Turkey farms have been hit by an outbreak of bird flu just days before Christmas.
Tens of thousands of turkeys have been culled because of a flare-up, The Telegraph understands.
Telegraph
Bird flu has been spreading through Norfolk for a good few weeks now. We are getting notices on a regular basis from APHA and they seem to be getting more frequent.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
Just like the Neil Hamilton-Al Fayed court case.
Sheff Utd vs Boro
I’m flattered you care enough to despise me. That takes energy. I confess I don’t care or think about you one way or another
Most people on here - to me - are like passing clouds. I’m never gonna meet them. They come and they go. Occasionally I enjoy shouting at them, as old men should
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
Just like the Neil Hamilton-Al Fayed court case.
Sheff Utd vs Boro
I’m flattered you care enough to despise me. That takes energy. I confess I don’t care or think about you one way or another
Most people on here - to me - are like passing clouds. I’m never gonna meet them. They come and they go. Occasionally I enjoy shouting at them, as old men should
How soon you forget those halcyon days where you, I and @Mexicanpete sat by Newent Lake putting the world to rights and throwing the crumbs from our sandwiches to the ducks while the spire of St Mary’s watched over us and the fountains played a gentle soothing rhythm to accompany our musings.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
Who's HYUFD's friend? Didn't realise there would be two of them!
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
On both sites, you tend to find what you're looking for (though it can take some effort). On that basis, Leon's right wing mates finding the worst aspects of Bluesky is hardly surprising.
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2024 was a tough one for me and my family, made worse by the decisions made by the new government. I see no prospect of my things impoving in 2025 and am preparing for them to be much worse.
I'm somewhere in between you and Foxy, though tending in your direction.
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
From the Saudi government's perspective, he may have been a fugitive from justice. From his perspective, he could have been a victim of persecution. Either might be correct.
But given the Jamal Khashoggi case, I wouldn't automatically trust Saudi Arabia on this.
Looks legit to me. 250,000 followers, a “Saudi political commentator” and appears on BBC, CNN, France24
Also he’s the first person to actually explain how a “refugee doctor” who “hates Islam” ends up mowing down German kids at a Christmas market
Could be wrong but his thesis is plausible. The anti-Islam stuff was a pose to hide basic criminality and prevent him being deported back to Saudi for his rape charges etc
He does seem to be a Saudi facing charges who fled to Germany rather than ISIS linked. However whether this atrocity could boost the AfD further ahead of the German election next year, the biggest in the western world followed by the Canadian and Australian elections. Already the AfD are ahead of the SPD and second to the CDU/CSU in most polls
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2024 was a tough one for me and my family, made worse by the decisions made by the new government. I see no prospect of my things impoving in 2025 and am preparing for them to be much worse.
Sorry to hear that Richard. Hope you are wrong and 2025 turns out well for you.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2024 was a tough one for me and my family, made worse by the decisions made by the new government. I see no prospect of my things impoving in 2025 and am preparing for them to be much worse.
Sorry to hear that Richard. Hope you are wrong and 2025 turns out well for you.
I’ll add to that. Hope things get better for you @Richard_Tyndall
I may regard the average PBer as a passing cloud but I’m still fond of the sky, and I dearly like PB as a collective - the pub - so happy Christmas PB and God bless us, one and all
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
Really struggling to find a photo/link to the news article. It was two rows of innocuous flimsy cardboard boxes on Waverley Bridge - a look inside found a mini version of a WWII "Czech Hedgehog" with extremely sharp edges. If you'd tripped and fallen into it...
I think the anti-terror stuff should be part of the process of making our city and town centres much safer for people to wander about in. Not just for Christmas markets and similar events, but a permanent feature that protects a much wider area rather than just a particular street or square.
What's the point of all these barriers? Sure, it's hard to mow down people in the market but remains easy enough to kill them on their way to or from. Aside from a few high propaganda value targets, such as Parliament or the American embassy, is it just displacement activity?
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
No, we take the Scotch semi seriously. Hence
Of course all army regiments and tanks in the UK belong to the King's UK government anyway, defence has never been devolved.
The SNP have no interest either in pushing had for indyref2 now, are on course to lose MSPs in 2026 and the most hardline nats and republic pushing Scots are now in the Greens or Alba
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
No, we take the Scotch semi seriously. Hence
Of course all army regiments and tanks in the UK belong to the King's UK government anyway, defence has never been devolved.
The SNP have no interest either in pushing had for indyref2 now, are on course to lose MSPs in 2026 and the most hardline nats and republic pushing Scots are now in the Greens or Alba
Hmmm.
I won’t be betting on that just yet.
Swinney is no Salmond, but there’s much water to flow under the bridge before then and not altogether to the advantage of Labour.
Edit - wtf autocorrect making ‘much’ into ‘my CV’ and ‘Swinney’ into ‘a winner’ twice?
Surely you could just mount the pavement to get around those?
Yes. Many of these schemes appear to have been done on the basis of
- We must do something - This is something - Therefore we must do this
See wheelchair ramps that are a foot wide and at an angle of about 45 degrees.
Actual thought and domain knowledge is absent. See one of our correspondents, who posts pictures of insane attempts at stopping motorbikes using footpaths.
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
You really don’t understand me, but it’s fine
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
Anyway I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a difficult year; you’re clearly not alone. Hope things improve, old boy
I’ve just applied for the third time for a visa to Myanmar
I went to Burma about ten years ago. Some random memories if you're interested:
- the huge British government building, well, complex, really, in a very pompous neoclassical style in the centre of Rangoon, taking up a couple of city blocks and totally derelict - the anglophile owner of a burger place in Bagan, which he had called Wetherspoon's. Though ethnically Burmese he spoke fluent English with a strong Cockney accent - the dirtiness of the sleeping compartments in the British-built trains that went about 15 miles an hour on average - the weirdness of reading Burmese Days during the trip, comparing the absent-minded and moderately benevolent despotism of the Empire to the current savage and brutal totalitarian dictatorship and wondering if those who promote decolonisation know what they're talking about - the weird Shwedagon temple complex in central Rangoon and the bizarre hoops you have to go through to visit it.
I’ve just applied for the third time for a visa to Myanmar
I went to Burma about ten years ago. Some random memories if you're interested:
- the huge British government building, well, complex, really, in a very pompous neoclassical style in the centre of Rangoon, taking up a couple of city blocks and totally derelict - the anglophile owner of a burger place in Bagan, which he had called Wetherspoon's. Though ethnically Burmese he spoke fluent English with a strong Cockney accent - the dirtiness of the sleeping compartments in the British-built trains that went about 15 miles an hour on average - the weirdness of reading Burmese Days during the trip, comparing the absent-minded and moderately benevolent despotism of the Empire to the current savage and brutal totalitarian dictatorship and wondering if those who promote decolonisation know what they're talking about - the weird Shwedagon temple complex in central Rangoon and the bizarre hoops you have to go through to visit it.
Oooh. Ta. I’m so keen to go
I’ve noticed that really nice 5 star hotels in Yangon are about £40 a night. The advantages of civil war. Plus I love troubled places. They’re not boring
What’s the food like? I’ve heard all opinions from “terrible” to “brilliant”
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
But… but… what if they armoured a mobility chair and fitted it with rocket launchers and a machine gun?
