tree-fancier123

an affordable rough terrain robot to trim a big hedge on sloping ground should be here within 200 years and when it's introduced it must be made to pay income tax

the story has made the New Statesman too, ah well, I'm voting MarkJ at the next election, can't wait to put my feet up on UBI

ah yeah, but in good faith is a phrase with a different meaning If something is done in good faith, it is done sincerely and honestly by the looks of Cummings blog editing antics it doesn't look like he was acting in good faith

well there's a turn up for the books - caught out by the waybackmachine, instead of just making a new post he included the material along with the one I linked to about risky virus experiments in secure bio labs. That is pretty bad imo, it may have been done innocently, as he thought it was relevant to his previous post, but it does look like Cummings was out to deceive people into thinking he was on the case before he really was. If he was trying to deceive, then all the science in the world shouldn't save him - off to a remote beach and disenfranchised is the recommended method. He certainly has left himself wide open by adding corona stuff to the biohazard post AT SUCH A TIME AS THIS APRIL. If he had just added the stuff to that post without a pandemic currently flaring up it wouldn't have mattered. The two blogs pages before and after modification in the link below, it does look bad. The haters have got him by the balls with this bit of sleuthing. Wayback Machine WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG

and use it to guide policy decisions, which is the bit I like. Of course he will get lots of things wrong, but most people, politicians included just don't spend the time trying to understand the current state of scientific knowledge. Cummings is not going to be the oracle, but he is at least having a good go.

I have to agree that Cummings has ruined the idea of people being obedient and as people have said today his actions may have put many lives in danger if it results in people copying him, finding their own ways to justify bending the rules. However, I still think he is more of an asset than a liability. The fact he wants politics to be steered by science marks him out as a visionary. Most advisors are only about business and economy. I think Cummings tries to bring a lot of different disciplines together for an interesting perspective.

meaning you haven't read much, or any of his blog in any detail, but it gives you a buzz to put him down. His blog is full of ideas - sure you could be selective and quote sections from his blog to make him look bad, but I doubt if there are many other advisors with such a genuine interest in science and technology. There are links right through his blog to many of the most respected academic institutions in the world. The guy is actually spending time learning stuff. Not just spewing out drivel for something to do.

Because you were rubbishing Cummings, without really knowing much about him at all. Of course he could be got rid of for his error, but I believe Boris knows he has someone particularly talented on his team, so has decided to let it ride. From Dominic Cummings' blog dated 4th Mar 2019 The most secure bio-labs routinely make errors that could cause a global pandemic & are about to re-start experiments on pathogens engineered to make them mammalian-airborne-transmissible – Dominic Cummings's Blog DOMINICCUMMINGS.COM ‘Although the institutions of our culture are so amazingly good that they have been able to manage stability in the face of...

so you want to see between individual trees in a line to a view beyond, not look over the top of a hedge? if so then if your budget can stand it buy taller specimens and plant 4 metres apart, or two metres apart if you want to mess about thinning every other plant in 5 years or so. Edit- if you want to look between individual trees to a view beyond, then even at 4 metres apart you will be loosing a few as they mature .As it's a windbreak maybe the holm oak mentioned above is worth considering, an evergreen would shelter the whole year. You would need to do some research on your soil acidity and expected moisture to see what candidate species are most likely to flourish. On a hill it will probably get dry and you will need to water the beech a lot, even as they mature it is possible the beech won't like an extremely hot dry summer. Holm oak may be more drought tolerant, I'm not 100%, but they are native to much hotter regions of europe than UK, they do seed across hillsides. (images of Ventnor, IOW) Have a read of this free tree species selection guide http://www.tdag.org.uk/uploads/4/2/8/0/4280686/tdag_treespeciesguidev1.3.pdf holm oak is listed as drought tolerant, hornbeam as moderately drought tolerant (p353-354), but common beech is listed as moderately sensitive to drought.

Scotland and Norway aren't in danger of water shortage, unlike many other countries today not married - too many weird habits, no one wants me. I must change, or die a lonely man

Not wut, water - lack of which causes more deaths than covid ever will. So if Singapore say if its yellow, let it mellow, its coz they want to drink and grow crops, without importing, or expensive desalination. Men using the sink as a urinal can clean it with say 340-342ml of water, much less than needed to flush a loo. Drought is the biggest threat to increasing world pop imo

there should be laws about not flushing toilets, many countries in the world facing drought problems, the only way to save the world is piss in the sink

99.972% survive in UK, as per table 100-99.972% die = 0.028% 0.00028*67886011=19,008 (more than 19000 have died in UK) so the table may have been 'calculated' a few weeks ago, or just done by another idiot like me who knows how to waste time

they don't quote the numbers with accuracy - I should not have used the top part of the 17-50m range this article appeared in quite a few outlets back in 2014, basically scientists in the US were trying to mutate bird flu in such a way as to recreate the harmful mutations seen in Spanish Flu. Many scientists condemned the work, pointing out that if these experimental mutants got out it could lead to a man made pandemic. Scientists condemn 'crazy, dangerous' creation of deadly airborne flu virus | Science | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Researchers say recreation of Spanish flu strain highlights risk of pandemic, but critics say work puts global population at risk It seems the crazy researchers were lying low, or cowed for a years by safety fears, but just last year another article from Science mag saying the dangerous experiments set to resume. If a really harmful mutant doesn't surface in the wild, it seems humans will step in and try to make it in the lab EXCLUSIVE: Controversial experiments that could make bird flu more risky poised to resume WWW.SCIENCEMAG.ORG Two “gain of function” projects halted more than 4 years ago have passed new U.S. review process

those figures are guaranteed accurate to 3 decimal places

they all shrug it off if their loved ones haven't suffered

Like to have seen you having to intubate covid patients as your mortgage depended on it. The frontline staff have shown real bravery and would almost certainly have been swamped without the lockdown. The one they called the super spreader Steve gave it to loads of people when he went to the pub after his skiing hols.

But it wasn't a lot of fuss about nothing. So what if people arent allowed to live as they wish for a few months.

Would make a good knocking shop, so they could give the sheep a breather

You two should join forces to bid on this gem, starting at 200, surely 10x times that when the hammer falls? Check out this property for sale on Rightmove! WWW.RIGHTMOVE.CO.UK 33 bedroom manor house for sale in Troy House, Mitchel Troy, Monmouth, Gwent...

that is some of it, but I feel that the governments unwillingness to implement a military grade complete lockdown of all air and sea ports saw so many imported cases from February right up to today. One of my customers is Egyptian, he phoned about some work in April, saying he'd just flown into Gatwick, no temperature checks. The government seem to have been trusting foreign arrivals to act responsibly and isolate. Crazy.

I doubt it - can't see a virus taking out 2 or 4 billion. Needs a scalpel

Hysteria or not, the world sort of got away with it this time - when the 1918-1919 H1N1 influenza killed 50 million the world population was only a quarter of that today. Medicine has improved, but with four times the number of people around now, there is the potential for a much bigger viral whack to keep the keyboards busy

a comma, an apostrophe blind leading the blind