I have a special weakness for deep future speculation inspired by a,lifetime of reading SciFi. It brings a little perspective to present day here and now issues. The problem is that my consciousness won't see any of it.

So what might the Earth look like in a couple of hundred thousand years? From the perspective of whatever hominids are still around; assuming they are still around.

If 200,000 years (Homo Sapiens) is too near term, how about 2 million (Hominids), or 20 million (Primates)?

Sad story about people living with Long Covid.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/05/i-could-bench-press-100kg-now-i-cant-walk-lucys-life-with-long-covid

Please note this.

> I got introduced to graded exercise therapy, to try to improve my fitness, but that just set off a massive crash. The most a long Covid sufferer can do is manage symptoms and pray things get better. Even if things do improve, one activity too many in a day can be debilitating and set you back.

#Covid

I love the idea of a "Combat Rhetorician" along with "Weaponised Irony". Anathem (Neal Stephenson) was way too long but one idea stuck in my head. Rhetoricians change the past. Incantors change the future.

I think we may have found a use for AI.

> [In 2014, ]The US Secret Service has issued a requirement for software that can detect sarcasm in tweets.

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/06/we-need-a-pony-and-the-moon-on.html
@cstross

Did you hear the one about Epimenides' Cretan friend who said "So all Cretans are sarcastic?, Yeah right!".

When they've done the weaponised sarcasm detector, we need a weaponised irony detector. Seeing as how irony is nearly as hard to cure as Herpes or Malaria. Once you've caught it, it keeps coming back.

Today's random email .sig from my .sig generator

There's Only 337,665 Years To Go In The Kali Yuga

Big thread here about ventilation in schools. And how Bridget Phillipson (shadow education minister) knows about this problem. So what's she going to do when it's her in charge?

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1795114973271597137.html

Gaza: Can you see what it is yet?

Rafah attack has stopped aid.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/02/children-die-malnutrition-rafah-famine-gaza-israeli-troops-aid-strip

What are Labour's policies on energy costs and the electricity companies?

A Green Fund promoting renewable development is a good thing. But it won't bring energy costs down without a wholesale restructuring of the energy supply markets.

#GTTO #ToryZero

Looks like May-24 was another record month for temperature. We'll know for sure when the numbers come in around 7-June.

https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/t2_daily/?dm_id=world
https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/
https://pulse.climate.copernicus.eu/

#climate #climatechange

Also The Patti Smith cover, obvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPO0bTaWcFQ&pp=ygUScGF0dGkgc21pdGggZ2xvcmlh

#Cocktail - Gloria

50ml Gin, 15ml Dry Vermouth, 15ml Campari, 15ml Cointreau, Lemon twist

G L O R I A
https://youtu.be/VlWiQ69DGE0

Happy First Day of UK Meteorological Summer!

Cold, drizzly, windy. Lovely. These are the Northern Hemisphere light months when the dark nights are just too short.

What are Labour's policies on Tax and Benefits?

Tax reform. Tax inequality. UBI. Homeless. Long term sickness. Social housing. Pensions. Long term care. Council tax.

#GTTO #ToryZero

What are Labour's policies on Education?

Making schools safe and hygienic for staff and pupils. Dealing with illness in schools and spread via schools. Recruiting and supporting staff. School meals. Curriculum. Private schools, SEND schools.

And all the rest.

#GTTO #ToryZero

Vote out to Help out

#GTTO #ToryZero

Should also have told it to limit itself to the original site as there were a small number of pages with images held elsewhere.

Job jobbed. Good enough for gov work anyway.

BTW. The whole thing is for a small number of crazy M/C engineers who think recumbent motorcycles are a good thing. Like Akira's bike. They may be right.

Success, I think. Copied all 20k files back to the server on a 2nd directory. Renamed the old one, then the new one and there's the static site.

Reading the source code for index.html it was clear it hadn't collected all the .css files and left the links to the original website. It didn't take long to find them all and copy them as well. There was probably a switch in httrack to include them but I wasn't going to start again.

The BIG ONE

What are Labour's policies on Brexit?

