Squaredy

Bit of a derail I know, but how did the UK get hung out to dry by the Marshall plan? Incidentally hopefully you know that we never paid back our WW1 debts to the USA and we very much betrayed them in the aftermath of WW1. Yet still they gave us $31 billion for WW2. What would that be worth today?

That is bizarre. I guess you will have to go and have a chat with them at the sorting office. Sounds like your local office have a few problems.

From someone who has milled many wide slabs over the years, I have a tip. Try softwoods, especially cedar of Lebanon, sequoia, pine. They behave really well. The hardwoods like oak and ash that you could mill in the UK love to move and twist all over the place.

Yeah that is a lovely room, fair play. I would say the actual building built from ash is way more impressive than the table. Not dissing the table at all but many people could do that; few try and construct a real wood conservatory these days. Well done.

I am sure someone will have a use for those beams. The problem as always is finding that goldilocks customer. Many customers would want lots of them, and others will only want a 6ft piece etc. I think the way to go is Facebook marketplace. Include photos and as much info as possible in the advert. I will say though I don't think they are tropical hardwood. Zoom in on the end grain and you can clearly see the springwood and summerwood. It looks exactly like a quality softwood - pitch pine, or even larch or douglas fir. This doesn't make them any less useful in my view. If you want to get a better idea cross cut a couple of inches off one end.

My area is certainly less often than in times past, but still a few times a week. I believe it is down to reduced amount of post and therefore it is no longer economical to deliver six times a week but the Universal Service Obligation means they have to by law. In my opinion all we need is a strong government who amend the USO to three days a week. Instead of course we have successive governments doing nothing and so we have this farce where everyone knows they no longer deliver six days a week, but officially they do.

Ah, maybe.

So what do you think should happen to you if and when you become too frail or ill to look after yourself?

Ah that makes sense that it was added in fairly modern times, it clearly post-dates the original horse drawn barges. Also that they would provide such a ramp due to a heritage horse drawn operation. I guess when the canals were actually built if a horse fell in they found some other way of escape.

Could it be for wildlife, so creatures that get into the canal can get out again? No that is an awful lot of engineering to be just a ramp for daft mammals. Do you know?

Yes I hear the Scillies got it really bad.

There are many tools at Trump’s disposal to make it almost impossible for them to refuse. Impossible in the sense that it will be a lot of effort and hassle and maybe even pain to resist (tariffs, other trade barriers etc) but very attractive to accept. I have no crystal ball but I suspect Trump will have his way or maybe his successor. Tim Marshall said I believe on the radio the other day the USA have been after Greenland since the fifties. This is not Trump’s idea.

I think it is pretty clear Trump is going to step up the pressure to get Greenland; but ultimately it will be a deal just like the majority of the current USA. In other words the USA will literally buy Greenland. They bought Alaska, Florida, not to mention the Louisiana deal that included all or part of 13 states; and others. As there is such a small population of Greenland they could easily make it worth their while and make a tempting offer to the Danish government.

I am not sure that it is very balanced to accuse law enforcement officers of ‘attacking a car’ when they attempt to apprehend the driver. And to be clear my words were that the ICE officer was out of order. I did not defend his/her actions. I pointed out the rather obvious fact that trying to ignore armed officers directions is foolish in the extreme and was part of what escalated the situation

Having watched the videos it does look like the ICE officer was out of order, and it is totally wrong of Trump to immediately declare he did no wrong. There clearly needs to be a proper investigative process. But there is a lesson there for other people. If a number of armed officers of the law are trying to speak to you or arrest you it is probably wise to comply. She did not deserve to die but she played with fire to try and drive off when being apprehended. She is also partly to blame.