tree-fancier123

I thought I covered your questions in first post - to reiterate 1. any lockdown was going to nearly bankrupt the country - so the public needed to see significant hospital deaths recorded before they would believe it necessary 2 the graphs weren't included to look swanky - just to show the daily recorded positive tests aren't still climbing, nor is the hospital death rate. Do you honestly think the public would have put up with staying in and complete closure of all air and sea ports, shutting of non essential businesses without seeing a bit of blood in the streets first?

I think you two nailed it, saw a known specimen of amelanchier today(at least they knew the genus, but not the species or cultivar, called it serviceberry). The OP's one is a decent size, the one I photographed is hedgecuttered into a mushroom shape each year to allow light into a front window.

and you don't think the current government hasn't been through academia with a fine tooth comb looking for people who can at least partially understand these phenomena. Personally I don't think the advisers they have used either in government, or those in universities could have been any better. Remember all over the world scientists have been at odds over how to manage this. There are 3 main points 1 - lockdowns clearly slow the spread, the more complete the lockdown the better 2- shutting most of the economy for more than a few weeks may well cause more long term suffering than just letting people die and carrying on, with mass burials of those who don't make it. Putting financial strength and natural selection before compassion (hope they don't do this as I'm asthmatic and not looking forward to atypical pneumonia). The thing is the financial impact of the lockdown will suck wealth from the many to save the few who wouldn't survive the disease. We do this because we are compassionate. 3 - related to point 2, and very much realating to your point about hiring the best experts is the idea of herd immunity, now this is something nearly all experts agree on, but how to go about it is where they differ. I suppose a vaccine is artifical herd immunity, but it doesn't yet exist. Look at todays graph from the Uk gov Covid 19 dashboard, the government has listened to the best people and tried very hard to discriminate the relevant information. Chris Witty and his colleagues in the medical schools and universities have served us well - it's looking under control Sure a total lockdown a month earlier, including sea and land ports would have saved lives, but without significant hospital deaths being reported there would have been low acceptance of infringement of civil liberty and shuttering almost the entire economy. Just look at those charts - that is success, not failure. I say well done to all. No one alive has had to deal with shit like this before, so don't expect the PM to get every last detail right. Surely even an ex drug user would agree Boris is miles better than Trump? I know even my partially distorted reformed druggie brain can see that Boris is pretty good at this crisis. And in the past I've voted Labour, Green and Conservative. It would have been Conservative again before Christmas, but I had a broken ankle and it was a done deal so I put my feet up and abstained.

This on the BBC too, pro immigration propaganda, of course people in the building trades dont want to feel guilty about ruining the countryside, they are just meeting a demand caused by pro immigration government policy. Maybe Twig wouldnt mind some of the vast expanses of land within 50 miles of him to be turned into Legoland to house half a million immigrants. There's plenty of room here right? Boost the economy. Jobs for the boys. If net migration stays above 200k every single year, like it has for nearly twenty years that should keep a few brickies busy. Its all about trying not to feel guilty about economic growth. Vast acres gone and Barrat shareholders clapping like mad.

you said before about spending some of your time driving - surely you must have seen vast swathes of new builds that were open countryside in your younger days? The article states the obvious - that the Scottish highlands are still relatively unspoiled. If the 10% figure for England is correct it must mean the best 10% has gone, leaving a few flood plains, remote hill tops and boggy marshes we haven't ruined yet. Hey what a boon it would be for the building trade if we tried to turn for example Lyme Regis into this

I suppose seeing as you've emigrated you have to be a bit pro free movement of people - my mum has been in France for 30 years, can't have a rant to her about immigration, at least can't get her to see we are crowding them in like sardines now. Your map was taken in the good old days of the world - where land was plentiful. It's hard to imagine the world population was only about a quarter of what it is today after World War 1. I say the British were guilty of crimes against humanity in the expansionist phase - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fight to keep our Island from being overcrowded now - there is no room for compassion when we are destroying so much of our countryside to make way for new housing. You want to go build enough houses to keep all these new people? Absolute crying shame what's happening to our once beautiful land Net migration to the UK, the difference between immigration and emigration, was estimated to be 258,000 in 2018. This is down from a peak of 336,000 in the year ending June 2016, just before the EU referendum each year another quarter of a million come over the picture above spreads out across our beautiful land like a cancer

Except that none of them are fleeing Syria.

it's not funny Stubby - this is an invasion of Sovereign territory

cut down a couple of small ash to give a service tree room to grow. At least I think it's a service tree. I know there are a few similar types.

