We have a big strip of lawn for wildflowers. Started off with a few packs of mixed seeds and with the help of Google lens, learned the names of what flowers we (a) liked, and (b) did well without taking over completely. Now we just selectively weed and top up with specific seed packs.

One cut in late Autumn (not collecting the cuttings) seems to work well.

I love it and so do insects (not just bees)

I feel terrible now

England to score in the first 5 mins, then 80 mins of terrifying end to end, then Italy score in the 90th minute and again in the first minute of extra time, then England fall to pieces.

Can anyone beat that as a worst case scenario?

Meh, I’m fine with the principle of this. It is a massive waste that such a database doesn’t exist already given the scope for medical advancement it would bring. And if the NHS make money selling it to global corporations then all the better.

Northwind is right, David Ford wins this category

Business class seats when flying (yes I know this is still a minority thing and not exactly relevant at the moment). For the sake of a few hours of a different level of discomfort, I’m amazed at the price people pay for those seats.

I sometimes think of the cost of something in terms of how many days work I have to do to earn the money to pay for it. I’ll take an economy seat and a few extra days off thanks!

Oh and no, there is no way to add a brake. Don’t ride down hills with new shoes on!

We got one in red for my 3 year old daughter. Really pleased with it. Only thing to compare it to is the first bike which was a 10 inch wheeled halfords thing made from recycled anvils. It is very light and that makes a big difference to how much use it gets.

The neoprene “padding” on the stem is completely useless however.

Would definitely buy again

Here is Christopher Hitches to give you a refreshing fix

I hope this is a troll.

Skyhook?

Well that looks brilliant, why don’t we have them already?

I just read the actual original question.

A space elevator or launch loop. That’s what I would be working on if I was CEO of a space company. The biggest problem with serious space exploration or settlement is how we rustle up a lot of heavy raw materials up in space, out of which we can build stuff. Everything else seems solvable.

The reusable falcon rockets seem like a game changer, but still far too expensive for building anything really big.

The sun has at least 5 billion years left. We have evolved from single cell organisms in less than 1 billion years. Whatever is still around to see the sun blow up, it wont be Homo Sapiens any more.

If we are purely looking to ensure the survival of the human race, we could put up a few huge, sealed bunkers here on earth which would survive nuclear war of catastropic climate changes far easier than on Mars or elsewhere. Goethermal power isn’t running out any time soon.

Avoiding the loss of 99.9% of life on earth is hard, maintaining at least 0.01% is doable.

It will be easier to reverse climate change than make a whole planet (mars or elsewhere) habitable

We got one from the seemingly constantly replenishing primrose ex-display listings. Used to be auctions starting at £1, which occasionally meant ultra bargains. Seems all BIN now, but still excellent value if you aren’t fussy:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=primrose_london_uk&isRefine=true&LH_ItemCondition=4

I can’t bear to think about all the amazing stuff I could have achieved if civ 4 had never existed.

5 and 6 didn’t look like they added enough to justify the time needed to get good at them. I love 4 for how differently each game can pan out.

Tom Hanks
Rowan Atkinson
Lin-Manuel Miranda

A skim over biographies reminds me just how much impressive stuff they have done.

Also interested in suggestions.

We found codenames works well. There is a free website called horsepaste which generates a board and everyone can log in. Or for an authentic feel, have the cluemasters WhatsApp a photo of the physical card grid after each round

Our Samsung TV is wall mounted and WiFi performance is horrendous unless we pull it out from the wall by say 10cm and then restart it at the mains. Then it works flawlessly. Try repositioning then restart?

Back on topic, Tado radiator valves are cheap today

I think 3 is a Camelia

And 4 I’ll guess a Pieris Japonica. Maybe a flaming silver? Wait and see what colour it’s flowers are

On the topic of ramping up ventilator production, is somebody clever having a serious stab at coming up with an agreed upon open source approach? I’m thinking raspberry pi to control it with software that the government or WHO endorses, stuff like rubber tubing from B&Q or whatever, and plans that work with a hobbyists 3d printer for the niggly bits. What is left that’s needed? I’m guessing a standardised motor that’s powerful enough, plus valves?

