increases in the size of batteries and the increases in charging speed seem to have killed them off, mostly.
An iPhone 13 Pro Max has a battery with a capacity of 16.75Wh, that's about 6,000 times smaller than the 100kWh Tesla battery. Of course people know that an electric car will lose a lot more electricity than a phone, but I think there'd be surprised at how much, and how much that makes the battery weigh. And I filled up the car earlier, after driving nearly 500 miles, and it took less than 40kg of fuel, which is another way of looking at the difference - about 20 times denser. You could have a very light smartphone, powered for a very long time, if you found a way to do it directly with oil.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Have you read The Men Who Stare At Goats?
Saw the movie and know the thesis
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Jon Ronson's original CH4 series 'Crazy Rulers of the World' (where the 'Men Who State At Goats' first appeared) is worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The "madness" has been there for quite a time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437000/
My best guess - right now - is that there is a hardcore of people in the US military/politics who really DO think there is something deeply mysterious going on, and it’s not ordinarily human. Are they mad? Dunno. Possibly
There’s a wider circle of politicians and the like who are clueless but perplexed, and hedging their bets
This confusion has been weaponised by others to freak out the Chinese, who must be staring at this and thinking “does the US have amazing technology and this is a hint?”
At the same time there might be countervailing forces who want this info suppressed. Either because the US DOES have the tech but wants it kept secret, or because they are scared that if the public does discover we are being visited by inexplicable forces, society might break down entirely
Complicated. But I think that explains what we see. Probably
All nations no doubt have some secret technology.
I'm not sure any of that tech is as cool as Elon Musk's though.
Russia's turned out to be strapping logs to the front of tanks.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
Well, that did seem like an option, but you'd have to build the battery in a way that it was easy to remove and replace. And you'd want as standardised a battery as possible, to maximise the chance of the right one being ready and charged for you to swap in - effectively something like an AA battery for cars.
Those considerations make it harder than you'd think, especially as the batteries can weigh about half a tonne.
Back in ~2001 I had a phone that was able to use AAA batteries as an emergency backup for when the normal battery was flat, and I suppose you might be able to have something like that - the battery equivalent of a jerrycan of fuel - where you could have a battery pack that weighed a few kilos and would give you enough power to reach the nearest charging point.
A 100Kwh Tesla battery weighs 625 kg and has a volume of 0.4m3. For a range of 315 miles.... Even a few miles of range is going to weigh a lot.
In addition, many electric car designs (including Tesla) use the battery partly as structure - replacing the battery is possible, but you have to bolt the car to a special jig first. Big workshop job.
Various battery swap scheme has been looked at, but the increases in the size of batteries and the increases in charging speed seem to have killed them off, mostly.
An iPhone 13 Pro Max has a battery with a capacity of 16.75Wh, that's about 6,000 times smaller than the 100kWh Tesla battery. Of course people know that an electric car will lose a lot more electricity than a phone, but I think there'd be surprised at how much, and how much that makes the battery weigh. And I filled up the car earlier, after driving nearly 500 miles, and it took less than 40kg of fuel, which is another way of looking at the difference - about 20 times denser. You could have a very light smartphone, powered for a very long time, if you found a way to do it directly with oil.
Shipstone....
It feels like in many other ways the world is heading to the world of Friday
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
Well, that did seem like an option, but you'd have to build the battery in a way that it was easy to remove and replace. And you'd want as standardised a battery as possible, to maximise the chance of the right one being ready and charged for you to swap in - effectively something like an AA battery for cars.
Those considerations make it harder than you'd think, especially as the batteries can weigh about half a tonne.
Back in ~2001 I had a phone that was able to use AAA batteries as an emergency backup for when the normal battery was flat, and I suppose you might be able to have something like that - the battery equivalent of a jerrycan of fuel - where you could have a battery pack that weighed a few kilos and would give you enough power to reach the nearest charging point.
A 100Kwh Tesla battery weighs 625 kg and has a volume of 0.4m3. For a range of 315 miles.... Even a few miles of range is going to weigh a lot.
In addition, many electric car designs (including Tesla) use the battery partly as structure - replacing the battery is possible, but you have to bolt the car to a special jig first. Big workshop job.
Various battery swap scheme has been looked at, but the increases in the size of batteries and the increases in charging speed seem to have killed them off, mostly.
