The Off Topic Topic

[HisMajestyBOB]

https://twitter.com/FlagsMashupBot/status/1287820062536224769?s=19

[Josquius]

We've all seen uncle Roger right?
It makes me smile

https://youtu.be/53me-ICi_f8

[DGuller]

I'm learning the meaning of "leave well enough alone".  I had a really nice 60/60 Internet connection from Fios, but I decided to upgrade.  This upgrade is not going smoothly at all, to say the least, but it turns out there is no going back.  It's policy, once you move out of coax, you're not going back.  Doesn't matter if the new solution even works or not, it's policy.  Fios has really gone downhill over the years.

[Sheilbh]

Have we learned nothing from the movies?

Scientists revive 100 million-year-old microbes from the sea
    1 hour ago

Japanese scientists say they have revived microbes that were in a dormant state for more than 100 million years.

The tiny organisms had survived in the South Pacific seabed - in sediment that is poor in nutrients, but has enough oxygen to allow them to live.

Microbes are among the earth's simplest organisms, and some can live in extreme environments where more developed life forms cannot survive.

After incubation by the scientists, the microbes began to eat and multiply.

The research was led by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and published in the journal Nature Communications.

"When I found them, I was first sceptical whether the findings are from some mistake or a failure in the experiment," lead author Yuki Morono told AFP.

"We now know that there is no age limit for [organisms in the] sub-seafloor biosphere".

Professor and study co-author Steven D'Hondt, from the University of Rhode Island, said the microbes came from the oldest samples taken from the seabed.

"In the oldest sediment we've drilled, with the least amount of food, there are still living organisms, and they can wake up, grow and multiply," he said.

Previous studies have shown how bacteria can survive in harsh places, including around undersea vents that are devoid of oxygen.

Mr Morono said the new finding shows that some of Earth's simplest living structures "do not actually have the concept of lifespan".

[Tonitrus]

The Deep Ones are real. 

[The Brain]

After incubation by the scientists, the microbes began to eat and multiply.

When microbes have more of a life than you.

[Sheilbh]

Let's keep the House of Lords permanently wfh:
https://twitter.com/richard_kaputt/status/1288205366447222786?s=21

[Valmy]

Can one of you English people explain to me the convoluted way you divide your country? I see ridings, counties, and shires. Which one is the real thing?

[The Brain]

Rotten boroughs make up around 15% of the country.

[Josquius]

Can one of you English people explain to me the convoluted way you divide your country? I see ridings, counties, and shires. Which one is the real thing?

Can one of you English people explain to me the convoluted way you divide your country? I see ridings, counties, and shires. Which one is the real thing?

Counties.

Shires are old Anglo saxon divisions which pretty much became counties with the Normans.

Ridings are old subdivisions of particularly large counties. These days they don't exist with Yorkshire being a few different full counties.

Though our county system is pretty screwed up in itself with the old traditional counties, reformed into more sensible counties in the 70s, wrecked by you know who for political reasons in the 80s, and some but not all of them withering away and vanishing after that.

[Tonitrus]

Can one of you English people explain to me the convoluted way you divide your country? I see ridings, counties, and shires. Which one is the real thing?

In my own example, it seems to go from; Nation (the UK), country (England), county (Lincolnshire), district/council (North Kesteven).  Though Lincoln I think is a "city" while essentially having the same function as a district/council.

But I wonder if some areas of England have different names for the same thing.

[Sheilbh]

Can one of you English people explain to me the convoluted way you divide your country? I see ridings, counties, and shires. Which one is the real thing?

The Isle of Man is not part of the UK/England/Scotland (or the EU). It's basically like the Channel Islands so independent except for foreign policy and defence which are provided by the UK and has the Tynwald the oldest continuously sitting Parliament in the world (the Althing has been interrupted) from 979.

You may regret asking....But....

Shire was mainly an Anglo-Saxon unit of government, which became the same as counties following the Normans. Which is why many counties include "shire" in the name - Herefordshire, Staffordshire etc.