Is that tank from Epping and getting ready to head North to deal with pesky Republican Scots?
No, we take the Scotch semi seriously. Hence
Of course all army regiments and tanks in the UK belong to the King's UK government anyway, defence has never been devolved.
The SNP have no interest either in pushing had for indyref2 now, are on course to lose MSPs in 2026 and the most hardline nats and republic pushing Scots are now in the Greens or Alba
Hmmm.
I won’t be betting on that just yet.
Swinney is no Salmond, but there’s my CV water to flow under the bridge before then and not altogether to the advantage of Labour.
He isn't, hence hardline nats like those on Wings despise Swinney for not pushing independence enough and Salmond loyalists booed him when he turned up for their hero's funeral (to be fair too even Salmond had a soft spot for the late Queen, republicanism has never really driven the SNP as much as the Scottish Greens).
On the latest Holyrood polls there will be a swing from the SNP to Labour, the LDs and Greens and Alba in 2026 and from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform, making a very hung Scottish Parliament. The SNP will still be first but well short of a first and down on 2021, Labour will be second and the Tories will fall to 3rd with Reform snapping at their heels even in Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_Scottish_Parliament_election
There are voices last evening arguing for drastic action to be taken against “radical Islam” but the usual lack of coherence over what form this would take.
Are we advocating banning burqas and nijabs or do we go further? Do we close mosques and madrassas? There was also a reference or two to “forced assimilation”.
Those who clearly see a lot of the current societal problems stemming from Islam need to explain what their version of resolving these problems looks like. Instead of constantly berating “liberals” and “centrist dads”, come out and tell us what you want or what you think Reform should be advocating.
I explicitly said last night What we should do
Copy the Danish Social Democrats
Now this why you shouldn't be able to hide your posts. So that people can check if that is true. If I say I said something people can check if it is true quickly without having to use search tools. To be honest I can't be bothered to check because I don't care, but after yesterday it is not unreasonable for people arguing with you to check if true which they now can do.
I can recall Leon advocating for the Danish Social Democrat policy - or at least what he understands it to be from reading about it on twitter - not just yesterday evening, but on other previous occasions too.
Yep I agree, but this is not the point I am making. You obviously weren't around for the discussion on Public and Private mode on PB and I am reluctant to go down that rabbit hole again. My post was not about Danish Social Democrat policy whatsoever, but the ability to review someone's past comments on any topic here. The only relevance of the Danish Social Democrat policy was to my post was this was the thing he referred to. If he had referred to commenting upon 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday that would have been what I would have mentioned. Just ignore 'Danish Social Democrat policy'. That is not the subject of the point I am making. Pretend he said ' I posted about 'Bugs Bunny' yesterday.
I'm guessing that unless you read yesterday's discussion what I have just posted will (appear to) be gibberish.
I skimmed over the discussion yesterday. I think your position is weird. You care enough that you want to fact-check what pseudonymous people say they said yesterday, but you don't care enough to look at the threads yesterday to check what they said?
If you care enough you'll have a spreadsheet with quotes and hyperlinks anyway. For a prayer who posts as often as Leon, simply being able to go back a page at a time through their comments doesn't help reduce the burden of effort all that much, for someone who doesn't care that much about it.
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2024 was a tough one for me and my family, made worse by the decisions made by the new government. I see no prospect of my things impoving in 2025 and am preparing for them to be much worse.
Sorry to hear that Richard. Hope you are wrong and 2025 turns out well for you.
Cheers sir. I am generally of the optimistic bent so with a bit of luck we will survive. For reference my main concern this coming year will be being able to pay the mortgage. If I get to the end of 2025 and have managed that then I will consider it a win.
Surely you could just mount the pavement to get around those?
Yes. Many of these schemes appear to have been done on the basis of
- We must do something - This is something - Therefore we must do this
See wheelchair ramps that are a foot wide and at an angle of about 45 degrees.
Actual thought and domain knowledge is absent. See one of our correspondents, who posts pictures of insane attempts at stopping motorbikes using footpaths.
You’re all failing to consider the landmines you can’t see.
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2024 was a tough one for me and my family, made worse by the decisions made by the new government. I see no prospect of my things impoving in 2025 and am preparing for them to be much worse.
Sorry to hear that Richard. Hope you are wrong and 2025 turns out well for you.
I’ll add to that. Hope things get better for you @Richard_Tyndall
I may regard the average PBer as a passing cloud but I’m still fond of the sky, and I dearly like PB as a collective - the pub - so happy Christmas PB and God bless us, one and all
And to you sir. I genunely enjoy your reports from far off places so looking forward to more in the coming year.
2024 was a year where, once again, our political class failed to get close to addressing our substantial economic problems, indeed they aggravated them in an exceptionally poor budget after the election gave a chance of a fresh start.
I fear that in 2025 we will pay more of the consequences of this ineptitude with a modest recession, rising unemployment and virtually no growth at all. Sooner or later there is going to have to be a reset and it’s not going to be pleasant. We might keep things staggering on until 2026 unless Trump causes a crisis sooner than expected.
I’d be interested in what you consider a “reset” and what such a thing looks like. The fundamental problem remains we want European or even Scandinavian level public services on American levels of taxation.
Fifty years of propaganda telling us how lower personal taxation will be our economic salvation have got us the sum total of nowhere. Reeves would have been more economically honest had she raised basic rate tax to 25p and higher rate to 50p.
Even now, we hear on a regular basis about the “evils” of public spending and how we can fire anywhere between 50-90% of civil servants with no consequences. I’m not disputing there isn’t waste in the public sector but there’s no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
Musk fired 90% of the staff at X. Everyone said “it will implode”. Seems fine
On October 28, 2022, when Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter, the platform had approximately 257.8 million daily active users[1]
As of July 2024, X (formerly known as Twitter) has approximately 245 million daily active users[1] worldwide.
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
2024 was a year where, once again, our political class failed to get close to addressing our substantial economic problems, indeed they aggravated them in an exceptionally poor budget after the election gave a chance of a fresh start.
I fear that in 2025 we will pay more of the consequences of this ineptitude with a modest recession, rising unemployment and virtually no growth at all. Sooner or later there is going to have to be a reset and it’s not going to be pleasant. We might keep things staggering on until 2026 unless Trump causes a crisis sooner than expected.
I’d be interested in what you consider a “reset” and what such a thing looks like. The fundamental problem remains we want European or even Scandinavian level public services on American levels of taxation.
Fifty years of propaganda telling us how lower personal taxation will be our economic salvation have got us the sum total of nowhere. Reeves would have been more economically honest had she raised basic rate tax to 25p and higher rate to 50p.
Even now, we hear on a regular basis about the “evils” of public spending and how we can fire anywhere between 50-90% of civil servants with no consequences. I’m not disputing there isn’t waste in the public sector but there’s no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
Musk fired 90% of the staff at X. Everyone said “it will implode”. Seems fine
On October 28, 2022, when Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter, the platform had approximately 257.8 million daily active users[1]
As of July 2024, X (formerly known as Twitter) has approximately 245 million daily active users[1] worldwide.
Surely you could just mount the pavement to get around those?