An iPhone 13 Pro Max has a battery with a capacity of 16.75Wh, that's about 6,000 times smaller than the 100kWh Tesla battery. Of course people know that an electric car will lose a lot more electricity than a phone, but I think there'd be surprised at how much, and how much that makes the battery weigh. And I filled up the car earlier, after driving nearly 500 miles, and it took less than 40kg of fuel, which is another way of looking at the difference - about 20 times denser. You could have a very light smartphone, powered for a very long time, if you found a way to do it directly with oil.
Shipstone....
It feels like in many other ways the world is heading to the world of Friday
The Day After Friday
Including using the internet-in-all-but-name to research and discover the next world disaster.... a disease outbreak....
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Have you read The Men Who Stare At Goats?
Saw the movie and know the thesis
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Jon Ronson's original CH4 series 'Crazy Rulers of the World' (where the 'Men Who State At Goats' first appeared) is worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The "madness" has been there for quite a time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437000/
My best guess - right now - is that there is a hardcore of people in the US military/politics who really DO think there is something deeply mysterious going on, and it’s not ordinarily human. Are they mad? Dunno. Possibly
There’s a wider circle of politicians and the like who are clueless but perplexed, and hedging their bets
This confusion has been weaponised by others to freak out the Chinese, who must be staring at this and thinking “does the US have amazing technology and this is a hint?”
At the same time there might be countervailing forces who want this info suppressed. Either because the US DOES have the tech but wants it kept secret, or because they are scared that if the public does discover we are being visited by inexplicable forces, society might break down entirely
Complicated. But I think that explains what we see. Probably
Fortean that I am notwithstanding, I’m more inclined to see this as Western disinformatsiya. The Russians and Chinese would never believe the Pentagon is taking UAPs and the supernatural seriously, but they would buy it being a cover story for some seriously high tech classified weapons. And it doesn’t matter whether have such weapons so long as they think we do.
It could be one reason that no matter how evil he has been so far or the sabre rattling he’s made, Putin has done nothing that might draw NATO into the conflict.
According to information from the Ukrainian Chief Intelligence Directorate, President Vladimir Putin and Minister of Defence Sergei Shoygu are the last Russian statesmen left who support the war.
@JakeCordell ❗️Russia’s stock market will be closed for the whole of next week, Central Bank announces. That’s until at least March 21. Shares last traded on Feb. 25.
Some of the stuff in that long, authoritative military.com article - published five days ago - is quite mind-boggling
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Have you read The Men Who Stare At Goats?
Saw the movie and know the thesis
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Jon Ronson's original CH4 series 'Crazy Rulers of the World' (where the 'Men Who State At Goats' first appeared) is worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The "madness" has been there for quite a time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437000/
My best guess - right now - is that there is a hardcore of people in the US military/politics who really DO think there is something deeply mysterious going on, and it’s not ordinarily human. Are they mad? Dunno. Possibly
There’s a wider circle of politicians and the like who are clueless but perplexed, and hedging their bets
This confusion has been weaponised by others to freak out the Chinese, who must be staring at this and thinking “does the US have amazing technology and this is a hint?”
At the same time there might be countervailing forces who want this info suppressed. Either because the US DOES have the tech but wants it kept secret, or because they are scared that if the public does discover we are being visited by inexplicable forces, society might break down entirely
Complicated. But I think that explains what we see. Probably
Fortean that I am notwithstanding, I’m more inclined to see this as Western disinformatsiya. The Russians and Chinese would never believe the Pentagon is taking UAPs and the supernatural seriously, but they would buy it being a cover story for some seriously high tech classified weapons. And it doesn’t matter whether have such weapons so long as they think we do.
It could be one reason that no matter how evil he has been so far or the sabre rattling he’s made, Putin has done nothing that might draw NATO into the conflict.
Giving him a bit of a clump on general principles, whilst the thing to do, does seem unwise.
Sinn Fein has 7 MPs so that changes things a little. Perhaps one or two of the other 11 NI MPs might back the Government.
So you've got 315 Labour, LD and Greens on one side - 257 Conservative plus 55 SNP on the other equals 312.
The Speaker would support the Government on a tied vote so that leaves 4 Plaid and assuming the same as in 2019, 8 DUP, 2 SDLP and 1 Alliance MP.
