Re: A Bit of Flanders and Swann
"It was on the Monday morning, the gas man came to call"
On Saturdays and Sundays, they do no work at all....
1030 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Mar 2011
" may be nuclear capable, or become nuclear capable to states bordering Russia?"
May do, might be, could happen....sounds like a justification for a pre-emptive strike on Russia, doesnt it? After all Putin has been threatening nuclear attack on a weekly basis since he invaded Ukraine, so by your justification Russia is presenting a clear danger to the world. Or does it only work in the make believe theatre of Putin's (and clearly your) head?
"Modern Ukraine, incorporating parts of what was Poland and Hungary as well as territory occupied by the Tatars was only really staked out after WW2."
Ukraine was set up as an independent state in the 18th century, until the Russians did their thing and absorbed it, banning the Ukrainian language etc etc. It was once again an independent country in 1918, until the soviets (Russians) did their thing and sent in the army to conquer it in 1921. Post WW2 it was divided between the soviet union and Poland. Following the collapse of the communist USSR it is once again an independent country, until...oh yes, the Russians did their thing - again.
By your logic most of Eastern Europe and Germany aren't real countries either, and if you extend the thinking far enough neither are the UK, France, Spain, Italy, USA......
"Once upon a time a country lost it's shit over the Cuban Missile Crisis when Russia tried to place nukes in Cuba. That's further from the US's borders than Ukraine is, yet people seem suprised that Russia raises the same objections to NATO expansion"
Er, Cuba is right next door to the USA. Ukraine is quite a long way away. I suspect you meant to say Ukraine is closer to Russia, but that's really irrelevant in terms of nuclear missile launch speeds.
The biggest problem with your (and let's be honest here, Putin's) claims about NATO expansion into Ukraine is that....it simply wasn't true. Ukraine applied to join NATO in 2022 following Russia's annexation of four Ukrainian provinces. The application was not allowed. There are no US nuclear missiles in most European countries, they are held in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Netherlands.
There are no missiles in the Baltic states, so that excuse won't wash.
And the winners write the history books."
I remember reading somewhere: "isn't it incredible that throughout history, the Good Guys have always won."
This is the current rallying cry for people who like to pretend that they are somehow more enlightened than their peers. Unless you can support that statement you need to rethink it - can you define "good guys" in say, the conflict between France and Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries? How about the Crimean war? The American war of independence? Etc Etc
That kind of glib nonsense is usually a way of pretending that somehow nazi germany was a victim.
"Used to collect 'cider' from the Scrumpy Farms on the Mendips (SW England) in empty 2 litre vinegar containers."
We reused orange squash concentrate 4 litre plastic containers to take the local scrumpy to parties. I gave up drinking the stuff after one such event when I discovered the bottom of the quite thick plastic container had been dissolved by the cider overnight.
"The panic is based on a long held belief of the British, other Europeans, Americans and, indeed, much of the world's population that the northward heat transport by the Gulf Stream is the reason why western Europe enjoys a mild climate, much milder than, say, that of eastern North America."
And yet....
"The Gulf Stream carries the warm, poleward return flow of the wind-driven North Atlantic subtropical gyre and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. This northward flow drives a significant meridional heat transport. Various lines of evidence suggest that Gulf Stream heat transport profoundly influences the climate of the entire Northern Hemisphere and, thus, Europe's climate on timescales of decades and longer." (https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-marine-010814-015656) This is from 2015.
What you are missing is that no part of the climate acts entirely independently from any other part. The paper quoted above concludes with this summary :
"However, there are situations in which the Gulf Stream's influence on Europe's climate may not live up to expectations. First, on timescales shorter than roughly a decade, variability in the atmosphere seems to swamp any oceanic signal in setting basin-scale climate patterns. Second, Europe's warmth relative to the zonal mean cannot be attributed simply to westerly winds extracting heat from the warm current. Stationary waves in the atmospheric midlatitude jet contribute to zonal anomalies of both signs, with the Rocky Mountains playing an important role in establishing the southwesterly winds that bring warm air masses to Europe. Thus, when the ocean heat transport is eliminated in model simulations, Europe's zonal temperature anomaly is not entirely erased, though it is diminished (Seager et al. 2002). In a fun twist, recent research has implicated the Gulf Stream even in setting up these stationary waves and contributing to the frigid winters on North America's east coast (Kaspi & Schneider 2011), against which Europe's warmth is often contrasted."