Yes. Many of these schemes appear to have been done on the basis of
- We must do something - This is something - Therefore we must do this
See wheelchair ramps that are a foot wide and at an angle of about 45 degrees.
Actual thought and domain knowledge is absent. See one of our correspondents, who posts pictures of insane attempts at stopping motorbikes using footpaths.
I drove, or tried to drive, my electric scooter into a local mini-market the other day. The door was too awkward to open without assistance, the aisles were only JUST wide enough, except for one, which had a roof support in the middle of it, and the turning space at the end of the aisles meant I needed three goes to get my small scooter round. After all that they hadn't got what I wanted and I had lot of difficulty getting out.
That's the LAST time I go in there! Trouble is, it's also the Post Office!
2024 was a year where, once again, our political class failed to get close to addressing our substantial economic problems, indeed they aggravated them in an exceptionally poor budget after the election gave a chance of a fresh start.
I fear that in 2025 we will pay more of the consequences of this ineptitude with a modest recession, rising unemployment and virtually no growth at all. Sooner or later there is going to have to be a reset and it’s not going to be pleasant. We might keep things staggering on until 2026 unless Trump causes a crisis sooner than expected.
I’d be interested in what you consider a “reset” and what such a thing looks like. The fundamental problem remains we want European or even Scandinavian level public services on American levels of taxation.
Fifty years of propaganda telling us how lower personal taxation will be our economic salvation have got us the sum total of nowhere. Reeves would have been more economically honest had she raised basic rate tax to 25p and higher rate to 50p.
Even now, we hear on a regular basis about the “evils” of public spending and how we can fire anywhere between 50-90% of civil servants with no consequences. I’m not disputing there isn’t waste in the public sector but there’s no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
Musk fired 90% of the staff at X. Everyone said “it will implode”. Seems fine
On October 28, 2022, when Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter, the platform had approximately 257.8 million daily active users[1]
As of July 2024, X (formerly known as Twitter) has approximately 245 million daily active users[1] worldwide.
In short, it hasn't collapsed, but it has retrenched and no longer makes the rapid growth it did in its earlier years.
Some left liberals had left for bluesky yes as X is not echo chamber enough for them now with too many rightwingers arguing with them on the platform but the majority have remained.
Musk is also worth over $400 billion and can subsidise X indefinitely as a pet project, so it never needs to make a profit really, he can carry its losses
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
You really don’t understand me, but it’s fine
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
(Snip)
The problem with that is that PB is not a closed room amongst friends. It is a bunch of us sitting in the middle of Trafalgar Square, where anyone can listen in to what we are saying. And what you are saying can affect other people.
Words have consequences. Especially words said in public.
I'm astonished at so much optimism. Glad to hear it, I suppose, but where does it come from? In my experience the green shoots of improvement in any field need to be quite high before people generally recognise they are there. And so many people are struggling terribly with life. Is it perhaps a feeling that things can't possibly get any worse?
I had a good 2024 personally, professionally and financially, and I think that nationally the pessimism is way overdone. Ditching the failed Tories was a major plus.
I think 2025 will be pretty good too, both for me and for the country. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.
2024 was a tough one for me and my family, made worse by the decisions made by the new government. I see no prospect of my things impoving in 2025 and am preparing for them to be much worse.
Sorry to hear that Richard. Hope you are wrong and 2025 turns out well for you.
Cheers sir. I am generally of the optimistic bent so with a bit of luck we will survive. For reference my main concern this coming year will be being able to pay the mortgage. If I get to the end of 2025 and have managed that then I will consider it a win.
I do volunteer office work for a charity that, among other things, provides food parcels. The rise in applicants has been inexorable this year. In my own wider family there is poverty. I often wonder how people manage who haven't anyone to turn to for help.
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
You really don’t understand me, but it’s fine
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
(Snip)
The problem with that is that PB is not a closed room amongst friends. It is a bunch of us sitting in the middle of Trafalgar Square, where anyone can listen in to what we are saying. And what you are saying can affect other people.
Words have consequences. Especially words said in public.
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I’ve just applied for the third time for a visa to Myanmar
I went to Burma about ten years ago. Some random memories if you're interested:
- the huge British government building, well, complex, really, in a very pompous neoclassical style in the centre of Rangoon, taking up a couple of city blocks and totally derelict - the anglophile owner of a burger place in Bagan, which he had called Wetherspoon's. Though ethnically Burmese he spoke fluent English with a strong Cockney accent - the dirtiness of the sleeping compartments in the British-built trains that went about 15 miles an hour on average - the weirdness of reading Burmese Days during the trip, comparing the absent-minded and moderately benevolent despotism of the Empire to the current savage and brutal totalitarian dictatorship and wondering if those who promote decolonisation know what they're talking about - the weird Shwedagon temple complex in central Rangoon and the bizarre hoops you have to go through to visit it.
Oooh. Ta. I’m so keen to go
I’ve noticed that really nice 5 star hotels in Yangon are about £40 a night. The advantages of civil war. Plus I love troubled places. They’re not boring
What’s the food like? I’ve heard all opinions from “terrible” to “brilliant”
Pretty standard south-east Asian I thought. Very closely related to Thai, but obviously different names for everything. But basically your standard rice/noodles with spiced meat and/or vegetables. Monotonous after a while but outstandingly cheap.
That burger place was great though. Probably not still in business but the burgers were good and broke the monotony of the rest of the food.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
I hear you. 2021 was the worst year of my life, by a distance. The only advantage of a truly dire year is that it makes averagely bad years feel ok. eg 2023 was quite crap but I shrugged it off
2024 has actually been very pleasant. Lots of fascinating travel
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
You really don’t understand me, but it’s fine
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
(Snip)
The problem with that is that PB is not a closed room amongst friends. It is a bunch of us sitting in the middle of Trafalgar Square, where anyone can listen in to what we are saying. And what you are saying can affect other people.
Words have consequences. Especially words said in public.
Merry Christmas 🕺🍾
And to you.
(And in the Christmas spirit, I've left a smiley off the post.)
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
It has its flaws, but I find Musk-era Twitter to be far worse.
There are a few gently thoughtful, literate types on BlueSky, and quite a few good amateur nature and space photographers, alongside the over-sure students.
Nah, Bluesky is fucking creepy. I bet everyone on it turns out to be kiddie fiddlers. That’s the vibe
I wonder how you know the 'vibe' that kiddie fiddlers give off?
Chatting to you on here
I appreciate he baits you, as he does others, but that really is needless. You’re better than that.
It's a bit unsettling when two posters I utterly despise go at each other. I want them both to lose and will, inevitably, be disappointed in some degree.
Just like the Neil Hamilton-Al Fayed court case.
Sheff Utd vs Boro
I’m flattered you care enough to despise me. That takes energy. I confess I don’t care or think about you one way or another
Most people on here - to me - are like passing clouds. I’m never gonna meet them. They come and they go. Occasionally I enjoy shouting at them, as old men should
How soon you forget those halcyon days where you, I and @Mexicanpete sat by Newent Lake putting the world to rights and throwing the crumbs from our sandwiches to the ducks while the spire of St Mary’s watched over us and the fountains played a gentle soothing rhythm to accompany our musings.
...and that little f*****' horse, Valegro wouldn't stop whining, or was that Leon?