Neither party wants to talk about this at all, at all. And yet, a huge number of the problems in the UK now cannot be solved without a return to the single market and freedom of movement.

https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/quietly-election-is-being-held-on.html

UK Covid stats. Up? Down? does anyone know? There's no testing, so how could we.
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/

Some final ONS winter study docs here
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/winter-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-study-estimates-of-epidemiological-characteristics-england-and-scotland-2023-to-2024

Infection hospitalisation risk : 1 in 226
Infection fatality risk : 1 in 1200
Both significantly higher in >55 years

Spring vax campaign nearly done. Only 53% uptake
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/

What are Labour's policies on the railways, HS2 and public transport?

Re-nationalisation. Electrification of the whole network. Much improved railways in the midlands and N England including cross routes. Rural bus services. Ultra low fares.

All these and more please.

#GTTO #ToryZero

This week I have mostly been

trying to remember what I once knew about web dev. As I try and cope with a 20 year old website running on long defunct end of life Drupal and PHP. Using modules that went obsolete in 2010. There is no update path that I can see.

I've given up and decided to make the site static. HTTrack took 5 hours to download it creating 750Mb of files and images. Tomorrow I upload it and make it public, retiring the old site.

@drinkstodon Soundtrack. Some 2024 UK Garage. So clean. So good.

Nitework (Medlar and Ell Murphy) Bubblers (on ShallNotFade). Going to see Ell at the ShallotFade festival in late August. Can't wait. But lots of adventures between then and now.

https://www.discogs.com/master/3417475-Nitework-Bubblers-EP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130qqYn_SBQ

#Cocktail - Knickerbocker #3

50ml Jamaican Dark Rum, 20ml Lime, 10ml Cointreau, 5 ml dbl syrup, 4 Raspberries, shake, dbl strain, raspberry garnish

Lots of versions, usually with raspberry syrup, rocks, crushed ice and tiki ganish. Tonight, it's more like a Raspberry Daiquiri. Don't you just love late spring, early summer? Cool, drizzle, first summer fruits.

@drinkstodon

https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1795881609574383712

> There are just 58 seats where the right-of-centre vote (CON+RFM) is expected to be larger than the left-of-centre vote (LAB+LDM+GRN+SNP+PLC).

> Left of Centre: 573
> Right of Centre: 58

Reasons for tactical voting. #GTTO #ToryZero

Labour's been posting this. "We did it before, we'll do it again".

Yes. But how? By introducing more PFI?

7 years ago we were in the run up to the Theresa May election. That went well ... And here we are again.

Vote Nasty!

Nope. #GTTO #ToryZero

Have some very wonderful 2017 subvertising from @spellingmistakescostlives

What are Labour's policies on the NHS?

More privatisation and no more money isn't going to cut it.

Streeting is a shouty man, isn't he.

#GTTO #ToryZero

This is really good, but it's 2m dry air temperature and doesn't include humidity.
https://pulse.climate.copernicus.eu/

Has anyone got a good map of wet bulb temperatures around the world?

#climate #climatechange

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/29/delhi-temperature-hits-499c-as-indias-capital-records-hottest-day

Not the only one asking this.
https://labourhub.org.uk/2024/05/28/wheres-covid-gone/

https://x.com/JoePajak/status/1795553805305548904

What are Labour's policies on Covid, Long Covid, JVCI, UKHSA, ONS Covid analysis, Air Hygiene in public places?

#GTTO #ToryZero

What are Labour's policies on the Water companies?

#GTTO #ToryZero

Article from 11 years ago about potential developments in future batteries. LiOn and specifically Li-NiCoMn (NMC) won out. All the fancy experimental types are still 30 years out. Even LiFePo is fading.

We need a factor of 10 improvement in energy density and cost. But we're only going to get incremental improvements and probably less than 20% from where we are now.

https://www.theregister.com/2013/05/28/hot_lithium_ion_batts/

My web hosting provider has just doubled their surcharge for an old (ancient) version of PHP.

Looks like I'm finally going to have to bite the bullet and do multiple updates of Drupal for a club site I host. And some major work on my long neglected blog.

Been putting this off for years. Hmmm. Can I remember any PHP?

