NPR

Blackmac wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 9:25 am

inactionman wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2024 6:27 pm [media][/media]

fishfoodie wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2024 6:13 pm I do like living in the Countryside !

I just wandered up to the back of my garden to get something from the shed, & as I was opening the door I noticed the young fox I've seen lately rooting around in my compost heap, only 3m meters away; he looked up, I said hello, & he re-commenced rooting for food

I christened him "Hollywood" when I first spotted him, as he has film star good looks, he's straight from central casting.

And last night I was looking thru the footage on my wildlife can, & among all the clips of Hollywood, I spotted a Pine Marten skipping thru the garden

I think this place saved my sanity during Covid

I'll pop up some photos up once I copy the files off the SD Card

I love foxes - we get one in our garden who just lounges about.

I gather they're not so great when you get them breeding, but so far he's been on his own.



Image quality a bit crappy as shot through a window

Despite warnings, a friend of mine started feeding a stray fox in her garden. Now she has a whole litter to look after and they are completely fearless and have ventured into her house a few times when she has obviously not been quick enough with the freebies.

I hate foxes, nasty, sleekit wee bastards of animals.

inactionman wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 9:31 am

Blackmac wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 9:25 am

inactionman wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2024 6:27 pm [media][/media]

I love foxes - we get one in our garden who just lounges about.

I gather they're not so great when you get them breeding, but so far he's been on his own.



Image quality a bit crappy as shot through a window

Despite warnings, a friend of mine started feeding a stray fox in her garden. Now she has a whole litter to look after and they are completely fearless and have ventured into her house a few times when she has obviously not been quick enough with the freebies.

I hate foxes, nasty, sleekit wee bastards of animals.

The kids are under strict instructions to not go near it and not to try to feed it. Mostly as they'll end up getting nipped, but also as I don't want it settling and breeding here.

As you'd expect it's only in the garden when we're in the house, as soon as open doors it disappears.

Biffer wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 7:10 pm

inactionman wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 9:31 am

Blackmac wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 9:25 am

Despite warnings, a friend of mine started feeding a stray fox in her garden. Now she has a whole litter to look after and they are completely fearless and have ventured into her house a few times when she has obviously not been quick enough with the freebies.

I hate foxes, nasty, sleekit wee bastards of animals.

The kids are under strict instructions to not go near it and not to try to feed it. Mostly as they'll end up getting nipped, but also as I don't want it settling and breeding here.

As you'd expect it's only in the garden when we're in the house, as soon as open doors it disappears.

Nipped here meaning 'have your fingers off'

Foxes are bastards.

Sellafield has apologised after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to a string of cybersecurity failings at Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site, which it admitted could have threatened national security.

Among the failings at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria was the discovery that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attacks, Westminster magistrates court in London heard.

Information that could threaten national security was left exposed for four years, the nuclear watchdog revealed, and Sellafield said it had been performing critical IT health checks that were not, in fact, being carried out.

Late last year, the Guardian’s Nuclear Leaks investigation revealed a string of IT failings at the state-owned company dating back several years, as well as radioactive contamination and toxic workplace culture.

inactionman wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 8:15 pm I'm half-wondering if there's some backstory here.

Anyway, just to make us all sleep more comfortably:

Sellafield has apologised after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to a string of cybersecurity failings at Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site, which it admitted could have threatened national security.

Among the failings at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria was the discovery that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attacks, Westminster magistrates court in London heard.

Information that could threaten national security was left exposed for four years, the nuclear watchdog revealed, and Sellafield said it had been performing critical IT health checks that were not, in fact, being carried out.

Late last year, the Guardian’s Nuclear Leaks investigation revealed a string of IT failings at the state-owned company dating back several years, as well as radioactive contamination and toxic workplace culture.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... gs-nuclear

inactionman wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:24 am Any of our Edinburgh cohort able to recommend anything they've seen at the festival, ideally early evening for kiddies?

Grandad's up for the week and took my girls to Tweedy's Massive Circus on the Meadows - they enjoyed it, I think partly because grandad got dragged into some participation. I'm glad I left that to him.

It's been on a week and I've not even looked at it yet.

Slick wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 10:03 am

inactionman wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:24 am Any of our Edinburgh cohort able to recommend anything they've seen at the festival, ideally early evening for kiddies?

Grandad's up for the week and took my girls to Tweedy's Massive Circus on the Meadows - they enjoyed it, I think partly because grandad got dragged into some participation. I'm glad I left that to him.

It's been on a week and I've not even looked at it yet.

We are booked in for "101 ways to annoy your parents and other really old people" next week with the kids.

My wife is appearing in "In Pour Taste" for the adults - comedy and wine tasting. Saw Jason Byrne on Wednesday which was very, very funny and definitely not for kids.

inactionman wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:24 am Any of our Edinburgh cohort able to recommend anything they've seen at the festival, ideally early evening for kiddies?