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Or potentially a Saudi Government asset using a cover to keep tabs on dissidents. I doubt we'll ever know the full story.
For me, 2024 began with bags of work from two regulars then collapsed to practically nothing thanks to tech changes (both rising AI and backroom Google things). Hoping 2025 is the reverse.
Btw, second episode of the podcast will hopefully be up tomorrow, looking at the midfield teams, particularly the battle for sixth.
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
You really don’t understand me, but it’s fine
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
(Snip)
The problem with that is that PB is not a closed room amongst friends. It is a bunch of us sitting in the middle of Trafalgar Square, where anyone can listen in to what we are saying. And what you are saying can affect other people.
Words have consequences. Especially words said in public.
Merry Christmas 🕺🍾
And to you.
(And in the Christmas spirit, I've left a smiley off the post.)
🥂
We have many ding-dongs but I don’t actually dislike you, I hope that’s clear! I just like arguments. I feel genial towards all PBers, in the main. As I have said
So have a good one and let us continue sparring in ‘25
I’ve just applied for the third time for a visa to Myanmar
I went to Burma about ten years ago. Some random memories if you're interested:
- the huge British government building, well, complex, really, in a very pompous neoclassical style in the centre of Rangoon, taking up a couple of city blocks and totally derelict - the anglophile owner of a burger place in Bagan, which he had called Wetherspoon's. Though ethnically Burmese he spoke fluent English with a strong Cockney accent - the dirtiness of the sleeping compartments in the British-built trains that went about 15 miles an hour on average - the weirdness of reading Burmese Days during the trip, comparing the absent-minded and moderately benevolent despotism of the Empire to the current savage and brutal totalitarian dictatorship and wondering if those who promote decolonisation know what they're talking about - the weird Shwedagon temple complex in central Rangoon and the bizarre hoops you have to go through to visit it.
Oooh. Ta. I’m so keen to go
I’ve noticed that really nice 5 star hotels in Yangon are about £40 a night. The advantages of civil war. Plus I love troubled places. They’re not boring
What’s the food like? I’ve heard all opinions from “terrible” to “brilliant”
Pretty standard south-east Asian I thought. Very closely related to Thai, but obviously different names for everything. But basically your standard rice/noodles with spiced meat and/or vegetables. Monotonous after a while but outstandingly cheap.
That burger place was great though. Probably not still in business but the burgers were good and broke the monotony of the rest of the food.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
The thought had occurred to me too. If a guy says he's no longer a follower of the toothbush moustache man and then blows up a synagogue, I might be included to believe he was fibbing about being an ex-political fundamentalist.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
Given the very high bar for a rape charge in these countries he was definitely facing the death penalty there had he not secured asylum status in Germany.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
I can't see the AfD winning in February, however they should get enough seats to prevent either a CDU and FDP or Green government and an SDP and Green government winning enough seats for a majority. So most likely we will end up with a resumption of a CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government after a brief break which would longer term likely only boost the AfD and their populist right message further as they become the main alternative to the old establised centre left and centre right German parties.
The CDU will never do a deal with the AfD for government though and rightly so while they retain some who have had neo Nazi links
I’ve just applied for the third time for a visa to Myanmar
I went to Burma about ten years ago. Some random memories if you're interested:
- the huge British government building, well, complex, really, in a very pompous neoclassical style in the centre of Rangoon, taking up a couple of city blocks and totally derelict - the anglophile owner of a burger place in Bagan, which he had called Wetherspoon's. Though ethnically Burmese he spoke fluent English with a strong Cockney accent - the dirtiness of the sleeping compartments in the British-built trains that went about 15 miles an hour on average - the weirdness of reading Burmese Days during the trip, comparing the absent-minded and moderately benevolent despotism of the Empire to the current savage and brutal totalitarian dictatorship and wondering if those who promote decolonisation know what they're talking about - the weird Shwedagon temple complex in central Rangoon and the bizarre hoops you have to go through to visit it.
Oooh. Ta. I’m so keen to go
I’ve noticed that really nice 5 star hotels in Yangon are about £40 a night. The advantages of civil war. Plus I love troubled places. They’re not boring
What’s the food like? I’ve heard all opinions from “terrible” to “brilliant”
I would highly recommend you take brand new $100 bills with you to exchange money. We had a really tough time getting them to accept sterling and there's not many ATMs about.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
The thought had occurred to me too. If a guy says he's no longer a follower of the toothbush moustache man and then blows up a synagogue, I might be included to believe he was fibbing about being an ex-political fundamentalist.
Or it could be the other way, that he is a fanatical follower of AfD and wanted to create an anti-Islam panic in order to drive up the AfD vote in Feb
Maybe we should just wait and see what the investigation shows rather than jump to conclusions.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
Given the very high bar for a rape charge in these countries he was definitely facing the death penalty there had he not secured asylum status in Germany.
It’s a really strange, sad, distressing, angering case
The death toll has risen to 5. Given that “dozens” are critically injured including many little children, the toll could rise substantially
Maybe it’s time the Germans deported him to Riyadh and let Saudi justice do its work
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
In 2024 I lost three teeth and all of the health news is not good. I lost a much-loved aunty[1]. But nobody in the immediate nuclear family died (unlike 2023 when two had life-threatening illnesses), so there's that: count your blessings
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
You really don’t understand me, but it’s fine
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
Anyway I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a difficult year; you’re clearly not alone. Hope things improve, old boy
We'll see (I hope) after the eye op.
I presume your news is AI ? Some very interesting developments, certainly.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
Given the very high bar for a rape charge in these countries he was definitely facing the death penalty there had he not secured asylum status in Germany.
On the other hand 4 male witnesses are needed to get a conviction for rape, so likely to get off scot free.
He was 10 years working in Germany before applying for asylum, so doesn't seem like a scam application.
2024 was a year where, once again, our political class failed to get close to addressing our substantial economic problems, indeed they aggravated them in an exceptionally poor budget after the election gave a chance of a fresh start.
I fear that in 2025 we will pay more of the consequences of this ineptitude with a modest recession, rising unemployment and virtually no growth at all. Sooner or later there is going to have to be a reset and it’s not going to be pleasant. We might keep things staggering on until 2026 unless Trump causes a crisis sooner than expected.
I’d be interested in what you consider a “reset” and what such a thing looks like. The fundamental problem remains we want European or even Scandinavian level public services on American levels of taxation.
Fifty years of propaganda telling us how lower personal taxation will be our economic salvation have got us the sum total of nowhere. Reeves would have been more economically honest had she raised basic rate tax to 25p and higher rate to 50p.
Even now, we hear on a regular basis about the “evils” of public spending and how we can fire anywhere between 50-90% of civil servants with no consequences. I’m not disputing there isn’t waste in the public sector but there’s no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
Musk fired 90% of the staff at X. Everyone said “it will implode”. Seems fine
On October 28, 2022, when Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter, the platform had approximately 257.8 million daily active users[1]
As of July 2024, X (formerly known as Twitter) has approximately 245 million daily active users[1] worldwide.
In short, it hasn't collapsed, but it has retrenched and no longer makes the rapid growth it did in its earlier years.
