Yinz is definitely a Scots thing
She does, and it's one of the key character points at the start of Aliens.
It was tender and sleepy the night before, but more fun and adventurous with a good night's sleep and a meal inside.
Sometimes I just give them a dead stare until they stop talking then carry on with what I was saying, or alternatively "excuse me [optional] Dave, I wasn't finished."
Other times it's not worth the drama, or they might actually be reasonably more excited about what they have to say then listening, in which case fair enough.
I worked with an ex-paramedic who alluded to a similar factor in leaving to become a nurse aide.
Yeah, it's the one thing you just carry around. If I'm waiting for the kettle to boil it's enough time to refresh Lemmy, but not enough to read even part of a chapter in a book.
Also keeps your health up for longer to use a bike! If you've got health insurance then that probably matters even more.
Hmm... We're trying to make sure we all get turns, so she gets nursery rhymes to sing along and do the actions to, then we get some pop, rock, folk or metal.
Bike parts do need replacing every so often, but obviously aren't as costly as car parts. A professional service once or twice a year also costs a wee bit but again isn't like getting the car MOT'd.
You have a point. I usually keep the book in reading next to my bed. Maybe I just need books dotted around the house.
Screen reduction techniques
I spend so much effort trying to distract my kid from just asking to watch TV, then as soon as I get some time to myself it's straight onto the TV or video games (or phone). Maybe I need to practice on myself as well?
The blessing exists. I'm in my 30s and my dad who's in his 60s has more hair than me.
Scott Peden, whose partner and two children died after battery exploded, calls for compulsory regulation
>A man who narrowly survived an ebike battery fire that killed his partner and two children says he is tormented by grief and guilt but determined to fight to change the law to avoid similar tragedies.
>Scott Peden, 31, was placed in an induced coma for a month after suffering 15% internal burns when he tried to wrestle his burning ebike out of his Cambridge flat last June. He also smashed his heel in three places jumping from his bedroom after the battery exploded.
>When he was pushed back by the flames and toxic fumes he called to his partner, Gemma, 31, and children, Lilly, eight, and Oliver, four, to jump from the same bedroom. “She said: ‘I can’t get out.’ That’s the last words I heard. I don’t know what happened,” Peden said.
>He added: “Gemma knew I tried to help, but did the kids? Was their last thought ‘where’s Dad?’ I feel so much guilt and fear about what they went through in those last couple of minutes, it hits me every day.”
>Peden learned of their fate only when he emerged from the coma in a burns unit in Broomfield hospital in Chelmsford. He says: “They told me Oliver was found in his bedroom. Gemma was found in our bedroom doorway and Lilly was under our beds with the two dogs.” The fire destroyed the family’s council flat and everything in it.
>Cambridgeshire police told Peden that his family and the dogs all died from lithium gas poisoning. An inquest into their deaths will take place after police have concluded an investigation. It has so far focused on the previous owners of a secondhand battery that Peden bought online days before it exploded in his hallway.
>Gemma, Oliver and Lilly were among 11 people killed in fires caused by ebike batteries in the UK last year, believed to be the highest number in a single year. Coroners, fire officers and campaigners have expressed growing alarm about rising sales of unregulated and potentially lethal batteries.
>The number of fires from ebikes and escooters in London more than doubled in two years, from 78 in 2021 to 179 last year, according to figures from the London fire brigade. In the first five months of this year there have already been 66 such fires in the capital.
>Peden is backing a campaign by the charity Electrical Safety First (ESF) for a law change to ensure there is independent third-party certification in the sale of such batteries, as there is with other dangerous products such as fireworks.
>Speaking from the Cambridge flat where he has been rehoused, Peden said he was an “unlikely poster boy” for the campaign as he was dealing with his own trauma. He said: “I used to dream the whole experience over and over again. The PTSD means that sudden bangs put me in a panic attack.”
>But, he added: “Campaigning has given me a sense of purpose. My life has been ruined but I can help save someone else’s.”
>At the time of the fire, Peden was working for M&S unloading early-morning delivery trucks. He shared the ebike with a colleague who worked the evening shift. When the battery was stolen he could not afford the £600 it cost for a new one.
>After having struggled financially, the family was looking forward to Oliver starting school as Gemma could get a part-time job. He said: “Our lives were just beginning. We were looking forward to finally taking the kids on holiday. And it all got snuffed out in a night.”
>Peden has not spoken to Gemma’s family since the funeral and says they are unlikely ever to forgive him. Asked what he would say to them, he said: “I’m sorry, that’s all I can say. Should I have just used a push bike? It’s all my decisions that I have to live with.”
