My apologies for the weather!
Snarky history. Hideous French battleships. Nautical nonsense. Always check the alt text.
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My apologies for the weather!
I enjoyed this. And what an infectious laugh. ❤️ "Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"
(and honestly, people taking my silly jokes and running with them is a huge pleasure - thank you!)
Context:
That is some SUPERB work!
Good lord!
You wouldn't believe the number of people on this platform who don't understand what a joke is, btw...
It can break your arm, you know
Those toilets won't clean themselves!
Can I interest you in the concept of "a joke"? I think you'll find they enrich your life greatly.
Because it would look silly without them (and fall over)
Ah, check the alt text and then horrify yourself further by searching for the Independence Class LCS...
We've been asking ourselves that for years
Got to be careful though. You don't know what sort of janky warship Temu will send you.
Saw an article recently that said China could rebuild the entire Royal Navy in just four years, and I can't help but think why not go for it and stick an order in?
They're simply not a serious club, are they?
(admittedly painting that on a roundabout may introduce certain hazards of its own - it's rare that you want to be uncertain of the speed and heading of essential road features - but the resultant rise in migraines amongst the paint-fume huffing racist community would be, I feel, worth the risk)
(there is also a chance some of you might be interested in this, I suppose)
With the fight to recruit students becoming ever more desperate, the University of Leicester places its faith in mutually assured destruction...
And if that's too much effort, a bag of Frazzles has more or less the same flavour notes. Serve with a chilled bottle of Panda Pops.
Pigs in blankets, obvs. Seriously, stick a spicy sauce on it and give it a fancy Spanish name and everybody would be falling over them all year round. You can make jumbo versions with regular sausages and a pack of streaky, you know...
They've not actually told me what's going on, other than it's four periods in a row, but yeah, I assume there's some actual sanity in the plan and it's a triple and a single or two doubles with a break.
English school days (I can't speak for Scotland or Wales) are generally divided up into periods of between forty minutes and an hour. Doubles are the colloquial term for lessons running over two periods, triples three etc
And on that front they've signed up for PE four times a week, including two sessions after school...
Maths is genuinely their thing, so I'm happy for them. They've also managed to get a bit of a headstart on most people moving up from GCSE, so they're in a good place.
I think that's why it's happened, yes. They've asked for maths, more maths, and a double portion of maths on the side - they deserve everything they get...
Serves the little idiot right, frankly
If you ever got annoyed with double periods at school spare a thought for the eldest, who has been gifted the joy of QUADRUPLE maths every Monday for the rest of their school career.
Schrödinger's magpie
I think the Ruhrpott response to this would be "well they would say that, wouldn't they?", though I suspect it's correct.
I've seen people also claim it as a Ruhrgebiet invention, perhaps dubiously. Better with pommes rot weiß though - I make a point of having it every time we're over. Partly nostalgia, partly because it's bloody delicious.
Yorkshire pudding adds at least one more use of the word, as does the dessert/pudding dilemma - is Eton Mess a pudding or not?
Really depends what you mean by puddings, because there's at least three uses... and some of them are glorious.
(and yes, those curries have been inordinately enriched since by British people of Indian and Bangladeshi ancestry helping to develop a distinctly British take on one of the great world fusion foods - there's a very good reason it's so popular here)
Fun discourse related fact - curries have been a part of British cuisine for longer than the USA has been a country.
You (okay, *I* - you're the expert here) wouldn't expect those wings to be so recent. Properly sympathetic building, that.
How big are the kitchen windows? Can you just leave them open, exit the room, and let the magpie work it out? Worst case scenario is he figures out the can opener and moves in instead...
Everybody was enthusiastic about rams, not least because they were very, very effective at sinking anybody who unwisely navigated into your path. It took an incredibly long time to realise that those anybodies were virtually always somebody on your own side...
Only goes to further prove that the Beano Dennis is superior in every way.
(just realised it's not your list, but it raises doubts)
Randall Munroe (xkcd) now includes decent alt text and needs removing, I think?
This here is SMS Grosser Kurfürst, which was unfortunately rammed from behind - and each subsequent detail to emerge about the accident only became more and more embarrassing. No reason to post this now, but I wonder if Rudi Guiliani is reading?
One of the world’s most beautiful Tall Ships will be on the Mersey from Sunday as part of a visit to cement historic ties with Peru. ⛵️
This here is SMS Grosser Kurfürst, which was unfortunately rammed from behind - and each subsequent detail to emerge about the accident only became more and more embarrassing. No reason to post this now, but I wonder if Rudi Guiliani is reading?
Meanwhile racists are vandalising Chinese restaurants in York, they're organising dogwhistle campaigns to make everybody feel uncomfortable in York, the two queer shops in York are being attacked regularly, and neither you nor the prime minister condemns it. And you're proud of that?
As it gets more popular it gets harder though. It's definitely a problem for Arsenal now - there's just too many fans to be able to give them all time. Ilona Maher had her sister in front of her priming people to get their selfie camera ready to speed things up, which is a neat solution.
Best two matches so far, I think? We weren't going to do it originally but the eldest is stressing a bit about their new school tomorrow and I realised the rankings were fairly even, so picked up tickets at the last minute to distract them. One of my better choices!
Mine's an anglicisation of a Polish name, so I've literally met everybody who's ever had it. Kind of fun to mess with the people offering to trace your name...
If my two change their names on marriage my surname flickers out of existence altogether. No pressure on finding partners who are happy to take it...
Honestly, if you get the chance to accidentally watch the women's rugby world cup really, really do take it.
Lads...
Of course not. It's that bad. Elgar's famous oratorio "You're shit and you know you are" was far more successful though.