Some left liberals had left for bluesky yes as X is not echo chamber enough for them now with too many rightwingers arguing with them on the platform but the majority have remained.
Musk is also worth over $400 billion and can subsidise X indefinitely as a pet project, so it never needs to make a profit really, he can carry its losses
Indeed. Particularly as he's used it to buy a position in Government and, given Trump's presumed mental dropoff, an increasingly important one.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
Yes. It looks like that’s exactly what happened
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
Given the very high bar for a rape charge in these countries he was definitely facing the death penalty there had he not secured asylum status in Germany.
On the other hand 4 male witnesses are needed to get a conviction for rape, so likely to get off scot free.
He was 10 years working in Germany before applying for asylum, so doesn't seem like a scam application.
Surely it does show it was a sham application in order to avoid extradition for rape charges? Why else would he need to claim asylum if he'd already been working for 10 years and likely had residency/indefinite leave to remain?
And the witness bar needs to be passed before charging so they must have had them already willing to come forwards.
The Saudi perp gets weirder by the hour. Apparently some woman warned the German police two years ago that he was gonna commit mass murder. Because he hates Saudi Arabia “but hates Germans even more”
Also he SEEMS to have expressed support for both Israel AND Hamas. He may be a new form of multi-radical. Radicalised in umpteen different directions all at once. Fantastic new innovation
If only we had someone who held a thousand and one contradictory views simultaneously and felt VERY ANGRY about all of them, all at once...
You forgot to add ... and insists everyone else accept that he's right about each and every one.
You really don’t understand me, but it’s fine
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
Anyway I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a difficult year; you’re clearly not alone. Hope things improve, old boy
We'll see (I hope) after the eye op.
I presume your news is AI ? Some very interesting developments, certainly.
It feels odd that this **** is getting so much attention. Why does his act generate so much interest, when the USA suffers many mass shootings? There was one last week where three people were shot dead in Winsconsin. In September, 4 were killed in a shooting in Georgia.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
In 2024 I lost three teeth and all of the health news is not good. I lost a much-loved aunty[1]. But nobody in the immediate nuclear family died (unlike 2023 when two had life-threatening illnesses), so there's that: count your blessings
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
I had what appeared to be a serious stroke (out for the count for a couple of hours), from which I've apparently almost completely recovered (occasionally vague about names, but that's not really new). Amicably divorced yesterday (literally) and settled with a spectacularly lovely and energetic lady, with whom I'm planning diverse trips. It won't last forever, but it's a new lease of life, quite unexpectedly so. Don't rule out good luck!
I haven't followed the story in Magdeburg, yet it seems strange that a gap suitable for driving a motor vehicle through was left in a "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation" perimeter (UK Term).
In the UK Councils have spent millions on these - where they are done between a couple of hundred k and a couple of million per council, and there has been controversy in some places, especially around Blue Badge and mobility aid users being denied access.
As per usual here, the issue is not so much around design, but around bad consultation and bad design which prevents access and creates conflict where good design would not have done so - with no impact on security. Those in turn are around lack of capacity in local Government to do these schemes well, or to understand what is required so they can make sure contractors do it well. That inevitably needs to expensive sticky plaster fixes later, that could have been avoided.
I have seen examples in York and Cambridge, for two.
There was a good comment somewhere (PB? Bluesky?) which pointed out that no one really wants to talk about these anti-terror devices because the topic is such a dark, unpleasant one.
But we should. The historic centre of Edinburgh is been bespoiled by them, great lumps of steel thrown haphazardly across the pavements. You can't get a decent photo of New College any more because the council placed an ugly gate right in front of the main facade.
And the hedgehog-style ones are unbelievably dangerous - one was placed right next to a cycle lane; if you'd come off, you would end up looking like the end-scene of Hot Fuzz with a steel spike through your throat.
The technology exists already - get some elegant bollards in place with some rising ones to allow limited access for loading in the mornings and for the emergency services. Like usual, we've penny pinched when it comes to the public realm and made it even uglier and harder to get around than it was before.
What are these "Hedgehog Style" ones? Do you have a Streetview link.
We have Armco on Trent Bridge (area near 2 footballs grounds, and Trent Bridge cricket ground) in Nottingham like the Monaco Grand Prix, and a cycling friend had his arm broken when some dozy twat in an SUV changed lanes directly into him and crushed him against it - no designed in escape route by the Local Highways Authority for an SUV for an obvious hazard, and no alternative route provided. I posted the piccie here one day.
I'm with HL Mencken on this one: "All I want, on any subject from A to Z, is simple competence."
They did rising ones in York, which is fair enough - as long as they are risen for the appropriate times.
In my York example they installed the slightly wider gap for mobility aids at one side, right up against a right angle wall at a street corner - so no one can see the powerchair coming, and no one in the powerchair can see what's round the corner. So hazard and conflict are guaranteed by the design. All they had to do was install the wider gap more centrally in the line of bollards - it's what happens when 20 years of starvation funding forces abolition of all the professional Accessibility Officers.
In Cambridge they squeeezed the 2 way mobility track through a narrow gap, rather than put a bollard in the middle to allow 2 opposing lanes.
Just ... twattery.
Sent you a PM with a photo.
It looks like a galvanised base for a four sided advertising kiosk, or similar.
But vicious when only installed effectively unprotected.
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
In 2024 I lost three teeth and all of the health news is not good. I lost a much-loved aunty[1]. But nobody in the immediate nuclear family died (unlike 2023 when two had life-threatening illnesses), so there's that: count your blessings
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
I had what appeared to be a serious stroke (out for the count for a couple of hours), from which I've apparently almost completely recovered (occasionally vague about names, but that's not really new). Amicably divorced yesterday (literally) and settled with a spectacularly lovely and energetic lady, with whom I'm planning diverse trips. It won't last forever, but it's a new lease of life, quite unexpectedly so. Don't rule out good luck!
The terrorist seems to me to be a straight out lunatic. The rape / extradition story sounds plausible, but the attack itself suggests someone who’s essentially a psycho murderer.
Unfortunately this may be another example of the power of memes and norms in the minds of violent people. They see violent acts being done in a certain way, and it gives them an idea of- a way forward.
Mentally disturbed and feeling an urge to commit mass murder in the USA? What do you do? School shooting. That’s the local thing. It seems almost to have become a cultural habit.
In continental Europe? Drive a vehicle into a crowd. In Britain, rush at commuters with a knife. Ideology helps to provide a motive (or excuse), whether it’s Islamism or incel misogyny or antisemitism, but established norms help to provide a mental means and opportunity.
Same pattern with suicides. Why do so many this themselves in front of trains on British railway lines, or Americans shoot themselves in the head? Because they know it happens: it’s a thing you can do, they’ve seen it in news reports, even though taking an overdose or rigging up the car exhaust seems a more logical way to go.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
Again, isn't that part of the asylum sham? Publicly pretend to be anti-Islam to support the claim. It's a very odd case though, much more than meets the eye for sure.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
Yes, this may actually be a rare case where “mental health issues” are a valid explanation not some feeble establishment diversion. Nonetheless, what an evil thing to do. Little kids at a Xmas market
And I am pretty sure his whole anti-Islam shtick was a way to avoid extradition. The Saudis were very keen to get hold of him
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
In 2024 I lost three teeth and all of the health news is not good. I lost a much-loved aunty[1]. But nobody in the immediate nuclear family died (unlike 2023 when two had life-threatening illnesses), so there's that: count your blessings
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
Christmas Day marks the fifth anniversary of losing my mum, so casts something of a shadow. But hey, we'll raise a glass - to timing being everything in comedy...
