Zombie

Sorry, I was confused by “restrictive” v “relaxed”. The “go for pomp” choice was really made by Queen Victoria, and this is the model that’s been developed ever since: be seen to be believed. And that’s also what the significant numbers of tourists (pre-plague) have expected to see and spend their money on seeing... Otherwise, as you rightly say, the whole thing is pointless. As for silly, that’s an entirely legitimate point of view in the UK - and mandatory, I would have thought, for a rebellious ex-colony...

The fact is they all have choices, just like the rest of us. Anne chose duty ahead of pleasure (unlike the Queen’s sister, Margaret, or her Great Uncle Edward...). The younger one - just call me “Eddie” - wanted both the royal position and a career. That didn’t end well either... Also, Anne eschewed the royal trappings - she wanted to do the work and have her children be just plain Mr and Mrs. Contrast that with MM who seems to have wanted everything including perpetual ennoblement for her offspring. Don’t understand your point about “British royal duties” being more “restrictive” than Scandinavian models. Seems each member of “the firm” is pretty much free to choose their own causes across all of society - from AIDS to land mines. It all begs the question - didn’t MM do ANY research around exactly what she was marrying into...?

Hi Ian, and welcome You’ve got to the heart of it: - the only ones that really matter and “everyone else is a supporting actor”, and - let H + M get on with their lives and not get hung up on what they do and where they do it Because a support act is there to do just that - support the main act, the Crown. Just like Princess Anne has done. She is the exemplar of how to do this through a real sense of public service, duty to the Crown and consistent bloody hard work which the press have mostly ignored - good works never made good copy. So MM had a choice. Use her new position (she was never going to be a wallflower) to make a personal and lifetime commitment to use her undoubted charismatic skills in support of the Crown through duty and public service, or by trading on her new uplifted status to “do it my way”. We can see that her plan has not exactly... gone to plan

ironic n’est-ce pas? Curiously MM’s citizenship is unchanged - she’s still a US citizen, which probably suits her just fine... As to MM’s current and possible future positions under US law, this website digs deeper into the Emoluments Clause ( @Brayon you were referring to this?) and other exciting stuff... https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c4dec628-db01-474e-ab68-8bb0519e51fa

I’ve tried to avoid reading / listening to / watching stuff about MM but it’s getting everywhere. Today, on the BBC news website, there is a link to something about “letters”. I had nothing better to do... ...so I clicked on it. Apparently MM is suing The Daily Mail for publishing a letter. But it didn’t say what was in it. So I googled “MM letter”, then Images. And bugger me there wasn’t just one letter there’s LOTS! All in scrawly handwriting (and probably written in green ink on lined paper). It didn’t look good. Then I saw a link to Vanity Fair, which just seemed an appropriately named title for tittle tattle. So I clicked on that (link below) Strewth! I didn’t get to the end, stopping at this point: ”Meanwhile, the royal family’s personal wealth, which encompasses castles and endless swaths of British countryside and crown jewels, including a 530-carat cut diamond, the world’s largest, to squabble over, has been estimated at $85 billion. ” I mean, come on, that’s just total crap - albeit oft said and apparently widely believed. So, it’s not looking good for Vanity Fair’s fact checking ability. But... for me there’s always been a feeling that something’s “not quite right” about the story spinning around MM (formerly known as HRH). Just too good to be true. And someone who was in “Suits” is a “star”? Really?? Of course the UK gutter press have had a field day - so I understand, I don’t read them. So what’s the take in the US? More importantly, why hasn’t US TV relaunched Soap using the Windsor / Markle craptastic plotline? I’d watch it! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_(TV_series) https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/12/inside-the-meghan-markle-family-breakdown-thomas-samantha-markle

It’s like when you get suckered into downloading an Apple app that promises to be useful only then to find out the useful bits are premium

Thanks for trying but still getting the same gibberish as shown in the screenshot posted above (tried twice again) My overall experience with the iPad is pretty negative (“the answer’s No - now what’s the question?”) so I suspect Apple is the most likely cause...

Samsung = I have no issues Apple = I have issues nuff said

Just successfully loaded another screenshot image of 560 kB so, yeah, looks like the size cap is somewhere between 581 and 980 kB, and not the 1.5Mb as advertised... Since you and I seem to be the only ones having this problem does that mean the issue is with the device being used - my iPad6 and your device?

Just watched a YouTube HD video immediately after trying to upload the same 980kb screenshot pic to my Album which seems to preclude internet speed issues? This time I waited longer and eventually the loading completed - then the screen showed this (screenshot = 581kb file size): So... an image file of 449kb (screenshot yesterday) uploads just fine an image file of 581kb (screenshot just now - above) also uploads just fine an image file of 980kb (screenshot yesterday and attempted to upload again just now) fails to upload multiple times even though youtube HD video runs fine Any further thoughts? thanks

iPad6 iOS 13.3.1 Tried uploading a screenshot (file size 980kb) 6 times and it always gets stuck at this point... ...except I can’t show show you because when I try to load the screenshot of the stuck screen, although it does “progress” and doesn’t get stuck, I then get: Sorry, there is a problem Something went wrong. Please try again. Error code: EX0 What am I doing wrong? Can you help please? Thanks Edit - the “stuck screen” screenshot has now loaded!