Elgar 1898 - "He Banged The Leather For The Goal" - probably gives Wolves the honour, although despite the impeccable classical pedigree it's also shit
Oh for sure! Thinking about it, the real problem with the original is the lack of human agency in the resolution. That's both narratively unfulfilling and also a bit of a cop out if it's fully intended as allegory. Colonised peoples should just... wait for the British to die?
The changes Jeff Wayne made (essentially folding up two characters into one) are probably the best solution. Even there it peters out. Independence Day also solves the pacing and perspective issues by a) not worrying about being a bit daft and b) disguising itself as an entirely different story.
As for supporting, I'm just going along to watch the sport - even in the one-sided games there's some incredible moments of skill and nobody leaves anything out there. It's been really fun to be a neutral for once!
It's the world cup! USA weren't fancied to get a result tonight, gave Australia a fantastic hurry-up and produced the game of the tournament. Based on tonight I'd say a decent goal kicker would take them up a level immediately, but I can't see them currently hanging with England or New Zealand.
She's got charisma to burn and takes her position as THE face of women's rugby incredibly seriously - I didn't really understand how much effort she puts into that until seeing it for myself. Eldest was excited enough just to watch her play, let alone share a few words and get a photo.
If you're interested in zoonotic diseases Spillover by David Quammen is fascinating (and was weirdly prescient). He's good on biology in general, as is Ed Yong - who acknowledges the influence. Both have a neat line in humour, and bring elements of travelogue and other genres in.
Honestly, they were all lovely. Ilona Maher selfies are virtually an industry but she does it with humour, Samantha Wood was wryly funny about her disappointment, Jarrell-Searcy has great ink, Freda Tafuna seemed genuinely surprised and delighted by the attention... Can't praise them all enough.
Genuine privilege to be at Australia vs USA tonight - an absolutely cracking game of rugby. The players put in a huge shift afterwards meeting and chatting with fans. Particular props to a hurting Samantha Wood, who nonetheless did the rounds and had a little natter with us. Did herself proud.
Well that was bloody good fun
It's been all right so far, hasn't it?. The rain hasn't helped anybody though.
Sweet
It's happened again, lads...
We will literally strap anything to a LCS in an attempt to make it useful. 😂
Saw your dad's stuff before! In my case - and with the benefit of age - I realise that warning student teachers about the art teacher's somewhat predatory romantic past might have gone against me. I was still rubbish, but...
I was allowed to take GCSE art and set unexpected school records, in that nobody had previously found a way to fail...
I wonder what the pilot's response was to the email asking if they could now close the ticket?
"I am in fact only 35" is exactly what a 40yo would say
Wednesday's out; if you do fancy a pint Thursday drop me a DM
I didn't say when!
I won't say anything against Tad. I don't think Humphrey Smith has been a net benefit for the town.
(to expand further, and hopefully without having his lawyers contact me, the owner's influence on Tadcaster - and this is strictly opinion rather than an accusation of fact - has not been beneficial. Also, and again for the benefit of his lawyers, he's an absolute twat)
Look, if you're saying this is how to deal with a damp patch then I've got a box of matches ready to go...
Sam Smith's, innit. Good reason we boycott them - and it isn't the phone policy.
Eldest did three out of four days, pausing only for their GCSE results. I got the impression fun them that it was less of a war zone than normal, incredibly.
Because of a conversation elsewhere, it's becoming obvious that a pint in York might be a good idea. Anyone up for it?
Having watched them stumble out whilst waiting for my eldest's shift with St John Ambulance to end i concur. It's a credit to all the first aid crew that the casualty rate is frequently at least one fewer than historically...
Every time I go to London it's through Kings Cross...
Shambles just looks right, really. May the Portal and SO GAY shop ever thrive though.
I'm guessing the ones most able and mentally willing to wave flags and generally celebrate for the cameras might be those who've spent least time as prisoners?
There's been a sudden outbreak of "goth" shops. I don't know if it's Harry Potter fans suddenly and belatedly hitting puberty or the realisation Whitby is a long way to go...
I don't know which of us regrets it most, but yes...
I have it on good authority (ie I'm married to her) that @scornflakegrrrl.bsky.social is out drinking in York tonight with her roller derby mates. The only strange spirits about the place are those being consumed as doubles...
As somebody who has buggered this up more times then he can count, are you sure you've not pinched the tube under the bead for at least some of them?
THE HOLY BONES! Grimdark basing is BACK - very shortly! Close enough that we've opened a bunch to pre orders, they're due as soon as they've cleared customs. They sell out REALLY FAST so recommended not to snooze. badsquiddogames.com/shop#!/A-Tal...
Nothing wrong with perfect Polish! It's better than the bloody awful and extremely limited amount I speak (my grandfather was a Pole, so it's pretty embarrassing that I only have the niceties)
Remarkable news. 80 years after British Seafires flew over Japan in 1945, Japanese F-15s are now expected to fly over the UK. Japan to deploy F-15s to UK in historic first share.google/SP53CoH7vfDI...
My experience is that it somehow works out! I'm deliberately not writing anything that might be construed as advice here because the three of you (plus horse and dog) will work out your own rhythm, I'm sure.
There was a pretty warm relationship between Britain and Japan until after the Great War, particularly on the naval front. It's always interesting to speculate on what might have happened if that hadn't gone sour. It's something in which both sides played a part, fwiw.
(although given that's because I've stayed up a few nights chatting shit with them recently, that's probably on me...)
Don't want to alarm anybody here, but mine are teenagers and I'm still knackered...
My first thought was "wow, Grimsby's gentrified"