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
I see we’ve reached the Denial phase of reactions.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
As a far right conspiracy theorist, Nina Power obviously prefers the "full lexicon of Twitter trolling" with a "whiff of threat and antisemitism" for her “bullying” and “aggressive, in register, language and imagery”, per the judge's statement in her libel case.
Horses for courses and other social platforms are available.
Bluesky is different from X and Threads in that there's no algorithm to populate your feed, which is made up entirely from people you follow. You choose who you follow and none of the people I follow has remotely suggested murdering for groupthink. I would block very quickly in that highly unlikely case.
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
In 2024 I lost three teeth and all of the health news is not good. I lost a much-loved aunty[1]. But nobody in the immediate nuclear family died (unlike 2023 when two had life-threatening illnesses), so there's that: count your blessings
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
Christmas Day marks the fifth anniversary of losing my mum, so casts something of a shadow. But hey, we'll raise a glass - to timing being everything in comedy...
(I need to point out that although I have "liked" your post, it was meant to acknowledge the fact that I had read it, not that I approved of your mum's death!)
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
Yes, this may actually be a rare case where “mental health issues” are a valid explanation not some feeble establishment diversion. Nonetheless, what an evil thing to do. Little kids at a Xmas market
And I am pretty sure his whole anti-Islam shtick was a way to avoid extradition. The Saudis were very keen to get hold of him
Indeed the latter theory makes sense. What's the easiest way to avoid extradition to Saudi Arabia - pretend to be gay or apostate. Pretending to be gay is a very big lifestyle change but pretending tombe apostate is much easier, follow people like Tommy Robinson, attend a couple of AfD rallies and say you don't like Islam and if you get extradited then you'll be executed for apostasy.
It's the most plausible explanation for the actions of attacking a Christmas market rather than say a Mosque.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
I see we’ve reached the Denial phase of reactions.
From a Saudi expert with 250,000 followers. Might be wrong but certainly knows more than you
3️⃣-🔟 Post-Asylum in Germany🇩🇪:
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
I think that Islamist terrorist lunatics are not the only despicable murdering lunatics in the world, and he does seem genuinely to have had a different motivation. That doesn't mean there isn't also a threat from Islamist terrorists, or Indeed various other terrorists.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
I see we’ve reached the Denial phase of reactions.
From a Saudi expert with 250,000 followers. Might be wrong but certainly knows more than you
3️⃣-🔟 Post-Asylum in Germany🇩🇪:
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
Again, isn't that part of the asylum sham? Publicly pretend to be anti-Islam to support the claim. It's a very odd case though, much more than meets the eye for sure.
My primary evidence to support the idea he was bonkers was the fact he chose to carry out a mass terrorist attack. It's exactly the kind of thing that could increase your chances of being deported back to Saudi so it's irrational whichever way you look at it. Any application of logic just becomes absurd.
I sometimes think the mental health excuse is a bit lame because there is always going to be an awful lot of crossover between it and extremism - and most people with serious mental health issues don't go around murdering people. Perhaps we need a better word for it, something that captures a general closure of the mind to sense and the subscription to extremist views, of any type, instead.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
As a far right conspiracy theorist, Nina Power obviously prefers the "full lexicon of Twitter trolling" with a "whiff of threat and antisemitism" for her “bullying” and “aggressive, in register, language and imagery”, per the judge's statement in her libel case.
Horses for courses and other social platforms are available.
Bluesky is different from X and Threads in that there's no algorithm to populate your feed, which is made up entirely from people you follow. You choose who you follow and none of the people I follow has remotely suggested murdering for groupthink. I would block very quickly in that highly unlikely case.
If you’re on it I can see why she calls Bluesky “boring, twee, humourless, stale and self righteous”. That’s basically your character profile in 5 words
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
In 2024 I lost three teeth and all of the health news is not good. I lost a much-loved aunty[1]. But nobody in the immediate nuclear family died (unlike 2023 when two had life-threatening illnesses), so there's that: count your blessings
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
Christmas Day marks the fifth anniversary of losing my mum, so casts something of a shadow. But hey, we'll raise a glass - to timing being everything in comedy...
Today is the 5th anniversary of my mother’s death. The start of a bad run losing 3/4 parents over Christmas since. What is it about this time of year?
I remember you going through it. I will toast your mother along with the others.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
Again, isn't that part of the asylum sham? Publicly pretend to be anti-Islam to support the claim. It's a very odd case though, much more than meets the eye for sure.
My primary evidence to support the idea he was bonkers was the fact he chose to carry out a mass terrorist attack. It's exactly the kind of thing that could increase your chances of being deported back to Saudi so it's irrational whichever way you look at it. Any application of logic just becomes absurd.
I sometimes think the mental health excuse is a bit lame because there is always going to be an awful lot of crossover between it and extremism - and most people with serious mental health issues don't go around murdering people. Perhaps we need a better word for it, something that captures a general closure of the mind to sense and incorporation of extremist views, of any type, instead.
Actually, the carrying out a terrorist attack guarantees that, if sent back to Saudi, they will find him guilty of the rape, and execute him.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
Yes, this may actually be a rare case where “mental health issues” are a valid explanation not some feeble establishment diversion. Nonetheless, what an evil thing to do. Little kids at a Xmas market
And I am pretty sure his whole anti-Islam shtick was a way to avoid extradition. The Saudis were very keen to get hold of him
Indeed the latter theory makes sense. What's the easiest way to avoid extradition to Saudi Arabia - pretend to be gay or apostate. Pretending to be gay is a very big lifestyle change but pretending tombe apostate is much easier, follow people like Tommy Robinson, attend a couple of AfD rallies and say you don't like Islam and if you get extradited then you'll be executed for apostasy.
It's the most plausible explanation for the actions of attacking a Christmas market rather than say a Mosque.
My guess is both are true. The anti Islam stuff was likely a ruse to avoid extradition but he is also a horrible nutter - with a weird grudge against Germany and Germans, judging by his tweets - despite Germany protecting him from Saudi
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
As a far right conspiracy theorist, Nina Power obviously prefers the "full lexicon of Twitter trolling" with a "whiff of threat and antisemitism" for her “bullying” and “aggressive, in register, language and imagery”, per the judge's statement in her libel case.
Horses for courses and other social platforms are available.
Bluesky is different from X and Threads in that there's no algorithm to populate your feed, which is made up entirely from people you follow. You choose who you follow and none of the people I follow has remotely suggested murdering for groupthink. I would block very quickly in that highly unlikely case.
Leon has inadvertently provided a perfect example of why people are switching to Bluesky.
The terrorist seems to me to be a straight out lunatic. The rape / extradition story sounds plausible, but the attack itself suggests someone who’s essentially a psycho murderer.
Unfortunately this may be another example of the power of memes and norms in the minds of violent people. They see violent acts being done in a certain way, and it gives them an idea of- a way forward.
