Wildgoose

Came here to say exactly this. He wrote under so many pseudonyms he appeared to be an entire team of writers on his own.

The current minimum EPC rating is D. The legislation to raise it to C hasn't been dropped, they just haven't decided exactly what date it will take place. And it's stupid legislation because many old properties cannot be sensibly raised from D to C, and these are the properties (e.g. terraced housing) which are typically rented out. So, we have a housing crisis with too few properties available to rent and the legislation will force landlords to take rental property off the market. Madness.

I remember that the UK was forced to privatise Rail in the way that it did because of EU competition rules. I was commuting by Rail at the time and the manner in which it was privatised was considered to be barmy by both myself and fellow passengers.

Likewise. I used to possess a hand-written letter from Sophie Wilson (of Acorn/ARM fame) replying to my own hand-written query letter at around 1981 when I was 16 and learning to program my Acorn Atom.

It really is worth reading. And I say that as a die-hard Tolkien fan. Genuinely highly recommended.

I know both usages, and as an Englishman I am a native English speaker. However, I would agree that the most common usage would be the non-Red opponents of the communistic takeover of Russia in the early 1920s. Isn't the cocktail named as a direct reference to these people?

Wow! Blast from the past! (University of Hull, around 1987).

All the base structure and common words are Germanic/Scandinavian. Yes, "fancier" vocabulary and constructed words like television or telephone are Latin/Greek derived. You could restrict English to its Germanic roots and still make (stilted) conversation. You could not do the same using only its added French/Latin/Greek vocabulary.

A.E. Van Vogt wrote it. Brilliant author. I am sure one of the tales in "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" was the inspiration for "Alien".

Fascinating. I was hoping to see the "zero mile" marker in Alfreton and it was present. The fingerpost in Brownhills (in the West Midlands) is worth knowing as well:

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Fing...

to-do-list presumably.

My (unsupported) desktop PC is an AMD Ryzen 7 2700 eight-core CPU running at 3.2Ghz with 16GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. It handles Windows 10 Professional but is apparently incapable of running Windows 11. I don't have a Webcam, but maybe face ID login is now mandated? It will be something stupid like that. I have no interest in replacing this machine though.

So well known that it was even famously used in an advert for a kid's chocolate bar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC9BBLSZZdQ

My daughter has an auditory impairment which she describes as "brain deaf".

Basically, her hearing is perfect but her brain struggles to process sound in a noisy environment; she can't single out what she is listening to.

This sounds perfect for her!

I still run my (Unix) terminals sized to 80x43 by default.

Combine these with hydrogen-boron (aneutronic) fusion and we may be able to generate electricity directly without needing a thermal plant. Even though we are years away it still shows a possible path forwards. Here's hoping!

I really wish someone would revive mirasol displays. Sunlight-readable fast colour displays for e-readers and everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R352WObkU3Q

Agreed. With a 3-3 you are trading away influence in favour of hard territory. AI is happy to do that very early because AI can effectively destroy influence. Human players need to learn to enter 3-3 at "the last possible moment". That requires judgement.

Thanks for that - fascinating story!

http://www.queenoftheisles.com/HTML/Republic%20of%20Minerva....

Thanks, I hadn't heard that before.

Absolutely!

I love my Fossil Hybrid smartwatch! This is terrible news for those of us who want a watch that has smart features, as opposed to a miniature wrist phone.

I really enjoyed travelling between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight by hovercraft and heartily recommend the experience to anyone who hasn't tried it.

My wife and I each run a joint account. So, we each have our "own" account, (at different banks), but they are shared. That certainly works well for us, and we aren't beholden to a single bank.

I remember paying for Opera, twice, back in the early days of the Web when it stood head and shoulders above the competition.

I am still happy to make a contribution for useful software, e.g. WinSCP.

Thanks - I was struggling to understand the game explanation on the original site.

Lots of outrage, but where is the pragmatic reality? Prohibition didn't eliminate alcohol. The "War on Drugs" has been a spectacular failure.

Surely it makes better sense to tax this behaviour and try to mitigate the harm caused?

I think it is more likely that average human intellect is going to regress in the next few years.

Not actually true.

The first year the Famine Relief provided by the British Government was better than anything anywhere else in Europe, (which was also affected).

The second and third years the pressure on the Treasury was such that Westminster wanted the rich Irish to also contribute, (Ireland wasn't subjected to the Income Tax being paid in Britain). The Irish refused and so in response Westminster dumped the problem of Famine Relief entirely on Irish local government, which was simply incapable to take on such a mammoth task.

(The reason why the Treasury couldn't afford to borrow the money required was that they had just recently borrowed huge sums of money to buy the freedom of all the slaves in the British Empire).

https://archive.ph/crQJO