But Shires survived in Scotland - not taken over by the Normans - so the traditional word for county in Scotland is Shire, but county is probably more common. This is why in England we traditionally have judges ("monsieur le juge"), while in Scotland they traditionally have Sheriffs. So in England we normally have Magistrates Courts (non-serious crimes - magistrates don't need a legal background), Crown Courts (more serious criminal cases) and County Courts (smaller civil matters), but in Scotland you get the Justices of the Peace Courts (non-serious criminal cases), Sheriff Court (most civil and serious criminal cases except for murder, rape and treason) which were traditionally within the Sheriffdoms (sort of like a judicial district in the US). Scots law is full of amazing language in part because it's a semi-civil system so they love their latin, but my favourite is that a plaintiff/claimant in Scotland is "the pursuer"

Technically now Scotland has "council areas" after lots of Shires/Counties were consolidated in the 70s (see below), but they're still used for land registration, addresses and in common usage - so I grew up in Caithness which people know and there is a local rivalry with Sutherland.

Ridings are just a traditional subdivision of Yorkshire because it's a very large, ancient county (more people than Scotland) that is....proud and attached to their identity. They're not officially used any more generally - Yorkshire is split into North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire (worst Yorkshire), West Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. But I think they're still in colloquial usage. Lincolnshire used to have something like Ridings but it's now very large but sparsely populated so it's no longer necessary - but they were called "Parts of" so there was Parts of Lindsey, Parts of Kesteven and Parts of Holland which collectively were the Parts of Lincolnshire - that lasted until the 70s when there was a widescale review of local government. I'm aware Tyr and Age have strong feelings on the Local Government Act of 1972

Underneath the Parts and the Ridings and below counties in the rest of the Danelaw you used to have the Wapentakes, but those are long gone (since late 19th century they'd largely been superceded but still existed). They're a bit similar to the Hundreds in the more Norman bits of country. So one of them were the Hundreds of Buckinghamshire, one of which is the Chiltern Hundreds. Under English law you can't be an agent of the crown and an MP so when MPs resign they are appointed as the Crown Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Crown Steward of the Manor of Northstead (it alternates), which are legal fictions but basically appointments by the crown.

Hopefully that clears everything up

Edit: And on Ridings - the division of Yorkshire is one of the few examples of a possibly sensible form of rationalisation in that it finally added South Yorkshire after centuries of division the North Riding of Yorkshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire

Yorkshire's legacy continues in our constituencies though. Take Bedfordshire for example, what rational Electoral Commission decides these are the appropriate geographical definitions/names: Mid-Bedfordshire, North-East Bedfordshire and South West Bedfordshire

Ediit: Similarly Bolton where the city fathers have divided the town into the following constituencies: Bolton North East, Bolton South East, Bolton West. Which is an interpretation of the compass, I suppose.

[Tamas]

Can one of you English people explain to me the convoluted way you divide your country? I see ridings, counties, and shires. Which one is the real thing?

In my own example, it seems to go from; Nation (the UK), country (England), county (Lincolnshire), district/council (North Kesteven).  Though Lincoln I think is a "city" while essentially having the same function as a district/council.

But I wonder if some areas of England have different names for the same thing.

How are you finding the general Lincoln area?

[Sheilbh]

Can one of you English people explain to me the convoluted way you divide your country? I see ridings, counties, and shires. Which one is the real thing?

In my own example, it seems to go from; Nation (the UK), country (England), county (Lincolnshire), district/council (North Kesteven).  Though Lincoln I think is a "city" while essentially having the same function as a district/council.

But I wonder if some areas of England have different names for the same thing.

Yeah - I think the general modern approach is countryside = large county council, plus local area is the district council. Cities are generally "unitary" so there's no district level. But that depends as we're moving a little bit closer to the pre-Maggie system of unitary boroughs plus a large metropolitan council - eg Borough of Lambeth within Greater London.

[Tamas]

Goddamit in and around Lincoln you can buy 3-4 bedroom detached houses for less than 300k. Does it really suck that much around there?