Let's put the DUP eight with the Con/SNP side which equals 320 but if you put Plaid, SDLP and Alliance with the Lab/LD/Greens you'd have 322 (leaving the Speaker and the 7 absent SF MPs)
That makes the kingmakers Plaid Cymru and if they back the Government, Starmer doesn't need the SNP.
Still sounds like hell for Starmer to me. LibDem coalition, or potent minority Government with LibDem confidence and supply makes sense; but I think he’d do anything to avoid the above “rainbow” scenario. He’d have to take power but he’d hate it, and run a big risk of a death Tory Gvt not long down the line.
Edit - And Labour on the way to power will of course rediscover all the reasons not to do PR.
If Burnham has returned as an MP he will also be heir apparent, waiting in the wings if Starmer slips up. Much like Boris was for Cameron
Looked pretty blameless, that. Suppose I may as well switch off and now the lawn instead.
I get that they are trying to get tackles lower etc, but a red card for that? Yellow would punish, but not kill the game. This could 40+ for Ireland or more now. Fucking shit.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
A friend of mine tried to do that in Israel with a business called Better Place. Now he was a bit early, but I think the barriers to doing it that way are far from trivial.
He would have been better off opening up a chip shop called Better Plaice.....
Seems unlikely - given Russia has already run out of its own soldiers and is now relying on the might of Belarus and Syria - that Russia has the resources to retaliate against Sweden and Finland right now.
@jk_rowling Now @Keir_Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.
I think this is going to be a problem for Starmer at the election.
It could be one reason that no matter how evil he has been so far or the sabre rattling he’s made, Putin has done nothing that might draw NATO into the conflict.
You don't need to hypothesize a Russian belief in nonexistent US secret superweapons to explain that -- the nuclear weapons that the Russians can be 100% certain the US has are entirely adequate reason...
NEXTA @nexta_tv One of the #Russian bloggers cries that in two days her Instagram will stop working
She does not care at all about the thousands of dead people, including her compatriots. Obviously, her biggest worry right now is that she won't be able to post pictures of food from restaurants.
Seems unlikely - given Russia has already run out of its own soldiers and is now relying on the might of Belarus and Syria - that Russia has the resources to retaliate against Sweden and Finland right now.
Careful, the Russians might learn a trick or two from the French, and fart in their general direction....
@jk_rowling Now @Keir_Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.
I think this is going to be a problem for Starmer at the election.
NEXTA @nexta_tv One of the #Russian bloggers cries that in two days her Instagram will stop working
She does not care at all about the thousands of dead people, including her compatriots. Obviously, her biggest worry right now is that she won't be able to post pictures of food from restaurants.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
A friend of mine tried to do that in Israel with a business called Better Place. Now he was a bit early, but I think the barriers to doing it that way are far from trivial.
He would have been better off opening up a chip shop called Better Plaice.....
There’s an upmarket chippy in New York called “Assalt & Battery” which I thought was a rather good name…
Sweden planning to cater for over 210,000 Ukrainian refugees by the summer.
That's in the same ball park as Ireland's planning, relative to their respective populations. On an even basis across the EU it equates to 9 million Ukrainian refugees. If the UK were to take a similar number of refugees we would be looking at 1.3 million.
Very clear that HMG is desperate to avoid taking even one-tenth of that number.
Yes, you need to analyse the contribution of the various states in proportion to their populations. Sweden is only 10 million people.
We have been incredibly generous to refugees from many, many conflicts. Chile, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Syria spring to mind, but hundreds of others too.
Why is Sweden so generous?
Lots of empty space
Don’t be daft. We house refugees in existing cities and towns. They are hardly a significant additional land-use category.
Population density - Malmo* 4,049/km2
Population density - London 5,701/km2
* I recall reading this was where a lot of immigrants end up, but in any event I suspect most places in Sweden have lower density
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I agree. One of the stated advantages of electric battery cars is that they are mechanically simpler than internal combustion cars. Batteries would be expected to come down in price, as volume of production increases and the technology continues to develop - but increasing demand for battery cars (and for batteries as electricity storage), may hold prices up for a while.
I guess the ideal model is that you never actually own your battery, but instead it gets swapped out at the filling station? Gets you around charging times within or around the vehicle, other than over night at home.