So no, it's not entirely the airflow over the Rockies, although that plays a part in the global climate. To dismiss everything else as a "panic" (and thus inconsequential) is foolish.
"He's from Barbados, that's why he kepts doing the "accent""
I had a friend at university, born and bred in Kingston, Jamaica. Very white. When lightly relaxed after a few beers the accent would come out, and more than a few times the local black guys took offence until it was explained to them.
Theres clearly something wrong with the way we deal with disease in the UK. Take a look at the excess death figures for places like New Zealand etc and you'll see that their excess deaths were far far lower as a percentage than ours. Sweden, touted as the gotcha for the anti lockdowners, has a high ED rating.
Complaining of a nasty comment when comparing masks to healing crystals is funny.
"several hundred thousand people die globally from influenza"
Dont forget the government figures for flu deaths were actually wildly inaccurate, and were widely seen as a reason not to worry about covid by the conspiracists and deniers.
"And I have never known anyone dying from covid-19. Not even being hospitalised. Not.one.single.person. Not even relatives of relatives,"
Then you're very fortunate. I assume you're one of the flurry of downvoters on my post about covid not being flu. I knew 2 people that died, one was elderly the other was my age. I know someone who lost all four limbs. I know people who lost kidney function, had heart attacks.
But I'm sure its just a conspiracy designed to mildly inconvenience you. Idiot.
"It is here to stay and it is as danegerous as flu."
I have never known anyone to die of flu. Or lose limbs. Or get heart attacks. Post viral symptoms are known, and relatively rare, but there is growing evidence that "long covid" can create severe long term post viral conditions.
It's like flu *at the moment*.
"Other inappropriate technological terms also survive the demise of their physical relevance: "footage" is still commonly used though actually film is not."
Spam is constantly used, yet I have never been swamped by a pile of tinned pork shoulder and ham either.
"HITLER copied his ideas from Mr Ford... "
No he didn't. Ford was a rabid antisemite but in no way did Hitler copy from him. The nazis seized on the American-led idea of eugenics and took it to whole new depths, but antiseitism was alive and kicking in Europs long before Ford was conceived.
"He is running operations that are easily 10000x more complex. Real Rocket Science"
By that logic the head of Ford is personally building cars. Or the head of IBM is designing and building computers. You do know that Musk has actual scientists and engineers who do the work, dont you?
"Media Matters are getting sued for using fraud to defame Twitter. They lied"
Er, Mediamatters don't seem terribly concerned about this -
"Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate. Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win." (One of the companies who withdrew advertising from X, IBM, did so after the MM reports was published. You would imagine that they would have checked rather than simply believe a report, surely?
You're accusing MM of antisemitism? Hmm, now let me think - oh yes “Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” said X/twitter user @breakingbaht. Sounds a bit, er, antisemitic doesnt it? How did your hero respond? “You have said the actual truth.”
You might want to take a few minutes to browse the kind of user accounts and content that twitter/x is not only allowing to crawl back out from under their rocks but actively promoting.
"Free Speech is very important and critical to the proper function of ANY democratic republic"
Oh, you mean freedom to say whatever you like, no matter the consequences for others? That's not free speech, neither is it protected under law in any democracy I can think of. What Musk and his fanbois fail to grasp is that free speech also means accepting the consequences of that speech, which is why there were so many unpleasant (usually always right wing) users blocked from Twitter - they broke clearly signposted rules. Now Musk has given them all carte blanche to return and continue spewing hatred and lies, which I assume you support and agree with, given your drivel about vaccines...
"one of the few members of the elite carrying the torch of freedom in the West"
Are you actually serious? I assume from your drivel about Soros and "stalinists" that you consider racist and far right hate speech to be "freedom"? How about antisemitic lies? Because that's what Musky is pushing on X.
"when New Labour came to power they didn't get rid of any 'anti' union legislation"
New Labour = Old Tory. It was a broadly slightly right of centre government, which sadly left the tories nowhere to go but further and further to the right, leading us to where we are now.