>It was not Peden’s fault that the battery was unsafe or that it was so easy to buy online. Picking up his phone, he showed that within seconds he was being targeted with adverts on social media for similar secondhand batteries with no safety warnings or certification.
>The Department of Business and Trade said a Whitehall taskforce had been set up to tackle the problem and research had been commissioned to understand the cause of fires in lithium batteries.
>Peden is frustrated by the delays. “The longer they take to regulate, the more the bodies will pile up,” he said. He urged the next government to introduce ebike safety laws as soon as it came into office. “If my story doesn’t show the desperate need for a change in the regulation, then I don’t know what will.”
>In a campaign video for Electrical Safety First, he said: “We are trusting the government that they are safe, but they are not. They need to be regulated, they need to be checked. Change the rules to save someone’s life.”
>Lesley Rudd, ESF’s chief executive, said: “Across the country people are dying because of these fires, and people like Scott are left living with the grief and devastation. The status quo is killing people and ruining lives.”
Dandelion in the Haar
Morning haar was leaving the dandelion clocks covered in dew the other day. Probably should have bumped up the ISO so I could have a faster shutter and tighter aperture.
Ricoh GRIIIx F4.5 1/30 ISO100
Rotting Shed
We're getting rid of this shed soon because it was crap when we moved in and could probably come apart next time we have a storm. For now it has "character."
Ricoh GRIIIx F5.6 1/200 ISO100
Exclusive: Scientists say people with disease who drink two to four cups a day are less likely to see it return
>People with bowel cancer who drink two to four cups of coffee a day are much less likely to see their disease come back, research has found.
>People with the illness who consume that amount are also much less likely to die from any cause, the study shows, which suggests coffee helps those diagnosed with the UK’s second biggest cancer killer.
>Experts said the findings were “promising” and speculated that, if other studies show the same effect, the 43,000 Britons a year diagnosed with bowel cancer may be encouraged to drink coffee. The disease claims about 16,500 lives a year – 45 a day.
>A study of 1,719 bowel cancer patients in the Netherlands by Dutch and British researchers found that those who drank at least two cups of coffee had a lower risk of the disease recurring. The effect was dose dependent – those who drank the most saw their risk fall the most.
>Patients who had at least five cups a day were 32% less likely than those who drank fewer than two cups to see their bowel cancer return, according to the paper, which was funded by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and has been published in the International Journal of Cancer.
>Similarly, higher levels of coffee consumption also appeared to be closely linked to someone’s chances of surviving.
>Again those who drank at least two cups daily had a lower risk of dying compared with those who did not. And, as with the risk of recurrence, those who had at least five cups saw their likelihood of dying fall the most – by 29%.
>People in the UK drink an estimated 95m cups of coffee a day.
>The research team leader, Dr Ellen Kampman, a professor of nutrition and disease at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, said the disease returned in one in five people diagnosed with it and could be fatal.
>“It’s intriguing that that this study suggests drinking three to four cups of coffee may reduce the recurrence of bowel cancer.”
>However, she stressed the team had found a strong association between regular consumption of coffee and the disease rather than a causal relationship between them.
>“We are hopeful, however, that the finding is real because it appears to be dose dependent – the more coffee drunk, the greater the effect,” she added.
>The study is the latest to show that coffee reduces cancer risk. There is already strong evidence that it lowers the risk of liver and womb cancers and some evidence that it does the same for mouth, pharynx, larynx and skin cancers. It is also already associated with a lower risk of developing bowel cancer.
>Prof Marc Gunter, a co-author of the study and chair in cancer epidemiology and prevention in the school of public health at Imperial College London, said the findings were “very provocative as we don’t really understand why coffee would have such an effect in bowel cancer patients”.
>He added: “But they are also promising as they may point towards a way to improve prognosis and survival among bowel cancer patients.
>“Coffee contains hundreds of biologically active compounds which have antioxidative properties and may be protective against bowel cancer.
>“Coffee also lowers inflammation and insulin levels – which have been linked to bowel cancer development and progression – and can have potentially beneficial effects on the gut microbiome.
>“However, we need more research to go more deeply into the biology of why coffee might have such an effect on bowel cancer prognosis and survival.”
>The WCRF has identified chlorogenic acid, which is also found in kale, as an agent that could provide a key part of the explanation because of its role in managing the body’s glucose levels and regulating insulin levels.
>Coffee’s emergence as a potential protector against cancer is remarkable because until 2016 the World Health Organization classed it as “possibly carcinogenic” before changing its mind because the evidence did not exist to back that up.