Shoot me down if it is a ridiculous idea but interested to know what components we couldn’t source quickly.

My entry is the blue sea dragon:
Wikipedia

I dropped to 4 days per week at the start of this year, coinciding with wife going back part time after maternity leave. I’m early 30s.

Hugely recommend it. I actually got a very positive reaction from others in the office (nobody else works part time). Comments along the lines of “what an excellent example to set for everyone”.

Helps to have an employer looking to set a positive image – I was ready for an argument with work when requesting it but never met any resistance at all. Assuming you are male, there is a big gender pay gap argument for doing it, in order to normalise the idea that it isn’t the woman’s job to stay home with kids. I might expect to only progress my career at 4/5ths of the speed but no less.

You are giving up 20% of gross pay (less than that net pay) for 50% more weekend. Do it.

Three ways this could all turn out ok(ish):

1. Donald Tusk and his mates think that Boris is indeed mental enough to go ahead with no deal, and decide to capitulate on the WA in some way. Utterly unlikely to happen, they seem to have stronger principles than we do.

2. On October 29th, Boris addresses parliament, points out that whatever deal is now on the table is absolutely unarguably the best deal there will ever be, having pushed everything to the furthest brink imaginable, and then puts some options to parliament, possibly including no deal, the existing WA, withdrawing A50 or a binding public referendum. Ideally, he points out just what a nutjob you would actually need to be to want no deal, which coming from him might calm the riots a little. He then calls Farage a silly clot, and then implements the choice of parliament.

3. Someone, somewhere, negotiates an option to rejoin the EU at a later date. We have a few years of apocalypse, then come crawling back and serve as the warning to other members whose right-wing elements get twitchy.

If only we all felt as relieved by the result as Jeremy Hunt looked…

And I can recommend the Filcris flexible edging kits. Just done half the garden with it.

Do you have a mitre saw? cutting accurate 45 degree angles is the hardest bit. After that, you just need a band clamp like this: Band clamp, some PVA glue, and a staple gun.

If you are feeling posh, this stuff makes a nice frame to go round it (again, band clamp, glue, and paint/finish as desired)

Did I miss something or is there still an issue with Bercow not allowing the same vote again? Is she just hoping that will go away?

These guys got to Australia in a little Cessna:

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/three-in-a-plane-on-an-incredible-journey-for-charity-1-2467661

Think you would need something bigger for the Atlantic or Pacific though…

If you need it to update its position in real time and track via an app, we have one of these on the cat and it is great:

https://www.weenect.com/en/

Bit dearer than the one Jambo linked to, which is remarkably cheap!

Clunge

We just bought our second Roku. It just works, I’m not sure what additional features anyone could want (except 4k?) and it only cost £30.

I was feeling properly smug with myself when I sold both of my bitcoins a few months ago for just under 1k each. Could have bought an extra bike if I had held on until now!

Ton, out of interest, do you consider yourself a bit racist?

Tell me I’m over reacting if you like, but what you said up there blows the 17+ pages dithering over what to call a Chinese takeaway out of the water. IMO of course.

I’m really confused. Is this a joke thread or not?

I told the inlaws that it looked good and suggested we watch it. We switched off after 5 minutes and I expect I have plummeted in their estimations…

This really isn’t going to help any kids who are already having a tough time being bullied and happen to have an interest in military history…

“Sir, nobody likes little Timmy and we saw him reading an action man comic because nobody would play with him. Shall we call 911?”

If an Android tablet does everything you want to do, then you are probably better off with an Android tablet.

Windows tablets are “proper computers” squeezed into a tablet. They can do stuff that Android tablets cant, but aren’t attempting to compete in terms of intuitiveness etc. IMO.

An e-ink monitor that I can use outdoors. I’m happy with a silly slow refresh rate, so no video, I just want to be able to read and write text on a computer while sat in the garden. Doesn’t feel like a big ask given how long kindles have existed for.

Self driving cars, as others have said.

A space elevator (just need a strong enough rope).

Thank god for that, I can finally get to bed. Awesome mach though from both players.