Unions of course did not destroy British industry, it managed that all by itself - consider British Leyland, a perfect storm of hugely incompetent management and over zealous unions. Car designs were hamstrung by bean counters, resulting in such abominations as the Allegro, etc etc. Media, government and management exclusively blamed the unions (which to be fair really didn't help).
Just a quick additional point or two - all those saying Israel is committing "genocide" have a couple of problems.
Firstly, while the deaths of a few thousand (largely civilian) people is never something to be supported (and please note that the BBC and others are quite happy to accept Hamas figures as absolute truth, while questioning every Israeli claim of finding tunnels, arms caches etc under hospitals...) it is quite clearly NOT genocide.
Secondly, where was your outrage when hundreds of thousands were killed in Syria, Yemen, etc etc? Where were your cries of "genocide"? Oh, thats right, it wasnt being done by Israel so thats ok, apparently.
And thirdly, Musky has now openly come out in support of an antisemtic post on X. Says all you need to know about those who still support him.
Centurion: You know the penalty laid down by Roman law for harboring a known [offender]?
Matthias: No.
Centurion: Crucifixion!
Matthias: Oh.
Centurion: Nasty, eh?
Matthias: Could be worse.
Centurion: What you mean "Could be worse"?
Matthias: Well, you could be stabbed.
Centurion: Stabbed? Takes a second. Crucifixion lasts hours. It's a slow, horrible [end].
Matthias: Well, at least it gets you out in the open air.
Centurion: You're weird!
or
My legs are old and bent, my ears are grizzled,. My nose is knackered.
"If only we had a conservative party to rail against this."
You do - you just have a conservative party that's adopting more and more far right populist policies in order to desperately cling to power. In the past they'd have trashed the country then bunged the proles a 1p income tax cut to keep themselves in power but they have finally realised this isn't going to save them this time, so now they are trying to pretend that the readership of the Mail is enough to keep them elected.
"Apparently, in Baltimore and the State of Oregon that statement is law. I've found out recently that those places have taken away basic maths requirements for high school graduation as it's racist and puts "people of color" at a disadvantage."
Nope, this is simply nonsense peddled by right wing "news" outlets (like the Daily Mail) in 2021.
"Oregon state law requires that, in order to obtain a high school diploma, students must obtain at least 24 credits between grades nine and 12, including: at least three credits in math; at least four credits in English; three in science; and three in social science, among other prerequisites. In order to obtain those credits, a student is required to achieve at least a passing grade in each class. SB 744 will not change or remove those requirements.
Although not codified in the same way as a standardized test, passing all those classes and obtaining the 24 credits required to get a high school diploma can quite reasonably be regarded as de facto proof that a student possesses the basic academic competencies at the heart of media coverage of SB 744 in August 2021."
Oregon Senate Bill 744 has three principle effects:
It orders the Department of Education (DOE) to conduct a review of the statutory prerequisites for obtaining a high school diploma in Oregon (including diploma options such as the "modified diploma," "extended diploma" and "alternative certificate"), and to make recommendations by September 2021
It orders the DOE to conduct a review of statewide requirements for demonstrating proficiency in academic areas, with an emphasis on Essential Learning Skills, and to make recommendations by September 2021
It suspends, until the end of the 2023/24 academic year, Essential Learning Skills as a prerequisite for graduation where a student has otherwise met the credit requirements for obtaining a diploma.
This was done after the covid disruption to schools, the "essential learning skills" package was suspended (as explained above) but the existing 24-credit requirement for obtaining a high school diploma remains untouched.
And nowhere is "disadvantage to coloured people" mentioned - this says rather a lot more about you, dont you think?
Population
3,000,021 (West Bank – 2022 est.)
1,997,328 (Gaza Strip – 2022 est.)
Growth rate
1.69% (West Bank – 2022 est.)
2.02% (Gaza Strip – 2022 est.)
Birth rate
24.42 births/1,000 population (West Bank – 2022 est.)
27.67 births/1,000 population (Gaza Strip – 2022 est.)
Death rate
3.4 deaths/1,000 population (West Bank – 2022 est.)
2.91 deaths/1,000 population (Gaza Strip – 2022 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
total population: 75.4 years
male: 73.4 years
female: 77.6 years (2018 est.)
And for those throwing around words like "genocide" the population of palestinians in 1950 was around 945000. It's now 5133000.....