Zompist Bboard Again

This is actually a really important point about economic sustainability: if our lifestyle development is based on unsustainable practices, sustainable living will feel like getting poorer.

On an intellectual level, obviously people should be eating turnips in the winter. We domesticated several vegetable cultivars specifically to be hardy through the winter because of realities like this. Kale will grow happily in temperatures barely above freezing, and can be harvested a little at a time through most of the winter. Eating like we're all Mexicans and Chinese and Australians all at once is never going to work.

On the other hand, being able to eat what we want when we want is right up there with not calling a priest every time we cut our finger as one of the great advancements of the modern world. It makes perfect sense that people don't want to give that up. The traditional northern European diet of boiled radishes with tallow candles floating in it died for a reason.

I am tormented by the same dilemma when I travel in a sky-tube. There are some things we can't afford but can't stand to lose.

Very true. On food though, once you get past the psychological barriers, it's not much of a sacrifice really. We have freezers and canned food, so subsisting exclusively on turnips and cabbage isn't necessary. Plus the kind of tomatoes you find in February taste like wet cardboard anyway so it's not like sustainability will deprive us of culinary wonders.

Planes are more difficult. I keep hoping the solution will involve airships but I'll probably be disappointed.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 2:59 am Plus the kind of tomatoes you find in February taste like wet cardboard anyway so it's not like sustainability will deprive us of culinary wonders.

I dunno... my local supermarket has reasonably tasty tomatoes (better than cardboard or the watery red things the Dutch grow in their hothouses) flown in from all over the world all year round. Which, of course, is precisely the problem with our lifestyle.

There seems to be yet another deal between the UK and the EU on how to handle Northern Ireland's status under Brexit.

As someone on Twitter put it,

Thousands and thousands of hours of Brexit, each more climactic than the last.
Constant, dizzying, 24 hour, year long, endless Brexit.
All here, all the time forever, it will never stop.
Brexit is officially going on forever.
It will never be finally decided who has won Brexit.

I thought Brexit was the political equivalent of a softlock.

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:21 am There seems to be yet another deal between the UK and the EU on how to handle Northern Ireland's status under Brexit.

As someone on Twitter put it,

Thousands and thousands of hours of Brexit, each more climactic than the last.
Constant, dizzying, 24 hour, year long, endless Brexit.
All here, all the time forever, it will never stop.
Brexit is officially going on forever.
It will never be finally decided who has won Brexit.

Just noticed that this is a Mitchell and Webb sketch about football, reworded for Brexit, and I love it!

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:21 amThere seems to be yet another deal between the UK and the EU on how to handle Northern Ireland's status under Brexit.

I'm guardedly optimistic, because I'd really like to see a resolution to the current deadlock in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, that will require the approval of the DUP, who have so far only said that they are "studying" the agreement and will spend "as long as it takes" to come up with a "collective" response to it.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 12:36 pm

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 10:21 amThere seems to be yet another deal between the UK and the EU on how to handle Northern Ireland's status under Brexit.

I'm guardedly optimistic, because I'd really like to see a resolution to the current deadlock in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, that will require the approval of the DUP, who have so far only said that they are "studying" the agreement and will spend "as long as it takes" to come up with a "collective" response to it.

Sunak was making noises about pushing the deal through even without them onboard at one point. And given that it's better than the status quo which we are bound to by treaty, and the DUP seem generally unpleasable, maybe he should.

I'm mostly optimistic because of what the deal signals: that a Tory PM was willing to face down the headbangers in his own party and do a deal based on what was possible instead of the fantasies of the ERG. It suggests that they might find a way back from being new UKIP, although it'll probably take some time out of office to fully rediscover some kind of pragmatism and willingness to compromise with reality. Still, it's a hopeful sign for sane politics even if the deal falls in the short-term.

On a rather different note, someone pointed out the potentially delicious irony of a Hindu Prime Minister and a Muslim First Minister of Scotland arguing about partition of the United Kingdom.

Look, I'm not asking them to stop being evil or repulsive, because I know that would be pointless. But would it be too much to ask that they might start showing a little bit of self-respect?

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 8:50 am Look, I'm not asking them to stop being evil or repulsive, because I know that would be pointless. But would it be too much to ask that they might start showing a little bit of self-respect?

I think you can probably guess the answer to that.

So many questions. Like, what the heck is a DIY kit for removing ear wax? Do I even want to know?

Ares Land wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:04 pm Like, what the heck is a DIY kit for removing ear wax?

I think the idea is to use a regular DIY kit, the kind that is usually used for home repairs, for that task.

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:38 pm I think the idea is to use a regular DIY kit, the kind that is usually used for home repairs, for that task.

You have to be careful to select the right drill bit.

zompist wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 4:07 pm

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:38 pm I think the idea is to use a regular DIY kit, the kind that is usually used for home repairs, for that task.

You have to be careful to select the right drill bit.

And not the left one, as this is the Daily Mail.

I suspect some editorialists at the Daily Mail kept drilling, even after getting past the inner ear.

The UK government decided that publishing this would be a great idea, and not make the entire world ask some unfortunate questions:

https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1 ... 72/photo/1

chris_notts wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 10:50 am The UK government decided that publishing this would be a great idea, and not make the entire world ask some unfortunate questions:

https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1 ... 72/photo/1

Oh dear - they obviously did not have people vet whether posting that would be a good idea before they posted it.

The amazing thing is that the tweet is still up. Is there no social media team at Downing Street?

It's there as a dog-whistle to the rabid right wingers who make up the majority of the party's support.