Grandad's up for the week and took my girls to Tweedy's Massive Circus on the Meadows - they enjoyed it, I think partly because grandad got dragged into some participation. I'm glad I left that to him.

It's been on a week and I've not even looked at it yet.

Blackmac wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 1:26 pm

inactionman wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:24 am Any of our Edinburgh cohort able to recommend anything they've seen at the festival, ideally early evening for kiddies?

Grandad's up for the week and took my girls to Tweedy's Massive Circus on the Meadows - they enjoyed it, I think partly because grandad got dragged into some participation. I'm glad I left that to him.

It's been on a week and I've not even looked at it yet.

My granddaughter, aged 4, throughly enjoyed Mr Sleepy Bum.

Slick wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 10:03 am

inactionman wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:24 am Any of our Edinburgh cohort able to recommend anything they've seen at the festival, ideally early evening for kiddies?

Grandad's up for the week and took my girls to Tweedy's Massive Circus on the Meadows - they enjoyed it, I think partly because grandad got dragged into some participation. I'm glad I left that to him.

It's been on a week and I've not even looked at it yet.

We are booked in for "101 ways to annoy your parents and other really old people" next week with the kids.

My wife is appearing in "In Pour Taste" for the adults - comedy and wine tasting. Saw Jason Byrne on Wednesday which was very, very funny and definitely not for kids.

Its perfectly preserved streets and still-standing houses provide a unique opportunity to see how people lived nearly 2,000 years ago. A visit to the ancient city of Pompeii, frozen in time when it was covered by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, provides memories of a lifetime.

But memories weren’t enough for one British tourist, who was caught this week engraving the initials of himself and his family into one of the city’s 2,000-year-old houses.

The 37-year-old, who has yet to be named, is said to have made five engravings – the initials of his family and the date, August 7 – with a blunt object on the wall of the House of the Vestal Virgins.

Photos of the damage show the letters scratched in the plaster beside the entrance door, which was frescoed red nearly 2,000 years ago.

The letters “JW LMW MW” high on the wall and “MYLAW 07/08/24” further down are clearly visible.


Staff at the site noticed and called the police. According to Italian news agency ANSA, the man apologized, saying that he had written the initials of himself and of his two daughters to leave a sign of their visit to the site.

The archaeological park declined to comment to CNN. However in June, when a tourist from Kazakhstan was caught carving his initials on the House of the Ceii in the ancient city, Pompeii’s director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said that the tourist would have to pay for the restoration of the wall.

The case has been referred upwards to the local court in Torre Annuziata as “damage to artistic heritage,” a charge which carries a fine of 20,000 to 60,000 euros and a possible jail term of up to five years thanks to laws that were toughened up in January.

Guy Smiley wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 8:23 pm https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/09/trav ... index.html

Its perfectly preserved streets and still-standing houses provide a unique opportunity to see how people lived nearly 2,000 years ago. A visit to the ancient city of Pompeii, frozen in time when it was covered by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, provides memories of a lifetime.

But memories weren’t enough for one British tourist, who was caught this week engraving the initials of himself and his family into one of the city’s 2,000-year-old houses.

The 37-year-old, who has yet to be named, is said to have made five engravings – the initials of his family and the date, August 7 – with a blunt object on the wall of the House of the Vestal Virgins.

Photos of the damage show the letters scratched in the plaster beside the entrance door, which was frescoed red nearly 2,000 years ago.

The letters “JW LMW MW” high on the wall and “MYLAW 07/08/24” further down are clearly visible.


Staff at the site noticed and called the police. According to Italian news agency ANSA, the man apologized, saying that he had written the initials of himself and of his two daughters to leave a sign of their visit to the site.

The archaeological park declined to comment to CNN. However in June, when a tourist from Kazakhstan was caught carving his initials on the House of the Ceii in the ancient city, Pompeii’s director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said that the tourist would have to pay for the restoration of the wall.

The case has been referred upwards to the local court in Torre Annuziata as “damage to artistic heritage,” a charge which carries a fine of 20,000 to 60,000 euros and a possible jail term of up to five years thanks to laws that were toughened up in January.

Biffer wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2024 3:29 pm Love the latest Banksy revealed today

Guy Smiley wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2024 6:48 pm

Biffer wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2024 3:29 pm Love the latest Banksy revealed today

The piranha? that is amazing.


I'm a massive Nick Cave fan. Took me a few years, friends threw Birthday Party records my way back in the 80s and it was all too raucous and unseemly... but then a girlfriend got me into Henry's Dream in the early 90s and I read The Ass Saw The Angel... I've been on board ever since. He's just given an interview to the Australian ABC with one of my favourite presenters... in that uniquely Australian way with all the lights and cameras you could need and still delivering an almost brutally stripped down reveal of the man and his personality. It's well worth a watch...