A friend of mine tried to do that in Israel with a business called Better Place. Now he was a bit early, but I think the barriers to doing it that way are far from trivial.
He would have been better off opening up a chip shop called Better Plaice.....
Or writing a guide to marine life called Know Your Plaice.
@JakeCordell ❗️Russia’s stock market will be closed for the whole of next week, Central Bank announces. That’s until at least March 21. Shares last traded on Feb. 25.
@jk_rowling Now @Keir_Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.
I think this is going to be a problem for Starmer at the election.
Women may well be organising across party lines. Cyclefree, amongst others, has been eloquent in setting out the implications for women in believing what the Labour Party appear to believe about what a woman is. And I'd agree that the stance that a man can become a woman simply by declaring that he one IS damaging to women. But that seems an almost incidental one to the more significant objection that such a stance is absolutely insane.
@jk_rowling Now @Keir_Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.
I think this is going to be a problem for Starmer at the election.
I think it will be. He shouldn't mouth slogans.
Never foirgert how comfortable he was in the Corbyn shadow cabinet, his real views on 'rejoin' - every now and then the mask slips. He is no blairite moderniser.
NEXTA @nexta_tv One of the #Russian bloggers cries that in two days her Instagram will stop working
She does not care at all about the thousands of dead people, including her compatriots. Obviously, her biggest worry right now is that she won't be able to post pictures of food from restaurants.
I said a week or two back that Mercedes were probably a good lay at less than evens for the F1 championship. Looking as though that might be a decent bet. Hamilton absolutely emphatic that Mercedes is not in a good position right now. He doesn't expect Mercedes to fight for wins in its current form and says if people don't believe that, they will be surprised next weekend.
Asked if he can fight for the title this year, he says: "Obviously it’s a little bit too early to have those kinds of thoughts. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is potential within our car to get us there. We’ve just got to extract it and fix our problems.
"That’s what we’re working on. Everyone’s doing a fantastic job, working as hard as they can.
"We have hurdles to overcome. Next week we will have a better showing of our pace. People will be surprised maybe - people think we are talking ourselves down but it’s different this year."…
First race is only a week away.
F1 drivers and teams lie or mislead. A lot. Including him. So he's right some wont believe it.
@JakeCordell ❗️Russia’s stock market will be closed for the whole of next week, Central Bank announces. That’s until at least March 21. Shares last traded on Feb. 25.
Here's a question for those who know more about automobile design and manufacturing than I do: It seems to me that, eventually, the transition to all-electric cars should make possible cars that are less expensive and more reliable.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
I recall watching a wendover video on car batteries, as apparently the cost of vehicles is already at or nearly at the point of what would be what people are willing to pay, and the distance they can cover is too. So IIRC it wasnt that they needed batteries to get that much cheaper for it to really take off, it was the ubiquity of charging that remained an issue, and how quickly theyd charge.
But vague recollections can be wrong. No expert here.
Russell echoes Hamilton’s comments. Note, with such limited testing, you simply do not do something like this to hide a car’s performance. They just haven’t got it working yet.
“But at the moment the performance isn’t there, we do seem a step behind our rivals, and we do have a lot of work to do between now and next week to understand [it], because in every condition the Red Bull and Ferrari seem a step ahead of us.”
Russell suggested that neither Red Bull or Ferrari were “exceptional” but that Mercedes is “probably not as competitive as we’d like.
“It’s pretty clear where we’re limited, you’ve only got to watch the videos and you see us bouncing a lot, it’s not putting the car in the right window,” he said.
“The team are working incredibly hard to try and find solutions for this, we’ve yet to find one, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to find one ahead of next week or later in the season..
My Mercedes lay is a trading bet, and I’m very happy with it for now.
@jk_rowling Now @Keir_Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.
I think this is going to be a problem for Starmer at the election.
Women may well be organising across party lines. Cyclefree, amongst others, has been eloquent in setting out the implications for women in believing what the Labour Party appear to believe about what a woman is. And I'd agree that the stance that a man can become a woman simply by declaring that he one IS damaging to women. But that seems an almost incidental one to the more significant objection that such a stance is absolutely insane.
