The Off Topic Topic

[mongers]

Hope your mother is ok

Thanks CC, I fairly sure she'll be OK; but at her age, fairly small stuff will send someone into hospital.

[Savonarola]

From Smithsonian Magazine:

Reagan and Gorbachev Agreed to Pause the Cold War in Case of an Alien Invasion

[viper37]

I do not know where to put this.  It's horrible, but it's Q-Anon, and so GOP related.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/12/california-father-killed-children-qanon-illuminati/

A father killed his two children 2yo and 10months, because he was convinced by Q-Anon they would bring about the end of the world.

[Sheilbh]

Almost sad the Deputy Leader of Westminster Council has resigned over the Marble Hill Mound

I mean, yes, costs have now hit £6 million - but I sort of feel they've given more than their money's worth to the rest of the country in mirth/joy

[Tamas]

Almost sad the Deputy Leader of Westminster Council has resigned over the Marble Hill Mound

I mean, yes, costs have now hit £6 million - but I sort of feel they've given more than their money's worth to the rest of the country in mirth/joy

And once again of course nothing is to be found suspicious about 6 million spent on what is essentially some scaffolding covered by plastic and dirt.

[garbon]

Health and Safety ain't free.

[Sheilbh]

And once again of course nothing is to be found suspicious about 6 million spent on what is essentially some scaffolding covered by plastic and dirt.

Up from £3 million. I don't know I'm used to UK public infrastructure/building costs because that really doesn't seem so bad for closing off a bit of one end of Oxford Street, building the scaffolding plus dirt, then operating it and taking it down in three months

But I am convinced some of the shadiest stuff goes on in local government because that's where most planning decisions etc are made - and I'm convinced that property development/real estate is the most corrupt sector in the planet. And there are no local media to really dig into this stuff. An example is my council which has routine appearances in Private Eye's Rotton Boroughs column

The local (Labour) council leader has just left after 10 years in office. One particular highlight was selling the Heygate Estate to Lendlease for £50 million. It cost the council £51.5 million to empty the estate so that Lendlease could demolish it with a net loss of thousands of council homes (and the Heygate Estate was bad) and not many affordable or social rent units being built on the new "regeneration". Obviously he got lots of hospitality (all registered) from Lendlease as a council leader, including VIP tickets for him and his wife to the Olympics opening ceremony etc. There were big campaigns in the area but not much else especially given the lack of good local media.

Now he's left elected office and moved to a PR firm that specialises in advising property developers work on their strategy for engaging local councils etc. Needless to say one of their big clients is Lendlease

And that's just one example - there are so many from Southwark over the last ten years. They've been very focused on developments - their argument (as Labour councillors) was that they've built more council homes than any other council in the country which is true but an indictment of the rest of the country, that it's regeneration and that the money they made from selling off pieces of land/working on regeneration has helped deliver on other stuff. I'm less convinced.

[Syt]

[Legbiter]

The eruption here is still going strong but the farmstead has been safe for now because the lava flow is heading in the opposite direction. The site of the eruption is now the most popular tourist destination in the country since all incoming flights can observe it while landing when visibility is good. The biggest problem right now are tourists chasing social media clout by climbing up on the barely solidified lava field. It'll be a minor miracle if nobody manages to incinerate themselves chasing the perfect selfie. 

Beautiful lavafall at the crater right now. https://www.mbl.is/promos/elgosid-i-beinni/

[The Brain]

The eruption here is still going strong but the farmstead has been safe for now because the lava flow is heading in the opposite direction.

[grumbler]

It'll be a minor miracle if nobody manages to incinerate themselves chasing the perfect selfie. 

Sounds like evolution in action. 

[Syt]

[Eddie Teach]

Historically accurate.

[Syt]

I assume that's a king of Gondor in the center, based on the robe?

[The Larch]

I assume that's a king of Gondor in the center, based on the robe?

Obviously Aragorn.