You may be right, so the more people in all countries know about this the better and this site / thread is one more way of spreading information like this - sometimes asking the right question, as Mr Fresco did, can be a matter of life or death

Interesting item on ITV news tonight about a coronavirus patient, Stacey Fresno, in critical condition at a London hospital and given just hours to live. A simple technique called “proning” was used - basically, turning the patient so they’re lying on their stomach which helps drain fluid from the lungs / enables parts of the lung to regain function - and Stacey is now back home recovering. https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/04/coronavirus-mother-stacey-fresco-has-had-hours-to-live-but-survives-after-being-returned-to-the-stomach-uk-news.html

Surely if “truth justice and the American way” still exists he will then be forced from office and never be able to hold any public office ever again. Public humiliation, excoriation and media reviling will be a much better punishment.

Matthew Fisher, composer So how many if you have heard of him? None, I’m guessing But you will know his music. Very well, because he wrote one of the most famous organ pieces of the 1960s that is even more popular now, over 50 years later. So it’s a shame no-one’s ever heard of him. If you’re interested in his story there’s more in the blog link (Blog link: Matthew Fisher, composer of A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Hammond organ part / court battle etc) Anyway, here it is: Matthew Fisher’s A Whiter Shade of Pale, the Hammond organ part (inspired by the work of Mr JS Bach) And btw there’s absolutely nothing wrong with inspiration by another artist’s work - after all, inspiration is at the heart of the very best artistic creation and we get to enjoy two works for the price of one...

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A lot of people may do a certain thing, or behave in a particular way, but it doesn’t follow that that is the right thing to do. We can all think of plenty of examples.

I think you’ll find that everyone needs “to go out occasionally” That’s not the issue. What is pertinent is when you say “masks are intended to prevent me from spreading germs I wasn’t aware I might be infected with” “intended” We all know the saying about intentions and where they can lead... So I’m just going to repeat one sentence from the extract of the report Results/Conclusion I quoted above: “Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally.“ That was 5 years ago. More recent “further research” on the increased risk of infection from “moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration“ should now be out there. So, have you informed yourself? Because if not, there is a risk that cloth/fabric mask wearers might actually contribute to spreading the disease due to inherent deficiencies in those masks and/or human behaviour changed by a false sense of security.

With respect I disagree - the issue is whether users of a “cloth mask” properly understand the protection they do or don’t provide. Being lulled into a false sense of security is an extraordinarily material risk in this dangerous time. The evidence for this is all around us, not just in the use of “face masks” but in the sadly all-too-common disregard of social distancing guidance / rules / laws (whichever applies in your own state or country), or the belief that “I’m young / healthy - it doesn’t matter if I get it”.

Face masks Fabric / “washable” face masks - a warning Anyone wearing one of these owes it to themselves and others to understand the efficacy of these. This is a British Medical Association report published in its online BMJ journal in 2015. There’s a lot of other information out there - some is evidence based, much isn’t. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/5/4/e006577.full.pdf If you don’t read the whole thing then at least read this: Results: The rates of all infection outcomes were highest in the cloth mask arm, with the rate of ILI statistically significantly higher in the cloth mask arm (relative risk (RR)=13.00, 95% CI 1.69 to 100.07) compared with the medical mask arm. Cloth masks also had significantly higher rates of ILI compared with the control arm. An analysis by mask use showed ILI (RR=6.64, 95% CI 1.45 to 28.65) and laboratory- confirmed virus (RR=1.72, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.94) were significantly higher in the cloth masks group compared with the medical masks group. Penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% and medical masks 44%. Conclusions: This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally. However, as a precautionary measure, cloth masks should not be recommended for HCWs, particularly in high-risk situations, and guidelines need to be updated. Medical masks - dos and don’ts If you have a proper medical mask - correction, if you have a large supply of medical masks - then this is what you should and should not do: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks

The penguin has been spreading malicious rumours about were-bears - flatly denied by a certain bear - but wouldn’t this would come under horror?

No, I explained previously why I must self isolate so my impressions come from watching the usual TV news and maybe everything’s been tightened up BUT I still wouldn’t put myself at risk e.g. bus stops that are on narrow streets where other pedestrians, or disembarking passengers, cannot pass by at 2m. And if bus companies now only allow a small fraction of the total number of seats to be occupied in order to comply with social distancing then, unless companies are running many more buses on each route (not likely I would have thought), just how long do people now have to wait at the bus stop before a bus finally comes along that they’re allowed to get on? And then there’s the tube...

as a family we always holidayed in mid Wales in a remote old stone cottage miles from the road (nearest neighbour was a mile away) with no electricity (oil lamps) or mains water - it was piped and gravity fed from a nearby mountain stream. Tasted sooo good. Sometimes the water ran brown from the pine cones / moss etc that fell into the stream. And you never knew what creatures might have drowned further upstream... And, yes, the water company still tried to charge!

We’re very lucky in the UK to have a national water supply (largely built by our amazing long-term planning Victorian ancestors) that provides excellent drinking water straight from the cold tap. I’ve never understood why so much (indeed any) bottled water is sold in the UK for ordinary home drinking. It’s a disgusting waste of resources and entirely unnecessary. Actually my experience of good neighbourliness (which appears to be common across the nation) has been incredibly positive. I’m caring for my mother who is in a vulnerable group so I am also having to self-isolate, which means not going out for anything including shopping. The support from local neighbours and a recently formed neighbourhood support group has been fantastic, ensuring that we continue to have sufficient food - albeit basic. I’m not putting red peppers, chocolate, and hand-cooked with real smoked cheddar potato crisps - and more chocolate (you can never have too much) - on the shopping list...