It does have a similar vibe to when Liz Truzz killed the Queen

Didn’t he send another cardinal to lecture Vance?

I think this is because the US doesn’t like to be held to any standards that aren’t under its complete control. They are going to have to get used to that as their share of global power wanes

I used to have a kindle but when I upgraded I went for a kobo because of this kind of thing. Loving the kobo

Exactly.

There are lots of people in this thread who aren’t familiar enough with how the UK system works (understandably, because it’s not a UK community). A lot of those people have jumped to the wrong conclusion.

It makes me wonder how often I get the wrong end of the stick when it comes to US/international politics etc.

Yeah it’s going to be a legal mess for a while and I do sympathise with people who are affected. Something for parliament(s) to sort out.

The courts in the UK are not politicised like in the US.

“Judges say the “concept of sex is binary” while cautioning that the landmark ruling should not be seen as victory of one side over another”

They interpret the law as it’s written (I.e. about sex, not gender), so to change this you would need a new law. It’s not supposed to be a moral judgement.

But they don’t have complete visibility over what you do with cash, which is exactly their point right?

That tram could give it a good punt

They might even give it the whole foot

Bit of a weird one, but… freshly peeled parsnips

I could take them or leave them when it comes to eating, but they smell great. Maybe it’s a memory from childhood or something!

And people who have access to a nice one, and time to use it…

I hope it works out as you say; however, I can’t help but think the situation is much worse than that and it will be difficult to recover normality even if the dems win the midterms and resist trump for the rest of his term.

From an outside perspective it seems like people knew what trump was like in the first term, had some time to reflect on it, and then decided they wanted another hit. The kind of propaganda he used to win is incredibly corrosive but apparently it works, and certain oligarchs have thrown their weight behind it to maintain their power. AI and deregulated social media is going to make it easier for bad actors (both foreign and within your own country) to pump it out at scale, using more sophisticated and targeted methods. I can’t see regulators controlling it given what your political culture is like, and how powerful the tech lobby is.

If your country is so fractious that you get one term for each party repeatedly, the republicans will win, because it’s so much quicker to break things than it is to fix them.

In Europe we need alternatives to American tech and weapons systems in case this trend away from democratic norms and rules based international order continues.

Edit: I realise I’ve assumed you are american here, apologies if not.

I think most of us are coming to the realisation that America pulling its head out of its arse is not going to happen, and this is a permanent change.

Believe it or not, this is a legit thing. I haven’t done anything much with rocks*, but here’s a good example for soil. If it’s fine grained (smaller than sand) and you can’t see the particles by eye, you can rub some on your teeth:

Buttery texture --> clay Gritty on the teeth --> silt

Not approved for use on contaminated ground!

• I’m a structural engineer, but I work closely with geotechnical engineers and do my best to understand it as well

Best fact of the day!

Nope I’m pretty sure they are glass/ceramic, but they have a nice flared end so maybe they have other uses

…where does he keep them? Make sure you wash your hands after touching them!

You do

Yeah. Not the best choice, it is beautiful though!

There are some much better photos here: https://friendsofthursleycommon.org/visitor-photos/