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an9n

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Any level headed person, forget a politician, would want to experiment first, see the results, gauge and then expand selectively. That is common sense.

I guess when you are a dictator ish government and you rule the country with an iron first, the institutions of the state stop being anything and simply become rubber stamps.

The precautionary principle. I've noticed this is ever-more fiercely applied to anything involving protection of the environment, but never, ever applied to protection of national ethnicities and culture in Western countries - where the mere mention of latter invites being cancelled.

The only possible upside to this is that the poor Sri Lankans will breathe a little more easily for a while - I remember that the pollution in Colombo was pretty appalling (not that that's their fault). I really feel for them, as in my experience SL had some pretty drastic poverty in parts to begin with.

A smart government would incentivise the population to invest in British industry, which would develop the economy and reduce this ridiculous industrial-investment-killing monster in the shape of the property market. But, this is England: a place where good ideas that might benefit the masses are generally either strangled at birth or sold off for a pittance.

Even with landsat as free competition, the cost of remote sensing data is exceptionally high.

And yet strangely enough remote sensing companies apparently struggle to make a profit, at least as I understand it.

It took me literally a few seconds to find this:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/16/skunk-cannab...

'Smoking powerful skunk cannabis triples the risk of suffering a serious psychotic episode, scientists have found.'

'Those who reported smoking milder forms of the drug, such as hash, did not appear to be at increased risk, for instance. Murray said that, in line with this finding, he recommends hash to patients who are struggling to give up smoking altogether.'

The trouble is that skunk is now prevalent and much, much more powerful than standard weed or hash - and the stronger it is, the more likely that it will trigger serious mental health problems like schizophrenia in a percentage of users. Also, setting aside the acute and dramatic consequences, take a walk around pretty much any reasonably sized town in the UK and before long you'll smell the characteristic smell of skunk-type weed. No matter how lenient one is the question has to be asked: is it really healthy for a society to have a good proportion of its citizens in a permanent semi-baked state? I certainly would prefer the doctor, driver, pilot or teacher for my children that does not smoke skunk, given the choice, and all else being equal.

I'm sure there's nothing dodgy happening here. Let's just trust the experts and not let trifling matters - such as Pfizer having not that long ago received the largest fine in history for a healthcare company - could our judgement. Take the vaccine! Trust the science™!

Here in the UK the authorities very quickly stopped publishing the raw data when it rather inconveniently started undermining their narrative that the vaccine is the best thing since sliced bread, makes you funnier, sexier and more intelligent, increases your sexual prowess etc etc.

Russia is blockading Ukraine grain exports

Russia say that it's Ukraine refusing to demine the waters that it, Ukraine, mined in the first place. I've also read that the impact of the (lack of) grain exports is drastically overblown

Couldn't agree more.

I'm in the UK and in the process of installing underfloor insulation in a house built around 1890. It is a flooboards-up job involving a windproof one way moisture permeable membrane above the joists, with hygroscopic insulation on top, and then a vapour control barrier on top of that, with all edges of layers taped to the joists where possible, all holes for wires, pipes etc. sealed with tape, and finally membranes brought up to wall behind the skirting boards. It's going to cost around £1k for a room of about 25m2. We have double glazing, the walls aren't particularly cold in winter, and the roof is insulated. I'm convinced most of our cold is coming through the floor and I reckon this job (along with the rest of the house in time, ugh) will make a huge difference.

But I'm having to do it myself because there are literally no specialist fitters where I live, and there are no government incentives that I am aware of. Why aren't the government going hell-for-leather for insulation etc.?