Lockdown on both sides doesn’t stop 550 migrants trying to cross the Channel a few more 'volunteers' for the vaccine trials

you always hear advice about get some PPE, but no one ever bothers to offer help for what to do if an accident occurs because you forgot it - a couple of bootlaces tied together may just save your life

cryptography! just reading the Wiki entry for that now, it's hard reading about thousands of killed in action to quantify it without being in amongst it

Interesting story. I've read some biographies of Turing online and watched some of the movies about Bletchley. The best imo is The Imitation Game. Many sources say getting that U boat enigma machine was crucial, as up to then only one of the land based ones had been recovered, a slightly different design and wouldn't have let them read U boat messages. Apparently even after they cracked the code it was not allowed to use the intercepts to attack all U-boats as it would have been too obvious to germans that codes were cracked. So Reg helped make D-day alot easier, the allies intercepted orders for german troop movements.

thinking about this - actually a quality air ratchet may be a better buy, as the impact ones look like they will break most fasteners free too, save needing to reach for 2 tools when undoing stuff (in confined spaces inaccessible with a drill shape impact wrench) e.g Ingersoll Rand 3/8" dr Hammerhead Impact Composite Air Ratchet 244Nm

I've also got some Teng - you will probably want them from 1/4" to 1/2" or 3/4", I didn't bother with digital, the scales are easy and visible. Most have imperial and metric marks. For the 3/4" I risked a second hand unit, got a Gedore, a bit dear new, but a nice tool machined out of a lump of aluminium. For low torques 1/4 through 3/8 drive torque wrenches and half inch for upto wheel nut size, plus a big 3/4 drive one to properly torque hub nuts etc. If I was doing a frame off restoration one tool I'd like to treat myself to is one of those new fangled Milwaukee ratchets to spin up the hardware, must be great to just press the trigger to do up nuts and bolts in confined spaces

It's never mind - go ahead blame it on 80's education having failed you

Give him the full 10gb worth, keep him out of trouble for a while

Forgot to mention all the cons getting a roof over their head and a meal on the table at taxpayers expense. Would we really be safe if they were all released? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or something

So if you made enough money to buy a nice bit of land and gypos moved onto it, you wouldnt get the polis involved, just giv em a warning and if they still dont go - put em in hospitle. Education in the 80s wasnt all rubbish , some parents were rubbish. I went to a rough high school and the best girl in my class is a doctor. She was always telling us idiots to be quiet. If a foreign country tries to invade us tell them they can take eggs' patch as hes cash in hand wink wink, not paying for defence either.

Guy Hindley, 30, once named by Tatler magazine as a “Most Eligible Bachelor”, is heir to the 1,000-acre Gisburn Estate, acquired by his great-grandfather, founder of British Home Stores, from Lord Ribblesdale. Hindley isn’t flash, but the numberplate on his Freelander says BHS 1. Will he be good for coffee and a bacon sarny, or will it be a 'dry site'?

from reading the Wiki they were the lucky ones - most were betrayed and handed over to the germans by the Gendarmerie.

My grandad had what I thought was a funny story - after Dunkirk he went India and Burma, he said somewhere in India the troops pulled into a station in a railway carriage and lots of Indian women were carrying water in some things across their shoulders like leather pouches, he said some of the troops would poke these pouches with a wooden handle or rifle etc so the water poured out - the poor Indians had probably walked for miles with that water

What with your travel indulgence and the aussies digging a new coal mine size of Uk -ecosytsem is going to take a hammering

I sincerely hope Greta et al take control of the agenda - if we burn all that lot on leisure travel it could be even worse than evil. People need to learn to enjoy themselves where they are.

Hope they keep enough oil flowing to make plastic for the covid ventilators and ebola clean rooms