It accepts that the absurd conclusion of the Scottish legislation could be that legislation requiring public bodies to have boards with gender equality could be met if half of the members were men and the other half were men self identifying as women and that this would be a breach of the Equality Act.
This is a difficult issue but the right to respect and dignity which those who are transgender undoubtedly have really cannot be at the cost of the rights that women have won after an immense struggle. Whilst I respect and understand the empathy that SKS is showing to those who are transgender I think he is wrong about this.
I said a week or two back that Mercedes were probably a good lay at less than evens for the F1 championship. Looking as though that might be a decent bet. Hamilton absolutely emphatic that Mercedes is not in a good position right now. He doesn't expect Mercedes to fight for wins in its current form and says if people don't believe that, they will be surprised next weekend.
Asked if he can fight for the title this year, he says: "Obviously it’s a little bit too early to have those kinds of thoughts. At the moment I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is potential within our car to get us there. We’ve just got to extract it and fix our problems.
"That’s what we’re working on. Everyone’s doing a fantastic job, working as hard as they can.
"We have hurdles to overcome. Next week we will have a better showing of our pace. People will be surprised maybe - people think we are talking ourselves down but it’s different this year."…
First race is only a week away.
F1 drivers and teams lie or mislead. A lot. Including him. So he's right some wont believe it.
You don’t spend three days of testing - a week before the first GP - faking dreadful car handling. This season is different - new rules; much more level playing field.
Had you done the same you could cash out for a 10%profit now.
Stock had a crowd of 100 or more anonymous masked & hooded demonstrators turn up on the University Open Day to intimate her, and call for her sacking.
"Forced out" or "Intimidated out" is quite a reasonable interpretation, I'd suggest.
It's not something that a 50 year old female academic should have to face, just for disagreeing with someone's opinion and expressing that disagreement publicly.
What about 40 year old or 30 year old female academics?
Emma Barnett has conducted a series of interviews with figures in this 'debate' on Woman's Hour, most recently Maya Forstater and Stock a few weeks ago. Barnett is pretty good at picking away at inconvenient truths for all the interviewees, particularly since I suspect her sympathies tend to be more in one direction.
I listened to the Stock interview while driving on the M8 and may have missed some of the nuance because I was duelling with an arsehole in a white van trying to undertake me, but the gist of it seemed to be that gender self identification was a 'fiction' compared to the necessary and immutable truth of sex, and people who had their feelings hurt by this were snowflakes (I paraphrase). Otoh Barnett pointed out to her that she had left her employer by choice and said university had made statements supporting her, Stock said she had 'felt' unsupported and under threat. Apparently some feelings are more important than others.
I'd say that a lot of the players in this (on both sides) have got high on their own supply of unfamiliar attention, and find it difficult to take that much offered piece of advice to step away from the keyboard.
Nah rubbish. Those arguing for the biological basis for sex are not threatening the transgender community. Indeed many of them are people who have stood solidly behind minorities in that past and continue to do so. They are in no way being abusive towards the transgender community, they are simply putting forward a rational argument on a specific detail. They are certainly not trying to deprive them of a living or drive them out of their jobs.
Those attacking Stock for her views are doing all these things up to and including the threat of physical violence. To the extent that the police warned her to stay away from the University campus and advised her to get bodyguards.
Equating the two as you try to do is dishonest in the extreme.
"Those arguing for the biological basis for sex are not threatening the transgender community."
Depends - as so often - on tone and context.
Take the much profiled "Only women have a cervix".
If you're sat around just generally chewing the fat about body parts and biology - as per any normal Saturday - there is nothing wrong whatsoever with this statement. Because it's true. Or rather it's as close to being true as makes no difference. It's fine and dandy and most certainly not transphobic.
But it isn't *completely* true because there are many thousands of people - and that's just in the UK - who were born female but have transitioned to male. They have a certificate to prove this. They are therefore men. Legally they are. This is a fact. As much of a fact as that they were born female.
Now back to our (usually fine and dandy) statement that "Only women have a cervix" - if you come bowling in with this as a certain and perfect 100% fact in the context of the transgender debate what you are saying (deliberately) is that all those people referred to above, despite having gone through the F to M gender transition process and become men are actually NOT men. They are women. Because they have a cervix. Biology is destiny.