Mentally disturbed and feeling an urge to commit mass murder in the USA? What do you do? School shooting. That’s the local thing. It seems almost to have become a cultural habit.
In continental Europe? Drive a vehicle into a crowd. In Britain, rush at commuters with a knife. Ideology helps to provide a motive (or excuse), whether it’s Islamism or incel misogyny or antisemitism, but established norms help to provide a mental means and opportunity.
Same pattern with suicides. Why do so many this themselves in front of trains on British railway lines, or Americans shoot themselves in the head? Because they know it happens: it’s a thing you can do, they’ve seen it in news reports, even though taking an overdose or rigging up the car exhaust seems a more logical way to go.
There's certainly something in that. In S Korea, it's charcoal briquettes (up until recently used for central heating) in a car.
One of my favourite actors (Parasite's Lee Sun Kyun) went that way last December.
An anti-Muslim terrorist that attacked a Christmas market. Something here doesn't add up. Could it be that this guy escaped Saudi Arabia and gained asylum status in Germany by declaring himself an apostate which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia? Isn't that and pretending to be gay a very common deception used for people?
If it's the person twitter/reddit think it is, your theory wouldn't explain why he was posting or liking pro-right wing stuff (Musk, AfD, Robinson etc etc) until fairly recently.
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
Yes, this may actually be a rare case where “mental health issues” are a valid explanation not some feeble establishment diversion. Nonetheless, what an evil thing to do. Little kids at a Xmas market
And I am pretty sure his whole anti-Islam shtick was a way to avoid extradition. The Saudis were very keen to get hold of him
Indeed the latter theory makes sense. What's the easiest way to avoid extradition to Saudi Arabia - pretend to be gay or apostate. Pretending to be gay is a very big lifestyle change but pretending tombe apostate is much easier, follow people like Tommy Robinson, attend a couple of AfD rallies and say you don't like Islam and if you get extradited then you'll be executed for apostasy.
It's the most plausible explanation for the actions of attacking a Christmas market rather than say a Mosque.
My guess is both are true. The anti Islam stuff was likely a ruse to avoid extradition but he is also a horrible nutter - with a weird grudge against Germany and Germans, judging by his tweets - despite Germany protecting him from Saudi
Yuk. Too depressing. On with Christmas!
Festive greetings to all
Yup a radicalised Islamist rapist who didn't want to be executed in Saudi Arabia claims asylum in Germany as an apostate which is allowed under the concept of Taqiyya. Goes on to do what radicalised Islamists do when they live in Europe. This seems to me the most likely explanation as to why this bastard attacked a Christmas market rather than a Mosque just after Friday prayers.
“I had a look at Bluesky for the first time and it’s the most terrifying combination of mid-2000s twee smol bean rhetoric and fantasies of murdering people for wrongthink.
The aesthetics of sadism is kitsch. The humour is stale and self-righteous, and the desire to kill, absolute.”
There is something deeply creepy and sinister about Bluesky. What makes it worse is that they are entirely unself-aware
As a far right conspiracy theorist, Nina Power obviously prefers the "full lexicon of Twitter trolling" with a "whiff of threat and antisemitism" for her “bullying” and “aggressive, in register, language and imagery”, per the judge's statement in her libel case.
Horses for courses and other social platforms are available.
Bluesky is different from X and Threads in that there's no algorithm to populate your feed, which is made up entirely from people you follow. You choose who you follow and none of the people I follow has remotely suggested murdering for groupthink. I would block very quickly in that highly unlikely case.
Leon has inadvertently provided a perfect example of why people are switching to Bluesky.
Wait, she’s a far right extremist who… writes for the guardian?
Just imagine the kind of reaction on social media if that had happened in the U.K. I fear the usual suspects would be gobbing off peddling their agendas, raising tension and cleiming conspiracies if challenged.
2023 was the worse year of my life for family reasons (or at least a joint number one with a very shite year in my 20s), so this year has been brilliant in comparison.
Here's to 2025!!!!
In 2024 I lost three teeth and all of the health news is not good. I lost a much-loved aunty[1]. But nobody in the immediate nuclear family died (unlike 2023 when two had life-threatening illnesses), so there's that: count your blessings
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
Christmas Day marks the fifth anniversary of losing my mum, so casts something of a shadow. But hey, we'll raise a glass - to timing being everything in comedy...
(I need to point out that although I have "liked" your post, it was meant to acknowledge the fact that I had read it, not that I approved of your mum's death!)
I’d like to point out that my liking of your post about liking Jonathan’s post does not mean I like the idea of Jonathan’s mum passing nor do I like the idea of you liking the idea of Jonathan’s mum passing
As I said below: I'd be slightly sceptical about anything coming from Saudi Arabian authorities. And I'd be concerned about Saudi journalists as well. They have a line to sell. How much of that line is the truth... who knows?
Comments
Most people on here - to me - are like passing clouds. I’m never gonna meet them. They come and they go. Occasionally I enjoy shouting at them, as old men should
Ascot 2.25 Blueking D'oroux
Haydock 2.40 Admiralty House
Ascot 3.00 Victtorino
Ascot 3.35 Our Champ
☺️
The CEO had a picture of Aung Sang Suu Kyi on his desk, in the house arrest years, before she blotted her copybook...
On that basis, Leon's right wing mates finding the worst aspects of Bluesky is hardly surprising.
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.9521402,-3.1919887,3a,15y,346.91h,90.95t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s-qtgIhCka0BtBh0e8uZ2_A!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?cb_client=maps_sv.tactile&w=900&h=600&pitch=-0.9546519449247626&panoid=-qtgIhCka0BtBh0e8uZ2_A&yaw=346.9060167700472!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==
I may regard the average PBer as a passing cloud but I’m still fond of the sky, and I dearly like PB as a collective - the pub - so happy Christmas PB and God bless us, one and all
The SNP have no interest either in pushing had for indyref2 now, are on course to lose MSPs in 2026 and the most hardline nats and republic pushing Scots are now in the Greens or Alba
Sounds whisky to me.
I won’t be betting on that just yet.
Swinney is no Salmond, but there’s much water to flow under the bridge before then and not altogether to the advantage of Labour.
Edit - wtf autocorrect making ‘much’ into ‘my CV’ and ‘Swinney’ into ‘a winner’ twice?
Does it know something we don’t?
- We must do something
- This is something
- Therefore we must do this
See wheelchair ramps that are a foot wide and at an angle of about 45 degrees.
Actual thought and domain knowledge is absent. See one of our correspondents, who posts pictures of insane attempts at stopping motorbikes using footpaths.
I come on here to have arguments and vivid debates - coz I hate being bored - so I have a deliberately combative persona: on here
If I was this obnoxious in real life I’d have zero friends. But of course I’m not, so I have plenty of friends
Anyway I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a difficult year; you’re clearly not alone. Hope things improve, old boy
- the huge British government building, well, complex, really, in a very pompous neoclassical style in the centre of Rangoon, taking up a couple of city blocks and totally derelict
- the anglophile owner of a burger place in Bagan, which he had called Wetherspoon's. Though ethnically Burmese he spoke fluent English with a strong Cockney accent
- the dirtiness of the sleeping compartments in the British-built trains that went about 15 miles an hour on average
- the weirdness of reading Burmese Days during the trip, comparing the absent-minded and moderately benevolent despotism of the Empire to the current savage and brutal totalitarian dictatorship and wondering if those who promote decolonisation know what they're talking about
- the weird Shwedagon temple complex in central Rangoon and the bizarre hoops you have to go through to visit it.
