I was under the impression it was partially due to him feeling the 'U' made the words feel "too French", and he supposedly really hated the French (apparently he was a bit of a fan of the ol' racism), but mainly he wanted something new and uniquely American - and English spelling was even more regional, wild and inconsistent back then, so he hoped to simplify it, bring it some consistency, ideally whilst also telling the French to piss off.
It wasn't this one I was thinking of, but this will do just fine, thank you :)
Quick question - does anyone have the link to that "Tories being voted out" bingo card website? It was posted a few days ago, but I can't find it.
[EDIT]
Found it -
Feddit thread - I've probably not formatted the link properly
Torygeddon Bingo Website
I think I've mentioned previously, but these really are beautifully done. So nicely balanced and composed. Thanks again for sharing :)
Please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think bourbons are past the point of having separate brands any more. We eat so many of them (nationally, not personally), that 40p "Happy Shopper" bourbons are basically the same as £2 Marks and Spencer ones, and are probably made in the same factory.
This is like when Kraft bought Cadbury's and started to do mash ups nobody wanted.
Aha, that explains why every possible item of food has a new "Oreo" flavoured version.
In combination with the exercise it sounds like you're doing anyway, have you tried a bit of Yoga and a bit of listening to meditative sounds before/during bed/sleep/end of day? You may have tried similar things already, but if not, maybe worth a go? It's not going to pass/waste time as such, but might put you into a better position to stop your mind racing with negativity, especially in that crucial pre-sleep phase.
Particularly looking at "Yoga for Anxiety" or "Yoga for Mental Health" type things, moreso than general strength and fitness Yoga. You'll find a bunch online. You might find something like this Yoga Healthcare Alliance 10 Week Course works for you (it's promoted by the UK's NHS for some conditions). It's focusing on basic de-stressing, de-tensing muscles, breathing focus, and may help you feel calm and relaxed - which may give you a good nights sleep - which could potentially do wonders for beginning to recover.
I'd also suggest combining it with some "sleep headphones" - a fabric headband with some really flat headphone speakers inside it - then listen to a combination of "meditation for anxiety" or "8 hours deep sleep ambient soundscape" type things whilst you lie there.
Ideally you'd do the Yoga sat on your bed, then drop straight into something like "a nice man tells you you're great and everything will be fine" followed by some sort of "inner peace meditation that lasts 8 hours or longer". Obviously, you'll find your own preferred voices/sounds. I've also used white noise style "starship engine sound" or "on a night train" audio.
If you watch them on your phone with "Newpipe", you can save them as videos or just as audio files - which you can then set up as playlists in VLC. No point in downloading the same thing every night.
This whole set of things might not work for you at all, but if you're up for hours anyway, what do you have to lose?
Personally, I found this process helped me massively on my way out of a similar patch (combined with exercising more, quitting caffeine for a while, CBT therapy - it was a multiple angle approach).
Regardless, I wish you luck and pass you my best wishes in your recovery.
They need to move on from leaders' figurative doorsteps and focus on emptying sewage onto their literal doorsteps.
That might hurry things along a little.
I might be wrong, but wasn't Movit just for timeline preview, and hadn't worked properly for quite a few versions and now you just use the NVENC/VAAPI etc export profiles to export with GPU?
Though I hope to not see them, I think it's a great idea.
Perhaps a selection of British TV or comedy characters could do the job - bouncers and policemen, detectives etc should cover the various bad/forbidden/unauthorised/not found etc.
Perhaps a Basil Fawlty attacking a bad gateway with a tree branch?
I don't think that's been near a designer. Someone's made that in a hurry, in MS Word.
It's a good plan, but it's not different enough from his current appearance for anyone to notice.
There was a guy who was "famous" for having loads of plastic surgery to look like a Ken doll.
Perhaps Nigel could become "famous" for having loads of plastic surgery to look like Cyril Sneer from The Raccoons? He could carry on behaving like he already does.
It had very poor viewing/listening figures for quite a long time, and was generally seen as a bit of a joke, but they've been growing alarmingly in the last year - though still comparatively low.
If you see a report saying "GB News hits 1 million viewers", note that this was corrected a few days later to "actually it was only 33,000".
So currently, it's generally not trusted or respected, and is kind of seen as a joke, but like UKIP, Brexit, Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, Donald Trump as US President etc, it's a dangerous joke that we should be taking more seriously.
To a lot of laptop manufacturers, it certainly seems that way as of late - that's why I'm ever hopeful that a modular laptop, such as the framework, might give us the option of how we want to control a mouse cursor.