So the 'cervix' statement when delivered in this tone and context looks rather different, doesn't it? It's now nullifying the identity of trans people and effectively saying the whole notion of gender transition is a pretendy nonsense. And this IS transphobic. Or at least it very likely is.
We're on the brink of World War 3, and we're still discussing whether or not women can have penises.
I suspect these two things are more linked than you might think. In terms of Maslow's pyramid of important stuff going on, this one is about as far removed from the basic necessities of life (food, security, a roof over your head) as you can get. The sort of thing you only really debate when absolutely everything else is settled.
However, in focusing on things like the trans issue, we have forgotten to focus on the important things. Food, security, a roof over our heads. All of which may be gone very soon. Truly fiddling while Rome burns.
Wanting to be safe from violence is a pretty basic need. Women wanting to be safe from male violence is a pretty essential need for women. Changing definitions so that women are less safe is pretty bloody important. It comes under "security" in your hierarchy of needs.
I'm not saying its impossible, the Russian Moral compass is so defective right now anything is believable.
I think this is highly unlikely, shooting injured people would be devastating to the moral and any commander know that. It would seriously open you up to legal ramifications after the war, maybe not form the Hage, but frim your own side if they where looking for ScapeGoats, to blame for not being very good.
@jk_rowling Now @Keir_Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.
I think this is going to be a problem for Starmer at the election.
I think it will be. He shouldn't mouth slogans.
If he gets confronted by it it could, but he might get lucky. My sense is most people are super fussed and wish to just express support around trans issues, and the problems occur when people with actually very radical and uncompromising opinions on it develop and push slogans which politicians will try to push thinking it all simple and benign, when there are actually some more complex aspects, and it piss another minority opinion off. And the public will be inclined to the side which seems to talk common sense at that point, baffled by the more radical ideas.
Comments
"After the Nimitz investigation, the sailor and two Marines were sent to a Utah property known as Skinwalker Ranch, where Bigelow, the owner, had funded his own private research of UFO and paranormal activity over the previous decade....
The three active-duty service members, whose identities have been concealed by the researchers and the Defense Department, allegedly witnessed a black void on the land that filled them with fear. Lacatski and Kelleher claim the men experienced paranormal activity after leaving the ranch and returning to homes in the Washington, D.C., area, such as orbs, dark figures in bedrooms at night, and strange noises.
The wife and two teen children of the sailor who investigated the Nimitz incident claimed to have seen a wolf-like creature that walked on two hind legs staring into their Virginia home on two occasions."
This is a serious US defence-oriented website kind-of referencing WEREWOLVES
lol
And it is serious:
"There are too many things that are unexplained that we just need an explanation for," said Emily Harding, the deputy director and senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Harding was the deputy staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee as it worked on the issue. She said Rubio took the lead and was able to approach it with an open mind. The reports from pilots and military personnel raised serious security issues -- and highlighted a real lack of data that made any conclusions about the incidents impossible."
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/03/07/how-believers-paranormal-birthed-pentagons-new-hunt-ufos.html
We still have that dilemma. Either sections of the US military/political elite have gone mad, or *something* is out there
Look at the New Statesman's map. The constituencies in Wales have not been redrawn.
There won't be 4 Plaid Cymru seats after the boundary changes.
All the parties in Wales will lose seats as the total is down by eight.
What did it say?
As I said at the time, this is a new formula, with quite strictly limited spending; there’s no good reason to think Merc are better than evens favourites.
In any event, I have laid on Betfair, and hope to trade out at a good profit.
Consider, for example, a Toyota Prius (or any other hybrid). It has two systems of propulsion, electric motors and an internal combustion engine. If you are increase the size of the first, and eliminate the second, you reduce the number of parts, which should cut costs and increase reliability. And, I would think, make it possible to automate even more of the production lines.
Making an all-electric car cheaper would, as I understand it, require a reduction in battery prices, but I don't see any reason that can't happen, within the next 5 or 10 years.
Note please, that I said, "make possible". There will always be some people attracted to certain automobiles because they are expensive, but I think there are still many people who are looking for reliable bargain transportation, people who would be attracted to a simple, all-electric car, because it was less expensive.
So, am I missing anything in this very simple analysis?