I’ve noticed that really nice 5 star hotels in Yangon are about £40 a night. The advantages of civil war. Plus I love troubled places. They’re not boring
What’s the food like? I’ve heard all opinions from “terrible” to “brilliant”
On the latest Holyrood polls there will be a swing from the SNP to Labour, the LDs and Greens and Alba in 2026 and from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform, making a very hung Scottish Parliament. The SNP will still be first but well short of a first and down on 2021, Labour will be second and the Tories will fall to 3rd with Reform snapping at their heels even in Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_Scottish_Parliament_election
I skimmed over the discussion yesterday. I think your position is weird. You care enough that you want to fact-check what pseudonymous people say they said yesterday, but you don't care enough to look at the threads yesterday to check what they said?
If you care enough you'll have a spreadsheet with quotes and hyperlinks anyway. For a prayer who posts as often as Leon, simply being able to go back a page at a time through their comments doesn't help reduce the burden of effort all that much, for someone who doesn't care that much about it.
As of July 2024, X (formerly known as Twitter) has approximately 245 million daily active users[1] worldwide.
[1] https://backlinko.com/twitter-users
In short, it hasn't collapsed, but it has retrenched and no longer makes the rapid growth it did in its earlier years.
Pretty good deal if you’re Musk
After all that they hadn't got what I wanted and I had lot of difficulty getting out.
That's the LAST time I go in there! Trouble is, it's also the Post Office!
Musk is also worth over $400 billion and can subsidise X indefinitely as a pet project, so it never needs to make a profit really, he can carry its losses
Words have consequences. Especially words said in public.
Here's to 2025!!!!
https://bsky.app/profile/youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
That burger place was great though. Probably not still in business but the burgers were good and broke the monotony of the rest of the food.
2024 has actually been very pleasant. Lots of fascinating travel
To 2025!
(And in the Christmas spirit, I've left a smiley off the post.)
He was wanted on rape charges and other similar crimes in Saudi - and Saudi was desperate to have him extradited back
So he faked a whole “anti-Islam” identity which meant German courts refused to deport him home. Human rights. But he was still a mad criminal - hence yesterday’s horror
So ironically it’s still fodder for the AfD: human rights prevented Germany deporting a dangerous villain
For me, 2024 began with bags of work from two regulars then collapsed to practically nothing thanks to tech changes (both rising AI and backroom Google things). Hoping 2025 is the reverse.
Btw, second episode of the podcast will hopefully be up tomorrow, looking at the midfield teams, particularly the battle for sixth.
We have many ding-dongs but I don’t actually dislike you, I hope that’s clear! I just like arguments. I feel genial towards all PBers, in the main. As I have said
So have a good one and let us continue sparring in ‘25
🍹
The CDU will never do a deal with the AfD for government though and rightly so while they retain some who have had neo Nazi links
Maybe we should just wait and see what the investigation shows rather than jump to conclusions.
The death toll has risen to 5. Given that “dozens” are critically injured including many little children, the toll could rise substantially
Maybe it’s time the Germans deported him to Riyadh and let Saudi justice do its work
As for PB, @OldKingCole and @Big_G_NorthWales are still with us, which is good. Is it@MattW who has chemo? If so, he's still alive, which is also good. Various PBers have ill or recently-dead relatives, for which I am sorry, both in the fact and because I've forgotten their names
[1] The viewcode family lump all friends/relatives outside the immediate nuclear family as "aunty/uncle", "cousin" or "great-uncle/aunty". It's too large to do anything else.
I presume your news is AI ?
Some very interesting developments, certainly.
He was 10 years working in Germany before applying for asylum, so doesn't seem like a scam application.
And the witness bar needs to be passed before charging so they must have had them already willing to come forwards.
Here's a list of school shootings since 2000. It is sadly very long:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States_(2000–present)
Why have such high death tolls of people going about their everyday business become normalised if it involves guns in the USA ?
I agree that it doesn't add up - but the thoughts of conspiracy nutters rarely do. There's a possibility that he was trying to stimulate a bit of a race-war, with helpful idiots "just asking questions" and jumping on the jihadi bandwagon doing his work for him.
His posts are bizarre and inconsistent. I know mental health is a bit of a meme, but he's the sort of person you'd want to buy a carbon monoxide detector for.
But vicious when only installed effectively unprotected.
Unfortunately this may be another example of the power of memes and norms in the minds of violent people. They see violent acts being done in a certain way, and it gives them an idea of- a way forward.
Mentally disturbed and feeling an urge to commit mass murder in the USA? What do you do? School shooting. That’s the local thing. It seems almost to have become a cultural habit.
In continental Europe? Drive a vehicle into a crowd. In Britain, rush at commuters with a knife. Ideology helps to provide a motive (or excuse), whether it’s Islamism or incel misogyny or antisemitism, but established norms help to provide a mental means and opportunity.
Same pattern with suicides. Why do so many this themselves in front of trains on British railway lines, or Americans shoot themselves in the head? Because they know it happens: it’s a thing you can do, they’ve seen it in news reports, even though taking an overdose or rigging up the car exhaust seems a more logical way to go.
And I am pretty sure his whole anti-Islam shtick was a way to avoid extradition. The Saudis were very keen to get hold of him
Horses for courses and other social platforms are available.
Bluesky is different from X and Threads in that there's no algorithm to populate your feed, which is made up entirely from people you follow. You choose who you follow and none of the people I follow has remotely suggested murdering for groupthink. I would block very quickly in that highly unlikely case.
It's the most plausible explanation for the actions of attacking a Christmas market rather than say a Mosque.
3️⃣-🔟 Post-Asylum in Germany🇩🇪:
After arriving in Germany, Abdulmohsen reinvents himself as a dissident, publicly declaring himself an atheist and ex-Muslim. This move appeared strategic, likely aimed at securing full asylum protection in Germany by portraying himself as a victim of persecution rather than a fugitive from justice.
https://x.com/salansar1/status/1870383871113433158?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
I sometimes think the mental health excuse is a bit lame because there is always going to be an awful lot of crossover between it and extremism - and most people with serious mental health issues don't go around murdering people. Perhaps we need a better word for it, something that captures a general closure of the mind to sense and the subscription to extremist views, of any type, instead.
However, I agree you’re not the murdering type
I remember you going through it. I will toast your mother along with the others.
He’s a potential political problem. rm -rf *
Yuk. Too depressing. On with Christmas!
Festive greetings to all
https://x.com/GloriaDePiero/status/1868269413817872388
In S Korea, it's charcoal briquettes (up until recently used for central heating) in a car.
One of my favourite actors (Parasite's Lee Sun Kyun) went that way last December.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/29/right-to-work-recession-women-at-work
Just imagine the kind of reaction on social media if that had happened in the U.K. I fear the usual suspects would be gobbing off peddling their agendas, raising tension and cleiming conspiracies if challenged.
I hope Germany is spared that.
I just liked your post