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A wilding

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  1. There are a couple within strolling distance of our house. You don't really notice them unless you look over the area from high ground, at which point they become obvious.
  2. Been spending a few days mulling over the film and discussing it. It was a really impressive visual and auditory spectacle. Even the ridiculous speed of the worms worked. Some of the changes from the book also worked really well (Paul and Jessica being at odds, Chani as the voice of reason increasingly backing away from Paul). I could accept the junking of most of my favourite subplot of Feyd-Rautha vs the Baron (it might well turn up in an extended version anyway). There was a lot of good stuff. And yet we both walked out of the cinema disappointed. I think it comes down to a general feeling that the last part of the film was weak, especially in plot. The Emperor was not so much weak as a nonentity. Apparently the Reverend Mother Mohiam wanted to wipe out the Atreides all along?! The Sardaukar were suddenly deemphasised (I think the only time they were named was when Paul said to kill the ones in the throne room). Paul's pre-battle planning over a hasty sketch map ("you attack from this side, you attack from that side") was silly, especially as the actual plan was to blast a hole in the shield wall to let the storm in and then shock the defenders by attacking on worms. Plus the use of the nukes needed to be better explained and justified, especially as they did obviously kill some Sardaukar. Paul's sudden threat to destroy the spice by using the nukes felt off, why did he even make it, especially knowing that the Great Houses were going to turn him down? Etc. Final gripe. I really hate villains who randomly kill minions just to show us how evil they are. I might just about have accepted Rabban doing it, since he was portrayed as only borderline competent and with anger management issues, but not all the Harkonnens. The trope was subverted as long ago as The Empire Strikes Back for heaven's sake! But I guess we will probably go and see part 3.
  3. Yes, that is something that may well be pretty rare. As I understand it, there has been quite a lot of discussion as to whether that has anything to do with Earth having life, or whether it is just a co-incidence.
  4. That was a very big assumption on their part. As yet we still have very little idea of the numbers and types of moons in the galaxy. Back then we were only guessing about extrasolar planets, let alone moons.
  5. I have been reading Q by "Luther Blissett". (Luther Blissett is apparently actually a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors who co-wrote the book). Nothing to do with QAnon thankfully, this is a rather odd fiction book, somewhat reminiscent of The Name of the Rose. The story takes place over several years and multiple locations in Reformation Europe. It drops you right into the period in an impressively detailed and immersive way. Nearly all of the characters are real people (often quite obscure ones) shown doing what they actually did in real life - for example a "history with dialogue" account of the Münster rebellion plays a significant part in the story. As with Umberto Eco's books, there is also a good deal of philosophy included. Theological obviously, but also political, and a fair amount of what felt like some sort of Marxism (though I am not an expert). Lastly, there is a central plot, involving a Protestant reformer character becoming gradually aware of the long running machinations of a Catholic spy (the titular "Q") but it is oddly low key and ends with something of an anticlimax, I assume deliberately so. Worth reading for anyone interested in this period of history.
  6. About now I think, and definitely before they start beginning to grow leaves. Just not while it is literally freezing. The trick is to preserve their root balls intact and to do the transfer with the soil still round them. We have just transplanted a sapling ourselves that had self seeded in an entirely unsuitable place. We had expected it not to last, but after it had survived for several years and had reached almost 5 foot high reaching upwards for some light I felt it deserved a chance. We have moved it to a friend's field. and will see how it does there.
  7. Yes, but politicians lie to get ahead. And when some big event comes out of left field it can then suddenly turn out that they also have principles and insist on declaring their previously concealed belief. Or possibly even newly formed belief. I know of one situation where a local government candidate suddenly went anti-vaxxer over the Covid vaccinations during the pandemic. He was rapidly deselected, but that did not stop him making a big fuss and gifting other parties a stick to beat his party with.
  8. This just about counts as history, as the author is nearly a generation older than me. Spider Woman by Lady Hale, the autobiography of the judge who shortly before her retirement became briefly famous. As President of the UK Supreme Court she got to read out their unanimous verdict that then PM Boris Johnson's unilateral suspension of the UK Parliament was illegal and null and void. I met a fair few people of her type over the years and it was interesting to get more insight. The very first generation of UK women able to forge themselves a career (her 8 years older sister had to put up with being a secretary). A brainy village grammar school kid (the only one from her school to pass the 11+ in her year) who by careful planning and lots of hard work got into Cambridge and made good, in her case very much so. The very essence of a "girly swot", as she herself points out. I was struck by how much she was the polar opposite of Boris Johnson. A serious work ethic, a mind that clearly delights in problem solving, a wish to do what she could to improve the world, and the desire to give something back. And I am prepared to believe her protestation that her wearing that spider brooch (£12 from a high street store apparently) was a complete coincidence, and that she had never heard of the Boris the Spider song. Though one thing I had not known was that, because of the Daily Mail headline calling named and pictured judges "enemies of the people", the judges and their families got protection after she read out their verdict. Thankfully unneeded.
  9. And the further problem with this is the same as with the 99% reliable driverless cars with a driver responsible for handling the 1% of cases where the AI gets it wrong. Someone whose job is to check the AI is going to be less motivated and less skilled than someone who does the job from scratch. There will be the ever present temptation to just nod stuff though. On top of that, the management team is going to view the role as an overhead to be done as cheaply as possible and to be done away with entirely as soon as there is any excuse to. The usual scenario of looking good by reducing costs and making sure you have moved on before the impact is felt.
  10. For primary sources, try The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. He was a wealthy amateur who got himself onto Scott's last expedition, proved his worth on it, but was so broken he never did much afterwards. Amongst other things he found Scott's body.
  11. So they have started a police investigation into the Post Office scandal. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67899189 About time. Though I am sure that only an underling or two are ever going to end up in the dock.
  12. But that is the point. We have a culture of all too frequent abusive behaviour by our politicians (not to mention within other powerful UK organisations). It has been also well argued that there is a very widespread attitude amongst them that abuse is not something to take seriously, and that this contributes to a minority thinking that their abusive behaviour is acceptable or, at the very least, something that they can get away with doing. In the light of this it is telling that the Home Secretary felt able, in a large semi official gathering, to joke about using a date rape drug. And that he did so on the very day that his government had launched one of their "initiatives" to address drink spiking! In my personal opinion, this is absolutely news, for all the pearl clutching about politicians needing safe spaces to let their hair down off the record.
  13. I was also musing about the repeated use of the phrase "in private" above. To me "in private" means something like "at home with your family" or "having a meal with a few friends". It does not mean "at a large tax payer funded event in a government building".
  14. Nice goalpost move. But to answer that: do you understand that people might have issues with requiring omerta from journalists over a male politician with the ultimate responsibility for law enforcement making jokes in a large crowd about date rape drugging women?
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