Or is that us? 👍
It's this guy, Vladimir Solovyov "a Russian journalist, television presenter, writer and propagandist. He is best known for his anti-Ukrainian statements."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Solovyov_(journalist)
Alex Kokcharov
@AlexKokcharov
In #Russia, one of the top Kremlin propagandists Solovyov says during his talk show: “With the sanctions like these, why should we stop at the borders of #Ukraine?”
Translation: Kremlin propaganda is promoting invasion of NATO member states.
https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1502609663476514822
The difference this time is that the "madness" has reached as far as the Senate, passing laws
Already some claim that the Total Cost of Ownership of an electric car is less than an iCE vehicle. Most of this analysis I've seen is based on US costs. I would expect the UK would be more favourable to electric cars except perhaps the purchasing incentives.
I think 5 to 10 years is pessimistic.
And then there are other technologies...
Record holders Focus win the first…but High Flyers make it even
It goes to the decider….Focus win!
Batteries are set to get a lot cheaper as the new factories get built. On existing tech electric vehicles ought to be cheaper to build within five years, and likely much cheaper within ten.
And of course China already has an ultra cheap car, albeit with limited size and range, which is the best selling model in the Chinese market.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56178802
The Red Bull looks planted - and is a second quicker.
Aces looking good in the warm up.
First round goes to Aces, Komandos drop the ball
And Aces take the second after another fault by Komandos
So it’s an Aces V Focus final tomorrow!
Those considerations make it harder than you'd think, especially as the batteries can weigh about half a tonne.
Back in ~2001 I had a phone that was able to use AAA batteries as an emergency backup for when the normal battery was flat, and I suppose you might be able to have something like that - the battery equivalent of a jerrycan of fuel - where you could have a battery pack that weighed a few kilos and would give you enough power to reach the nearest charging point.
Battery charging is being better and better (and faster and faster). The first Tesla superchargers could add four miles of range per minute. The latest great chargers can add 15. If we get to 30, then - sure - its slower than pumping gas... But it's only something you'd do on road trips, and is 10-15 minutes to full that big a deal?
I think there are third party battery leasing services available, however.
In addition, many electric car designs (including Tesla) use the battery partly as structure - replacing the battery is possible, but you have to bolt the car to a special jig first. Big workshop job.
Various battery swap scheme has been looked at, but the increases in the size of batteries and the increases in charging speed seem to have killed them off, mostly.
It might be viable for a standardised small form battery and electric scooters/motorbikes, though.
Now it’s Lightning Strikes, three collies and a crossbreed, versus the Belgian team, Road Runners - reigning European champions and the first non-UK team to reach Crufts Flyball.
A fault by the Runners, then by the Strikes, the Strikes given the first round.
And the Runners take the second with a brilliant run - a new course record at 14.95 seconds!
Now the decider - and the Belgian Roadrunners take it - another course record - 14.84 seconds! (European record is 14.53)
There’s a wider circle of politicians and the like who are clueless but perplexed, and hedging their bets
This confusion has been weaponised by others to freak out the Chinese, who must be staring at this and thinking “does the US have amazing technology and this is a hint?”
At the same time there might be countervailing forces who want this info suppressed. Either because the US DOES have the tech but wants it kept secret, or because they are scared that if the public does discover we are being visited by inexplicable forces, society might break down entirely
Complicated. But I think that explains what we see. Probably
https://twitter.com/kw_danielv/status/1502674112975618054
Intelligence: Kadyrov’s men shot 12 wounded Russian soldiers instead of evacuating them to Belarus
Aces given the first, after Focus’s dog goes to the wrong side. That dog gets substituted. Focus, from Selby, make it even. Focus take the decider.
Now the Magnets v the Belgian Roadrunners
And the Runners crush the first round.
And they take the second round and win 2:0
So now Saturday’s big one - Focus v the Runners
Both side have faults, the fifth dogs get sent in, looks like Focus win the first round
And the Belgians drop the ball!! Focus win 2:0, the reigning champions win the Saturday competition.
Suspense building for tomorrow’s final
According to information from the Ukrainian Chief Intelligence Directorate, President Vladimir Putin and Minister of Defence Sergei Shoygu are the last Russian statesmen left who support the war.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/03/12/7330718/
I'm not sure any of that tech is as cool as Elon Musk's though.
