Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th February 2022

[refitman]

Morning all.

[tinyclanger2]

Morning

[frog222]

[refitman]

[gilsey]

I think there'll be a lot of these about today.

[gilsey]

A barrister writes:

Faisel Sadiq@FaiselSadiqReplying to @Barristerblog @KillBrexitNow and @metpoliceuk
I’ve mentioned this in a reply to a different tweet but I’ve often been asked to advise on responses to questionnaires re summary only regulatory offences. They always have the words of the caution at the top and blurb about making false statements. I don’t find this that odd.

Also, if they were going to interview 50 people how long would that take?
However interested in politics we are, have to admit the Met have better things to do.

[AnatolyKasparov]

If you believe some reports, BoJo's "defence" will be that he was working throughout these parties. Well known workaholic that he is, after all

[gilsey]

Not much of a defence, shouldn't the PM just tell them to f*** off home?

[AnatolyKasparov]

Well obviously, its deficient in almost every way imaginable. I almost hope he does try it.

[frog222]

These two go together --

[AnatolyKasparov]

Signed.

[frog222]

@AK -- Good roundup of world opinion on Tory ‘ending of mitigations’ (FreedomDay 2.0)—

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ovid-curbs
The only one with any time at all for UK is the Greek, but he’s muddled !

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Also signed it for all the good it will do.

We really need to be hearing Whitty and Vallance explain why it's suddenly ok to ignore a disease that's still killing over 150 people a day and leaving thousands with long term health problems. Once the ONS survey ends in March we will be effectively blind to how many people have Coronavirus in this country, a state of blissful ignorance in which a disease which terrified the world will be left to run rampant and do what it will. It's insane.

[tinyclanger2]

https://eu-rope.ideasoneurope.eu/2022/0 ... secretary/

EU referendum broke ‘rules’ set by former Brexit secretary

[Willow904]

Also signed it for all the good it will do.

We really need to be hearing Whitty and Vallance explain why it's suddenly ok to ignore a disease that's still killing over 150 people a day and leaving thousands with long term health problems. Once the ONS survey ends in March we will be effectively blind to how many people have Coronavirus in this country, a state of blissful ignorance in which a disease which terrified the world will be left to run rampant and do what it will. It's insane.

Will Hutton covers these points well in the G.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... SApp_Other

Like most, I relish life opening up. But this libertarian dash for the Covid exit is reckless

[Willow904]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ges-report

Tory government’s ‘tax by stealth’ will hit under-30s on low wages hardest
Report says ‘unfair’ burden on young will have significant impact on take home pay and chance to save

[AnatolyKasparov]

Government shafting the young again, say it ain't so.

[gilsey]

[AnatolyKasparov]

Might pay for a few months energy bills, even.

[frog222]

[tinyclanger2]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... protesters

i did once complain to top of the pops viv a vis their having mr manilow on the show (mandy)

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Just been for a soggy stroll and noticed crocuses and daffodils sprouting all over the place, it'll be Spring soon .

[refitman]

This might be the most insane proposal I've seen yet, from Labour - "naming & shaming"

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Nightmare Alley

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7740496/

I've been a Guillermo del Toro fan since Cronos and have enjoyed them all as long as I pretend Blade II never happened, so I was looking forward to this and...what a let down. The first hour is great, classic del Toro set in a run down carnival with Willem Dafoe, David Strathairn and Ron Perlman all being absolutely splendid. Bradley Cooper is the mystery man who turns up and learns the ways of the fake psychic con-artist. He woos the amazing electric lady (Rooney Mara) and they head off to make their fortune, and at this point the film falls flat on its face. It goes from being a del Toro film to a kind of sub-Cohen brothers art deco noir with a protagonist so utterly dislikeable I couldn't give a shit what happened to him, and what does happen to him is so blatantly telegraphed that it becomes a chore waiting for it to ultimately occur. There's no sexy mermen or giant robots or Lovecraftian monsters in this one, no magic or wonder or whimsy, for the last hour and a half it's the straightest film del Toro has ever made and it really suffers as a result. Maybe it needed Nicolas Cage.

Sadly I'd have to say that out of 10 I'd give it a 6 if I were being generous.

[AnatolyKasparov]

"Looking at" - in other words, there isn't the slightest chance of it actually happening. Just more posturing, as with NATO.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

He revealed he would "absolutely look at" a “naming and shaming” scheme against people who buy recreational drugs under a Labour government.

Go for it Steve. Shame me while projecting my name onto the moon with lasers, I don't mind, as long as I have a right to reply. I'd probably begin by pointing out that you're continuing with an idiotic war on drugs that began with Richard Nixon 50 years ago. At that time there were no narco gangs plagueing much of Central and South America, shipping containers weren't being fitted out as torture chambers in Holland, gangs in the UK weren't exploiting children to sell cocaine to middle class housewives and there were no spice zombies in our city centres. Going really well isn't it?

The 58-year-old also opened up about how his outlook changed after he was robbed by two men with a knife that nicked his throat. Mr Reed said he took years to “mentally recover” after the incident in his youth, which helped him understand the public’s desire for “retribution”.

Oh for fuck's sake. I got mugged at a bus stop by kids with knives who couldn't have been any older than 12 or 13 when I was in my 40's. Sure I had revenge fantasies for a few days but shit happens and I got over it. For a grown man to continue to allow such an incident to shape his thinking years later is frankly pathetic. Grow the fuck up.

It's always dispiriting to hear Labour shadow ministers talking such shit, how much of it is a performance? Who knows, but that interview was an embarrassment.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Oh well, at least flowers are coming out early because we're slowly boiling ourselves and everything else like frogs in a pot.

There was some good news this week from the JET nuclear fusion experiment in Oxford where they managed to sustain plasma for 5 seconds. Much has been made of this but it still took more energy to contain the plasma than it produced, and that's it for JET, it has reached its technological and physical limits.

I won't bore you with the details but containing heat higher than the centre of the sun is a tricky business, especially when the reaction you're aiming to control is chucking out high energy neutrons that irradiate (and thus degrade) the structure and equipment you've built to contain it.

We've been told for decades that fusion power is just a few decades away. The physics are basic, hydrogen fuses with hydrogen to produce helium, at least in the sun which has the advantage of being ginormous and as such has an equally ginormous gravitational field so it doesn't require the energy we're trying to reproduce.

I really hope it works though, because then we can have cool spaceships. If it doesn't work and something goes wrong it will be briefly spectacular like someone let a mini sun loose on the face of the earth.

[PorFavor]

I saw that article on TV. It didn't seem all that hopeful to me. I came away with the message that they'd got as far as they could go, barring a miracle.

[PorFavor]

Night night.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]