Could really do with a set of helpful hints for converting 5.6 code to whatever is current. Pregmatch, objects by value, session? Is that even the right terminology?

#Cocktail - Some Moth

60ml Gin, 20ml Dry Vermouth, dash (or two) Absinthe, 3 cocktail onions, Lemon peel - twisted and discarded.

A Wet Gibson with added Absinthe.

Waiter, what's some moth doing in my glass?
That appears to be breaststroke, Sir.

200 major party candidates still to be announced in the UK elections, including 190 Conservatives. With only 2 weeks till the deadline.

New Product. New Branding. #ToryZero No Clue.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/27/first-edition-general-election-candidates

They're going to have to scrape the barrel to get them in place, in time. And some are going to be really suspect.

2015: The future is about old people, in big cities, afraid of the sky. (c @bruces ) https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/03/the-future-is-about-old-people-in-big-cities-afraid-of-the-sky/284459/

2024: Houston storm, flooding
https://abcnews.go.com/US/rare-high-risk-warning-flash-flooding-issued-texas/story?id=110298719

2024: Miami temperatures
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/us/miami-heat-summer-weather.html

Put in the freezer for a few hours. Don't worry if there's ice forming, it'll melt by the time you serve. Cold bag to the wood. Pour into shot glasses with the garnish on a stick balanced across the top.

You should get about 10-12 shots of each. Amaze your friends and drink quickly while the cocktails (and your friends) are laughing at you.

Lush!

Woods Party / Picnic Cocktails

3 empty half bottles, one orange, supply of cocktail sticks, cherries and olives.

Manhattan
200ml bourbon, 100ml red vermouth, 30ml water, 16 drops angostura, 2.5ml Maraschino, 2.5ml Pastis
Cocktail cherry

Martini
200ml Gin, 60ml White Vermouth, 30ml water
Olive

Negroni
100ml Gin,100ml Red Vermouth,100ml Campari
Super thin orange peel strip tied in a knot

Drone racing finish line. Or squirrel nesting material?

Or wood party decorations.

Motorcyclists : When you counter steer, do you push on the inside bar or pull on the outside bar or both?

#cocktail - Bella Luna

60ml Gin, 22ml St Germain, 22ml Lemon Juice, 15ml Violette, 2.5ml Simple Syrup, Shake, double strain, lemon twist.

Weird but not unpleasant.

@drinkstodon

MotoGP TN Sports commentary team. Last week Suzi Perry was losing her voice. This week it's Sylvain Guintoli. "There's a virus going around".

I wonder what that could be?

Local Tories talking down Labour, talking up Greens and ignoring LibDems. It must be the LibDems they really fear in the Blue Line shires.

I just hope Labour and LibDems can sort it out in the final weeks and quietly support tactical voting.
https://stopthetories.vote/

#ToryZero #GTTO

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/25/thames-water-vomiting-bug-cryptosporidium

It's a good thing Thames Water take my water away and don't supply it. It's Affinity that supply us with water from the rivers where Thames Water dumps the sewage.

Oh. Wait.

Another pandemic is ‘absolutely inevitable’, says Patrick Vallance
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/25/another-pandemic-is-absolutely-inevitable-says-patrick-vallance-covid

So many diseases are spread via the respiratory system. Air hygiene should be a big thing now. It works against all of them. Even before there's a vax.

If only we'd done these, we'd be totally ready.
Clean air in schools ✅
Respirators being worn widely ✅
Good infection control in hospitals ✅

#CovidIsNotOver and yet we're talking about the "next" pandemic.

Not now, Feral Goldfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lhjJODJ77M&feature=youtu.be

Lazyweb. Anyone with good photoshop skills and wants a small political project?

Take this image. Tory blue instead of red.

Words:-

Conservative

Tory Zero

No Candidates

#Cocktail - Lucky 7

60ml Rye, 30ml Red Vermouth, 5ml Fino Sherry, 3 dash Angostura, Cherry & Orange twist

Not sure I can tell the difference from a normal Manhattan.

@drinkstodon

We finally found the Brexit Benefit. It's destroying the Tory Party.

#ToryZero