There is a very strong connection between psychedelics and therianthropes, incl werewolves, dating back to prehistoric cave art in Europe/S Africa
Including using the internet-in-all-but-name to research and discover the next world disaster.... a disease outbreak....
It could be one reason that no matter how evil he has been so far or the sabre rattling he’s made, Putin has done nothing that might draw NATO into the conflict.
What was the line in the Goode Olde Days of the Cold War...
"There is no Izvestia in Pravda and no Pravda in Izvestia" ?
Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
·
2h
Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a new warning to Sweden and Finland about joining NATO.
It said membership would have serious military and political consequences, including retaliation.
Swedish MEP
@weimers
says every new threat brings Sweden one step closer to membership.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1502647001510551553
❗️Russia’s stock market will be closed for the whole of next week, Central Bank announces. That’s until at least March 21. Shares last traded on Feb. 25.
https://twitter.com/JakeCordell/status/1502681986007281664
Suppose I may as well switch off and now the lawn instead.
I'm sure it's all a coincidence.
I can focus on the cricket and Man Utd v Spurs instead now.
Dirty England..
Grim, and pace @TOPPING , gives some convincing detail on how the war went at the start.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-the-rubble-of-ukraines-second-largest-city-survivors-make-their-stand-nobody-wants-the-russians-11647013623
A link here which avoids the paywall.
https://twitter.com/jessicasunja/status/1502342507241299975
@jk_rowling
Now
@Keir_Starmer
publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.
I think this is going to be a problem for Starmer at the election.
NEXTA
@nexta_tv
One of the #Russian bloggers cries that in two days her Instagram will stop working
She does not care at all about the thousands of dead people, including her compatriots. Obviously, her biggest worry right now is that she won't be able to post pictures of food from restaurants.
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1502433817465864198
Population density - London 5,701/km2
* I recall reading this was where a lot of immigrants end up, but in any event I suspect most places in Sweden have lower density
Your average Russian's pension pot might buy a bottle of vodka to drown your sorrows.
And I'd agree that the stance that a man can become a woman simply by declaring that he one IS damaging to women.
But that seems an almost incidental one to the more significant objection that such a stance is absolutely insane.
But vague recollections can be wrong. No expert here.
Note, with such limited testing, you simply do not do something like this to hide a car’s performance. They just haven’t got it working yet.
http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/821438/Russell_Mercedes_behind_Red_Bull_and_Ferrari_8216in_every_condition/
… “It’s definitely bouncing around from within, it’s not the comfiest in all honesty, but I don’t really care about comfort if the performance is there,” Russell said about the W13’s porpoising during testing.
“But at the moment the performance isn’t there, we do seem a step behind our rivals, and we do have a lot of work to do between now and next week to understand [it], because in every condition the Red Bull and Ferrari seem a step ahead of us.”
Russell suggested that neither Red Bull or Ferrari were “exceptional” but that Mercedes is “probably not as competitive as we’d like.
“It’s pretty clear where we’re limited, you’ve only got to watch the videos and you see us bouncing a lot, it’s not putting the car in the right window,” he said.
“The team are working incredibly hard to try and find solutions for this, we’ve yet to find one, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to find one ahead of next week or later in the season..
My Mercedes lay is a trading bet, and I’m very happy with it for now.
It accepts that the absurd conclusion of the Scottish legislation could be that legislation requiring public bodies to have boards with gender equality could be met if half of the members were men and the other half were men self identifying as women and that this would be a breach of the Equality Act.
This is a difficult issue but the right to respect and dignity which those who are transgender undoubtedly have really cannot be at the cost of the rights that women have won after an immense struggle. Whilst I respect and understand the empathy that SKS is showing to those who are transgender I think he is wrong about this.
I’ve got a winning accumulator bet on the footie which is now down to the last leg.
ManU.
My question boils down to - Are ManU value at 2.4? At those odds, are they a back or a lay?
I’m tempted to cashout, even though I’m loathe to pay the overround.
Dilemma.
I wish @isam was still around….
This season is different - new rules; much more level playing field.
Had you done the same you could cash out for a 10%profit now.
I think this is highly unlikely, shooting injured people would be devastating to the moral and any commander know that. It would seriously open you up to legal ramifications after the war, maybe not form the Hage, but frim your own side if they where looking for ScapeGoats, to blame for not being very good.