Biffer wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2024 3:29 pm Love the latest Banksy revealed today

For more than a century, archaeologists have known that some of the stones at Stonehenge came from Wales and were transported – somehow – about 125 miles ( 200km) to the site of the Neolithic monument on Salisbury Plain.
Now, a “jaw-dropping” study has revealed that one of Stonehenge’s central megaliths is not Welsh at all – it is actually Scottish.

SaintK wrote: Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:43 pm That's a bloody long haul!

For more than a century, archaeologists have known that some of the stones at Stonehenge came from Wales and were transported – somehow – about 125 miles ( 200km) to the site of the Neolithic monument on Salisbury Plain.
Now, a “jaw-dropping” study has revealed that one of Stonehenge’s central megaliths is not Welsh at all – it is actually Scottish.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ ... udy-finds

Sinkers wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 2:14 am Mike Parker Pearson has a theory that the Preseli lot migrated to the stone henge area along with their stones as there’s a big gap in human activity in Preseli after.
Maybe some sweaties did too? Lots going on in Orkney back then?

Sandstorm wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 8:19 am

Sinkers wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 2:14 am Mike Parker Pearson has a theory that the Preseli lot migrated to the stone henge area along with their stones as there’s a big gap in human activity in Preseli after.
Maybe some sweaties did too? Lots going on in Orkney back then?

Getting the fuck away from the Vikings Stag Parties!

Sinkers wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 2:14 am Mike Parker Pearson has a theory that the Preseli lot migrated to the stone henge area along with their stones as there’s a big gap in human activity in Preseli after.
Maybe some sweaties did too? Lots going on in Orkney back then?

SaintK wrote: Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:43 pm That's a bloody long haul!

For more than a century, archaeologists have known that some of the stones at Stonehenge came from Wales and were transported – somehow – about 125 miles ( 200km) to the site of the Neolithic monument on Salisbury Plain.
Now, a “jaw-dropping” study has revealed that one of Stonehenge’s central megaliths is not Welsh at all – it is actually Scottish.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ ... udy-finds

robmatic wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 12:04 pm

SaintK wrote: Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:43 pm That's a bloody long haul!

For more than a century, archaeologists have known that some of the stones at Stonehenge came from Wales and were transported – somehow – about 125 miles ( 200km) to the site of the Neolithic monument on Salisbury Plain.
Now, a “jaw-dropping” study has revealed that one of Stonehenge’s central megaliths is not Welsh at all – it is actually Scottish.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ ... udy-finds

Archaeological proof that Scots have been carrying massive chips on their shoulders for 4000 bloody years.

robmatic wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 12:04 pm

SaintK wrote: Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:43 pm That's a bloody long haul!

For more than a century, archaeologists have known that some of the stones at Stonehenge came from Wales and were transported – somehow – about 125 miles ( 200km) to the site of the Neolithic monument on Salisbury Plain.
Now, a “jaw-dropping” study has revealed that one of Stonehenge’s central megaliths is not Welsh at all – it is actually Scottish.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ ... udy-finds

Archaeological proof that Scots have been carrying massive chips on their shoulders for 4000 bloody years.

Uncle fester wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 6:47 pm Five people charged in connection with the death by overdose of Matthew Perry.

Documents filed in federal court in California, reported by the New York Times, accuse the five people, who include Perry’s personal assistant, of being involved in a scheme to procure thousands of dollars worth of ketamine and administer it to Perry.

Jasveen Sangha, whom prosecutors said was known as “the Ketamine Queen”, and Salvador Plasencia, a doctor known as “Dr P”, are among those indicted, per the Times. The pair are charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine; distribution of ketamine resulting in death; possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; and altering and falsifying records related to a federal investigation.

Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s personal assistant, was charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, the Times reported, citing a person with knowledge of the situation. Mark Chavez, a doctor, and Erik Fleming, an acquaintance of Perry, were also charged.

The court documents revealed text messages sent between Plasencia and Chavez in which the former discussed buying ketamine to sell to “victim MP” – Perry.

In the exchange, Plasencia wrote: “I wonder how much this moron will pay”, and “let’s find out”, the Times reported.

French film legend Alain Delon has died at the age of 88.

The actor was a star of the golden era of French cinema, known for his tough-guy persona on screen in hits including The Samurai and Borsalino.

"He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family," a statement released to AFP news agency said.

Delon has been in poor health in recent years and become a virtual recluse. More recently, the breakdown of his family had been making headlines in France.

Once described as the most beautiful man in the movies, Delon starred in hits from the 1960s including The Leopard and Rocco and his Brothers.

He stole the hearts of fans whatever role he was playing, from a murderer to a charismatic conman.

From the 1990s, his film appearances grew rare, but he remained a fixture in the celebrity columns.

In total, he appeared in more than 90 films during the course of his career.

A statement from his family said: "Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father.

"He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family."

Le Parisian newspaper called Delon “a legend of the cinema”, while Liberation described him as “a leading figure of cinema, symbol of shadowy masculinity, the actor with crazy charisma”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2n6y4g700o