Fingers crossed for a touchpad with physical buttons.
Opinion: There is a far bigger threat to Britain than fringe extremists: Tory radicalisation | Rafael Behr
If Michael Gove really wants to root out the forces threatening British society, perhaps his party should look in the mirror, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
"If Michael Gove really wants to root out the forces threatening British society, perhaps his party should look in the mirror"
Man playing music out loud on train: What are our options? [Update: Solved]
There's a man on my train this morning, and he's listening to stuff out loud on his phone, like fully out loud, not even slightly subtle. The train is in Britain. He keeps listening to 5 seconds of an annoying song, then switching to another song. It sort of sounds like kids TV music. He appears dressed to go work in a fancy office or something, and this is a morning commuter train, so I don't think he's escaped from a prison or mental hospital.
Anyway, amongst myself and another couple of hundred quiet passengers, we've tried everything:
- tutting and rolling our eyes
- harrumphing, whingeing and sighing
- when a bloke got on the train with headphones on, someone said loudly "Isn't it great when someone wears headphones? They can listen to whatever they like and nobody else has to hear it"
- sometimes it stops for a minute, and there's a widespread muttering of "Ooh, thank god that's over with"
- followed by an en-masse groan when it starts again "Oh no, not this again!"
- a lady on the phone saying loudly "Sorry, I can't hear what you're saying, because someone is being inconsiderate and playing music really loudly"
- saying to one another, loudly enough for the man to hear "isn't it annoying when someone plays their music out loud? I wish he'd stop doing that"
- muttering aggressive words, under our breath, in his general direction "prick", "wanker" "knobhead", "bellend"
- Someone getting onto the train, and not sitting at his table and saying "God, I'd rather stand than sit next to that prick", loud enough for him to hear.
- the ticket-checking man rolled his eyes, but didn't do anything
I think generally we're running out of ideas. I heard someone behind me mentioning they were thinking about "sparking him out", and someone else had suggested they might grab his phone and throw it out the window.
I was toying with the idea of going nuclear on him, and directly but politely asking him to turn it down, but it's a bit early for that kind of extreme behaviour. Perhaps I should throw something at his head?
Anyway, anyone who's been in a similar situation have any suggestions?
[Update] The train got full, so people were standing all the way down the aisle. Three people sat on the table next to him.
Opposite him, an older woman stared at him and shook her head at him, in a gesture I interpreted as "I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed". He put his phone in his pocket and stared out the window. I gave her the subtlest of nods, to communicate "thank you" and "good job".
So we're safe, this time - but I'm still interested in solutions, as something like this could happen again!
Why are kids doing the ‘Brexit tackle’? They’re having fun at adults’ expense – and mocking our toxic politics
My son says it means taking out the player without getting the ball, all while shouting ‘Brexit means Brexit’, says teacher Lola Okolosie
> My son says it means taking out the player without getting the ball, all while shouting ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Sound familiar?
> For the umpteenth time, my son, with an Ikea stuffed ball he has had since infancy, is playing football in the living room. He is joined by one of his best friends, an equally football-obsessed 10-year-old who, before slide-tackling in what can only be described as a deliberate attempt to knock my son’s legs off, shouts: “Brexit means Brexit!” Confused, I pass it off as an example of tweenage precocity: which 10-year-old is happy to quote Theresa May while playing football?
I must admit, this gives me some hope for the future.
Damo Suzuki, experimental musician, dies aged 74
Singer whose idiosyncratic performances helped the German band Can stretch the limits of experimental rock
> "Singer whose idiosyncratic performances helped the German band Can stretch the limits of experimental rock"
Saw him sing/speak/make noise at a 2 hour long improv set in a small gig venue in Yorkshire about 10-20 years ago, supported by a handful of local improv musicians.
After they finished the set, he individually thanked (and optionally hugged) every single audience member.
27th October is National Black Cat Day (UK)
Cats Protection UK Website - National Black Cat Day
I include a complementary picture of a black cat in a carrier bag.
"Upstairs is closed, mate. Think you need to move along to that kitchen and see about those empty bowls first."
Three cats spread over the stairs, staring at the camera person, blocking access to the upstairs. (Actually they're just waiting for someone to throw the fuzzy ball for them to chase).
Returning to the surface after exploring deep in the duvet caves.
Photo is from about a year ago, when the cats learnt that as well as "on the bed" and "under the duvet", if you explored the area where the buttons were, there was also "inside the duvet cover".
Self-aligning cats
Three cat brothers, sat neatly on a staircase, Jan 2023. This is probably my favourite photo of the three of them together.