Quote of the week!

[Disembodied]

They continue:

An initial £200 million investment in the first five-year development phase of the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) will set us on the path to develop and build a commercially viable fusion power plant by 2040, offering clean, safe and carbon-free fuel supplies.

(For context, the same government is currently spending £100 million on an advertising campaign to tell the British people to Get Ready for something they can't - or won't - quantify. And this £200 million is spread over 5 years, when we're withdrawing from Euratom. So it looks like we'll be developing fusion power all by ourselves, then. Presumably in a shed.)

[Coyote]

Sheffield University has banned students from wearing sombreros...

¿Qué?

[Cody]

"The two Voyagers will outlast Earth," said Bill Kurth, co-author of one of the papers and a research scientist at the University of Iowa. "They're in their own orbits around the galaxy for five billion years or longer. And the probability of them running into anything is almost zero."

[Cody]

Greta Thunberg has apologised for saying world leaders should be "put against the wall" in a speech.

Curiously enough, an edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica that had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from fifty years in the future defined the leaders of the world as "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."



With apologies to DA

[GearsNSuch]

“a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came.”

Aye, but after the leaders, it’s the citizens against the wall.
Thank goodness our leaders are more along the “mindless jerks” line than the “intelligent tyrants” one.

[Cody]

Re the Boeing Starliner, a commentard joked:

The hardest part about docking computer fabrication is building one that can both dock and play the Blue Danube simultaneously.

Mines the one with a Cobra in the pocket.

[Cody]

Sandringham Showdown... blah, blah, blah! Windsors at War... yada, yada, yada! Meghan's 'nuclear option'... wtf?

Canada, eh? Can we offload a few more royals onto the other colonies?
Australia, perhaps? The Aussies would love it. New Zealand, maybe?

[spud42]

oi! watch it mate... depends on which royal i suppose..... lol
You can keep Andrew we dont want him... or his brother , no his other brother Edwards all right... lol

[Disembodied]

If anyone has a right to be mad at Harry and Meghan it's the people of Sussex, who have been left leaderless without their Duke and who are now defenceless against incursions from Hampshire and Kent.

[Cody]

Some good news at last...

This year's Eurovision Song Contest will no longer take place due to the coronavirus outbreak.

[RockDoctor]

Some good news at last...

Can you envisage the Eurovision Nostalgia shows that are being composed to re-fill the holes in the schedules this will cause.
(In voice Commissioning Editor, in a working-from home conference call.) "We've got to fill 16 hours of prime time. Ideas?"
(small voice) "I've got the collected Eternity of Coronation Street, and Wikipedia. I can probably put together a 4 hour spectacular of Corrie-Euro Crossover. Without coming into the office."
(Editor) "Shume schpectacular, shurely! Can someone else do the same for the Archers? And Crossroads - with all their wobbly sets, their scriptwriters mush have reached for the Euro-credibility pen more than a few times."

I'm going to regret this joke, I fear.

[Cody]

I've got the collected Eternity of Coronation Street, and Wikipedia. I can probably put together a 4 hour spectacular of Corrie-Euro Crossover.

I'd rather go to the dentist for multiple lignocaine-free extractions!

[Disembodied]

On the closure of Stonehenge at the equinox, due to COVID-19:

Stuart Hannington, a druid, also stayed behind the fence, accepting it was fair to restrict access. “They’re closing the churches so it seems OK that they are not allowing us to get to the stones. It’s disappointing but we have to make sacrifices.”

[Cody]

Brilliant!

[RockDoctor]

On the closure of Stonehenge at the equinox, due to COVID-19:

Stuart Hannington, a druid, also stayed behind the fence, accepting it was fair to restrict access. “They’re closing the churches so it seems OK that they are not allowing us to get to the stones. It’s disappointing but we have to make sacrifices.”

Hilarious.
I should, of course, add the usual caveat that Stonehenge (and many/most of the hundreds of other henges up and down the West European Seaboard) were completed and probably abandoned a thousand or two years before the first mention of "druid-like" Celtic practices.

How did Flanders put it, unaccompanied by Swann?

A calendar is it?
So, is it Summer yet?
You can't tell.
Well, I suppose I'd better come and help you shovel the snow off of it.