Everyone: Covid is spiking! Wear a facemask!
Boots: Masks? Masks? Sell masks? What do you imagine us to be, a pharmacy or some such?!?
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Is there any urban wildlife as dangerous and aggressive as the British Herring Gull?
It will absolutely fuck you up for a chip.
Apparently Sydney, in Australia, is having problems with aggressive gulls and they’ve employed dog walkers to scare them off. I saw a picture.
In England, the gulls would take the dog. Easily. It was not a big dog.
The Herring Gull would totally win in a fight.
Don’t mess with them. They remember you, and after making you bleed, will make a point of shitting on you every time it sees you afterwards.
If it wants the chip, give it the bag. Honestly, not giving it the chip is risking you getting into some serious “I just killed John Wick’s dog” type shit.
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@Inken Paper Thing is (and we have Canada geese in the UK too), they’re basically bluffing. You can run screaming at geese and they will usually flee. Geese are colossal bullshitters who only follow through if they think you are intimidated by them (see also swans).
A seagull, however, will bear a grudge on you and your descendants for generations if you cross it.
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@Inken Paper It knows how to make your life a misery and it will fight a war of attrition against you literally for years. Every time you leave the house, it will shit on you. It will dive bomb you with its mates. It will learn your habits and lie waiting in ambush. They are basically mafia.
Geese have nothing in comparison.
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@Wufflekins there aren't tournaments that are only open to men, afaik. Generally, tournaments are either open to everyone, or have specific qualifications (like rating, title, or winning a qualifying event).
There are, however, tournaments that are only open to women. Ostensibly, these exist to encourage participation, although many have suggested that it is actually to shield women from rampant misogyny in the chess scene that institutions are unwilling to handle properly.
That's a weird one for me. I absolutely understand the need for a safe space for women, and, as a man, I have no experience of the issues women face but, to me, it feels like that should be a refereeing issue. If men and women (and whoever identifies as whichever) can't participate on an even footing, regardless of gender, that's a fundamental problem with the way the sport is being supervised, isn't it?
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Am I remembering correctly that Russia (as opposed to the Soviet Union) has yet to stick an off-world landing? And that even hitting the target body counts as a major step forward?
(Fingers crossed for third time lucky for India.)
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Got some gum soreness. Usually I’d dab hydrogen peroxide on it, but it’s strangely difficult to get here (in Portugal every supermarket sells it).
So instead I got chlorhexidine. Went and did a bit of Googling for scientific papers, which resulted in finding out that, and I quote, “chlorhexidine is more effective than povidone iodine and hydrogen peroxide for treating diseased or inflamed gums, but less effective than sodium hypochlorite”
SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!
I have no plans to use sodium hypochlorite as a mouthwash.
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Anyone near Cambridge UK wanting old, possibly non working, 80s computer shit and able to collect in the next week?
I think I have a C64, Amiga 1200, maybe a ZX81
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Just had a motorbike burning something in front. Caused the worst asthma attack I’d had in years. One of those “ventolin just saved my life” ones.
Apparently I went an interesting colour.
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Apropos of another conversation, if progressive/left wing people got our ideal world, we would be happy.
if the hard right got their ideal world, they'd be miserable as fuck, because their worldview is centred around constant outrage at the state of the world and having an "out group" to rant about.
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I don’t think the majority of them would be miserable in a sensible socialist ideal world, as the goal isn’t to make one group miserable but rather make everyone happy.
That’s the difference for me, anyone who needs to make others miserable to feel joy are terrible people who shouldn’t be in charge of anything anywhere.
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@Paul100 Thing is, discriminating against someone based on who they are: not acceptable.
Discriminating against someone for behaving like an arsehole: completely acceptable.
I am a business owner as it happens, and if someone is transphobic to me, they will be told to take their custom elsewhere.
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Yes. An amazing amount of night-closures these days. When it's seven, eight-ish, I'm egging myself on as I pass the cone lorries.
There's some terrible places for endless diversions through back lanes -- round Rutland is the worst.
Me: “The Tailscale net access thingy is a front end to masquerading.”
@Zoë O'Connell ”Masquerade! Paper faces on parade!”
Me: “That is a shit musical.”
Zoe, offended: “Why?”
Me: “It has two good songs and no story.”
Zoe: “Hang on, which musical is it?”
Me: “Phantom”
Zoe: “Oh, yes, you’re right. It is a shit musical.”
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@Veronica🏳️⚧️ :inanna: There is a rubber gland where the propeller shaft goes through the hull. It’s lubricated by sea water, but needs a millilitre of grease inserting once a year to keep it watertight. This can only be done when the boat is dry docked.
The seal between the gland and the shaft is very narrow, so a plastic drinking straw, which can slip between the two, and then squeeze the grease in, is the ideal way to get it in. If you try with paper, the straw explodes from the pressure.
I’ve heard it can be done with a hypodermic needle too.