What's your secret ingredient that makes your version of a common dish better than anyone else's?
Mine probably isn't that secret these days, but almost every sauce I add nutritional yeast to. Curry, chilli, bolognese, it just makes them all better.
Progress towards council funding reform in Scotland
>Today’s Scottish budget marks a big step forward in widening the powers of Scotland’s councils to more directly manage their own finances and fund essential local services.
>Following an agreement reached between the Deputy First Minister and Scottish Greens last autumn, this afternoon Shona Robison confirmed further actions to progress reform of council finances.
>These include a commitment to introduce a new law for second and holiday homes to be charged more than double the regular rate of Council Tax and a process for significant reform of that tax ahead of the next Holyrood election. This process will include public engagement on key issues such as how homes are valued.
>Significantly, the Deputy First Minister also confirmed that the Scottish Government has agreed to work with COSLA to explore the potential for a ‘power of general competence’ for local councils, a policy long advocated for by the Scottish Greens. Such a power could lead to councils being able to set their own local taxes and levies, living up to the ethos of ‘local by default, national by agreement’ contained in the Verity House Agreement signed by the Scottish Government and local government last year.
>Scottish Greens finance spokesperson Ross Greer said: “It is essential that local services like schools and social care get the funding they need. Unfortunately Westminster continues to force catastrophic cuts on Scotland’s budget, but we can get around some of this by empowering local councils to directly raise more of the funds they need.
>“The Scottish Greens entered government on a commitment to reform council finances and today’s announcements demonstrate real progress on that commitment. More than doubling the rate of Council Tax on second and holiday homes will raise money for local services and free up homes for those who really need them.
>“A ‘power of general competence’ might not sound like the most exciting news of the day, but it could be transformational for local councils, empowering them to act like a tier of legitimately elected government just like Holyrood or Westminster.
>“Overall this budget reflects Scottish Green values. Despite the difficult position Westminster has put us in, we have prioritised people and planet with policies like cancelling school meal debt and investing in a renewable energy industry creating thousands of new jobs each year.
>“Scotland has the most progressive income tax system in all of the UK, largely as a result of Scottish Greens tax policies. This means an additional £1.5 billion is available to spend on essential services each year, such as our NHS and the groundbreaking Scottish Child Payment that is lifting so many families out of poverty.
>“With free bus travel for everyone under 22, our special offer of removing peak rail fares until the end of June, expanding free school meals to 20,000 more children and a record £4.7billion for climate and nature, the impact of Scottish Greens in Government couldn’t be clearer.”
Veteran MP responds by criticising the party’s leadership for lack of urgency on Scottish independence
> The Scottish National party (SNP) has expelled its veteran MP Angus MacNeil, who immediately responded by criticising the leadership’s lack of urgency on independence.
He was suspended from the party’s Westminster group last month after reportedly clashing with its chief whip, Brendan O’Hara, over his attendance record at Commons’ votes.
The SNP’s conduct committee met on Thursday to discuss the case after MacNeil refused to immediately rejoin the group at the end of his suspension.
MacNeil, 53, has represented the Na h-Eileanan an Iar , or Western Isles constituency since 2005.
He tweeted about his expulsion, using a kangaroo emoji to refer to the member conduct committee.
He said: “The Summer of Member Expulsion, has indeed come to pass. As I have been expelled as a rank & file SNP member by a ‘member conduct committee’.
“I didn’t leave the SNP - the SNP have left me. I wish they were as bothered about independence as they are about me!”
MacNeil, who is one of the SNP’s longest-serving MPs, has been an outspoken critic of the party leadership in recent years, in particular over what he considers its timid independence strategy, but also on gender recognition reform and the Bute House agreement with the Scottish Greens. He is known to be a close ally of the former first minister Alex Salmond.
He was suspended from the Westminster group for a week in early July followingafter reports of a row with O’Hara in the House of Commons after the online blog Guido Fawkes reported a public row in the division lobby during which MacNeil called O’Hara “a small wee man” several times before throwing official letters about missed Commons votes back at him and storming off.
His membership of the party was suspended later the same month because he refused to immediately rejoin the SNP group.
He released a statement attacking the SNP leadership’s approach to independence, accusing it of a lack of urgency.
“I will only seek the SNP whip again if it is clear that the SNP are pursuing independence,” he wrote.
Thursday’s decision by the conduct committee means he is no longer able to sit as an SNP MP
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More in the link...
Also, fuckity bye!