A wilding

Agreed. Galvanism was used by Shelly to provide a veneer of science and plausibility to her story in the same way that 1930 SF writers used the ether and 1950/60s comic writers used radioactivity (see the original origin stories of many Marvel superheroes).

On a totally different subject, I see Sunak is defending his pension tax breaks for the rich on the grounds that they "will reduce NHS waiting lists". That is just so stereotypical of the Tories. A few years back we had the campaign slogan "leave the EU so we can spend an extra 350 million a week on the NHS" which has now morphed into reality as "help the NHS by giving tax cuts to the rich"

Well if there was ever any doubt that Cressida Dick needed to go, this report has laid that to rest. And yes, Mark Rowley has a mountain to climb, but to do him justice he had already started trying to climb it well before this report came out.

You just beat me to thread creation. On civil liberties: they are also having another go at their"Online Safety Bill", aka snoopers charter to give them full access to monitor everything anyone does online. On the budget: Free childcare is obviously good. But I note that it is only going to "start" being phased in in over a year's time, i.e. probably not until shortly before the next election. Which means they can smugly hand over something popular but unaffordable to whoever wins that election. I suppose we can't really object to the tax increases by stealth (thresholds not increasing in line with the 10%+ inflation), which were carefully not mentioned. But at the same time the budget gives a massive tax cut to the 1% with the pension changes, hidden behind the fig leaf of encouraging consultant doctors not to retire early. Not only in upping the maximum pension value (full disclosure - I had been keeping a wary eye open not to reach it), but still more by increasing the annual contribution limit to 60K. We obviously could not expect anything to rein in the ultra rich or profiteering companies. So all in all this felt like quite a clever budget. I suppose that was to be expected since Hunt is one of the very few Tories left over from the pre Brexit populism days.

Say what you like about the new England team, but whatever they are, they are not boring!

I would not beat yourself up. I would think that it is quite likely that your sister told you what she was planning (and possibly even exaggerated it) deliberately to get a reaction out of you. So not interfering and playing her game was the correct move. Now you just need not to get wound up about her doing that sort of thing. I am going through something a little similar as it happens. My annoying relative has just been saying that they are happy to go ahead with the solution to our family inheritance issue "in good faith" provided that it is clearly understood that everyone was mean and that I (and others) repeatedly lied to them. I am having to sit on my hands and resist firing off an inflammatory reply. At least no more accusations of being abusive though!

Well anything is possible. But: There have been multiple well documented cases of respiratory viruses suddenly jumping from animals to humans before Covid. Many scientists had been saying for years that it was very likely that such a jump was going to cause a really dangerous pandemic before long. (Including one or two that I know personally, and to the extent that they had done some limited prepping for it.) There had been several near misses before Covid. The Wuhan market was just the sort of insanitary environment where such a jump is likely to occur. The Chinese hierarchical setup is one where cover up at all levels is the instinctive reaction to any situation. So their response to the outbreak proves nothing.

It probably belongs in the Mental Health thread. But briefly, it all started with a big family meeting basically to do with inheritance. It unexpectedly turned out that there were a wide range of positions on it. We have now reached a resolution that I think gives this person all they can reasonably expect (and has left one or two other people a bit unhappy) but they are still angry. Basically they have had a difficult life and are a bit messed up. They are prone to considering themselves being victimised and to throwing around accusations of bullying and even abuse. I tend to keep my distance from them where possible. And glad to hear that you have recovered from your operation.

We have worked it out. It stands for Reverse Victim and Offender. It is a technical psychological term relating to abuse cases, particularly sexual ones, basically meaning when the abuser claims that they were/are the one being abused. It appears to be a contraction of the much more widely used DARVO. So I think that I am now feeling rather insulted!

I am guessing it is a term that they picked up from some obscure online pop psychology article and immediately decided applied to them (which would be typical of them). Or perhaps it was just a typo. It was part of a slightly unhinged rant. Still it doesn't matter, I was just curious. Someone is going round to try to find out what is going on and see what can be done to help out.

A question for the hive mind. I (and some other family members) have just been accused of "RVO" by a relative who seems to be under severe stress and losing it somewhat. My google-fu has failed me, so does anyone know what "RVO" means? I doubt it has anything to do with the Netherlands organisation, the eye condition, or the C++ feature. From context it might be a synonym of projection (in the psychological sense)? Edit: and it definitely was not being used in the sense of "really good sex"!

Grey goo here we come ...

I do agree that GRRM does get hostile and unfair comments. But I think there is some nuance to the situation. While a few people may be GRRM's friends and others (such as myself) may have known who he was before ASoIaF, most people are aware of him only as the author of ASoIaF, Most people have little interest in him him other than as the author of ASoIaF. Obviously the vast majority of such people (myself included) stay away and don't bother reading his blog or otherwise interacting with him. However, in our culture, a small minority are sadly going to behave obnoxiously. Basically the elephant in the room is that ASoIaF is what has made GRRM famous (and rich), but that he is not going to finish it. And whenever GRRM goes out there to talk to ASoIaF fans, the elephant is always going to be present.

At a guess, most people have given up on him. I imagine that few people now think he is ever going to finish the series. I suspect many people think he is unlikely even to finish TWoW.