I just want all TERFs who hate read me to know that earlier this week, I used a communal changing room. I was naked. There were other women in there. Nobody gave a shit.
Please do feel free to seethe, though.
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Since Brexit, the lack of a proper trade agreement means I will have to pay import VAT on my little sailboat when I take her to France.
I asked on a UK boating forum for some recommendations for a tax advisor to assist with the process. The overwhelming answer was, “just do tax evasion. You probably won’t get caught”.
This may provide an insight into the mindset of British exceptionalism.
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@wrack Except a few months ago there was a story in the local press where they impounded and boat and fined the owner for exactly this sort of pissing about with shell companies.
Please, I’m begging you, read the room.
Internet forums do my head in sometimes.
“Hi, I want to do A. I will need help with this. Does anyone have recommendations for someone who can provide these professional services?”
“Don’t do A. Do B instead”
“Thanks, but B does not interest me. I’m looking for someone to help me do A”
“You could do C”
“It’s my understanding that C will get me arrested for tax evasion, which is why I need someone to help me do A”
“Ok, have you tried B?”
ARGH!
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The polycule iMessage group. @Sylvia Knight asks if we want anything from the shops.
Me, typing in teensy keyboard on Apple Watch: milk
Eggs
Bleach
@Zoe O'Connell, next to me: “you can actually type stuff on your watch?”
Me: “almost”
Zoe: “huh?”
Me: “look at your phone…”
Phone: new message from Sarah: “Earl Greg”
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Stopped at an M&S food place on the way back from working on the boat yesterday. Very knackered and verging on hypoglycaemic, and the only fizzy drinks they had in were sugar feee ones.
And I’m like, cut the moralising, you pricks. Sometimes you really fucking need sugar.
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“Federation tomorrow, not today”.
#Zuckerberg and #Dorsey are just serial bullshitters. #Threads #Bluesky
OK That made me giggle out loud.
Actually I need a new mattress... But unlike those grifting .....s I will buy my own.
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TERFs and bedbugs: One is very fond of mattresses and sucks the life out of their victims, living a life of obligate parasitism.
The other is an insect.
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By the way, I know you're reading this because you can't help yourself, so I have a message just for you, Ms H, and I know you're reading it from my profile, so the formatting will be preserved. I have a message for you:
SOME
GRASS
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Interesting question just came up re driving in the UK on Reddit. Someone wants to go from the M11 to the A3 and asks which way round the M25 they should go. These roads are pretty much equidistant regardless of whether you go clockwise or anti-clockwise round London.
That’s the route we take to Scarlet, so I have opinions on this. Go clockwise from the M11 and you encounter the Dartford crossing. This is a toll crossing, and is often very congested.
Go anti-clockwise and you pass the Heathrow section.
For me, there is no contest. Pay the damn toll. It may be annoying to have to put up with the Dartford crossing, but the Heathrow section of the M25 is the very arsehole of hell and to be avoided at all costs.
Interestingly, most commentators felt the same.
This post is addressing a specific TERF. I’m pretty sure she hate-reads me, and I think it’s important to note that, and I want to be very clear on this:
I still think you’re akin to a bedbug or a pubic louse.
You come at the queen or her friends, you better not miss, asshole.
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Me: Why they pointing a gun at him? They don’t need to point a gun at him! He’s in the bin!
@Sylvia Knight: It’s America!
Me: Good point. Pointing a gun at people is just how they say “hello” there.
bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-can…
Burglar lands in bin in botched escape attempt
A robbery suspect in Ohio is arrested after falling from a bank's roof into a bin in front of police officers.BBC News
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@RocheLimit @Sylvia Knight @Viking Chieftain "I physically cannot."
"Stop resisting!" BANG BANG BANG
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Seth should be writing
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •I LOVE this. It's so much better and more effective than the normal strategy people suggest for bullies which is "ignore it and they'll go away". No they won't.
Become and annoying target! Make them rethink their priorities if they're not going to get what they want out of you without a ton of effort.
Patsy (she/her)
Unknown parent • • •So it's a win-win strategy
Sin Vega
Unknown parent • • •volkris
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Seems to me they’re not screwed at all, as they can either flat out lie or hedge with, “did not reply to our question by press time.”
Which is technically true: even if you replied to their email, if your response didn’t answer their question, then they can simply say you didn’t answer their question.
Sadly, the only real solution to this problem is for the general public to move to better press outfits, which is an issue coming and going, the lack of better press outfits PLUS a public that kind of likes the rubbish.
like jam or bootlaces
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •𝟙𝔸
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •lafnlab
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Mx Amber Alex (she/it)
Unknown parent • • •Strypey
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •> [the British press] They're on a deadline, and if you make them conclude that life is too short, they will leave you the fuck alone.
That's fucking gold, thanks for sharing it.
The Animal and the Machine
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Excellent advice!