A shame. I remember reading his Eon soon after it came out in 1985 . An exhilarating hard SF ride at the time, despite its flaws, with several books worth of ideas packed into it..

It is a long while since I bothered to follow what has been going on in any detail, but I had the impression that he had lost his way with Dunk and Egg as well. Hasn't The Wolves of Winterfell repeatedly been postponed?

Well to say the obvious: It has been a rough few years for shares, but not investing in them typically means keeping your savings in cash, and historically shares have always beaten cash savings accounts by a wide margin in the long term, i.e. when investing for retirement. Of course, who knows what might happen in future ... But really a SIPP is no more work than an ISA to invest in. The only wrinkle is that you need to tell the taxman you are doing so to get the higher rate tax rebate from them. And if you are that wealthy you need to keep an eye on the maximum lifetime amount of pension investment you can make (about a million at present.)

@BigFatCoward Depends a bit on whether she is a higher rate taxpayer. If not, I personally would forget about a pension scheme. Just pay a regular sum into a low cost ISA investing in a range of tracker funds. You can of course put up to £1666 a month into an ISA. The advantage of an ISA is that you can access it as and when you want and there is absolutely no tax to pay. As a higher rate tax payer you could do the same, but you might want to wrap some or all of the investment in a SIPP instead of an ISA. A SIPP is basically a type of pension. Here you are taking advantage of the SIPP higher rate tax rebate - you get your tax reduced. However there is no point in paying more into a SIPP than you get higher rate tax rebate for (i.e. at most pay in the amount of salary that you go past the higher rate threshold by). The disadvantage of a SIPP is that there are rules on how and when you can take your money, and it gets taxed when you do take it (though only at the basic rate unless you are taking out > £40K per year). Though as a freelancer I think that there are some additional options, particularly if she needs to set up her own company. In that case she will need an accountant, you might want to have a chat with them. Hargreaves Lansdown is one big company that provides cheap ISAs and SIPPs, and has a website with explainers. but there are plenty of others out there.) Disclaimer: I Am Not a Financial Advisor.

The first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch since 2019 is due to happen in about 30 minutes time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY628jRd6gM

I think that technically, that was a quote from the Peter Jackson films, rather than by Tolkien himself. Though it does include phrases lifted from the books, used slightly out of context.

11 when I first read LotR (and before I read The Hobbit), But some of it went over my head at the time. I also was already reading widely at that age, including many adult books that I did not always really appreciate at the time. One of my friends who read it at the same age was terrified by the Eye of Sauron in Galadriel's mirror and abandoned the book at that point. (They did go on to read it all some years later I think.)

Sounds like the latter doesn't it.

I have started, so I will continue for a bit ... Sorry, but your mother, in your words, "went on a rampage, smashing everything in sight for more than an hour, threatening to kill the cat when it came looking what was going on and kept threatening to destroy everything I own when at school and unable to stop her". And she kept up this behaviour until you had apologised and promised to do what she wanted. Even taking into account that this was your version of events, that is unquestionably abusive, however much she felt that you had insulted her. Probably hypochondria then. But listen to her claiming credit for "not complaining" while saying that you must stay with her until she dies because of this vague unspecified illness that she refuses to see a doctor about. Of course she has her self justifications, and of course she wants to sell those self justifications to you as well. But read what you have said! She denies that she's trying to talk you out of your ideas when clearly she is trying to talk (and rage and guilt) you out of them, and explicitly insisting that you must stay with her whatever your ideas are. Of course mothers worry endlessly about their offspring, but only dysfunctional ones try to keep them tied to their apron strings instead of letting them make their own mistakes and learn to fly by themselves. And her labelling your wish to do your own thing as "selfish" gives the lie to her claim to only be wanting what is best for you. As for her being "aghast that you are not more thankful" for all she has done for you - I can only give you my stance on that. Which is that we don't ask to be born and so are not in debt to our parents for birthing us and (hopefully) bringing us up. What debt we incur is one to be paid forward to our own children. We owe our parents honour, as the biblical commandment has it, and we should support them in their old age where possible and necessary, but once we get to adulthood we do not owe them obedience and we have the right to chose our own path.

You do realise that that is outright abusive behaviour on her part? I imagine that you know that her "illness" is hypochondria at best and completely fictitious at worst, and that she is using it as a weapon to control you. The bit about not wanting to see a doctor is telling. You are absolutely not being selfish. Getting some distance between you is the obvious sensible thing to do. What is more, it will probably be good for her too - without you there she will be forced to work out some sort of life for herself that does not revolve round her dysfunctional relationship with you. Good luck with your application. (Bad practice to give online advice I know, but your situation is just so clear I can't resist.)

I would not want to swear to that, Though Mrs W apparently had no idea that she was a lesbian until I mentioned it shortly after she quit, for whatever that is worth. However her actions over the last year or so of her reign more than justified her defenestration. She probably hung on for as long as she did only because Patel found it useful to keep someone in the role who knew that one word from Patel would finish her off. Not to mention that the Jean Charles de Menezes fiasco should have prevented her ever being given the job in the first place.