Highgate

I do read, hear about Russia/Ukraine most days. 
I may be wrong, but I think generally most people are pretty clear about their position on the war. You've got the loons but nobody is giving them the time of day. 
You have those who think the Putin has a lot of valid points. But even those are mostly against his action in Ukraine. 
So it's not really controversial. Ukraine good - Russia bad. There's no outrage, no hysteria. 
In Gaza/West Bank you have a lot of different positions. You have the position of large amounts of populations being opposed to the position of their governments. When Putin was labeled a war criminal and arrest warrants were issued there were no complaints (loons not included). Now that's different to the reaction we've seen from the Gaza/West Bank/Israel war. 
Controversy sells. You can run with the stories all day long and clickbait with the war in the Middle East. 
I wonder if that's the main reason Ukraine seems to be less front and center 

All focus should be on renewable/green/cost-free energy sources right now. Without us cracking that - everything else is pointless
The amount of energy required to train the next generation of AI is not sustainable using current methods on a planet that is already teetering on the brink of multiple ecological tipping points
Same with BTC - as the coins become more and more scarce (by design) - requiring more and more energy to mine. That's if it is the solution to global finances that the evangelists believe it to be
And of course - the long fabled Mars colony will also need some sort of reliable energy source
 

I'm all for space exploration in principle, but it seems to me the timescales being thrown about are wildly optimistic.  Given the fragility of the human body and it's unsuitability for other worlds there is every reason to progress very cautiously.
Human population is projected to peak at about 11 billion before the end of the century and then fall from that point onwards, so there is every possibility we won't end up overpopulating this planet after all. 
Catastrophic events that will wipe us all out from space are a remote possibility, even if they are technically possible. The more realistic threats for extinction are already here on earth.  Nuclear War and deadly pandemics being the biggest two to spring to mind. Climate change, although potentially disastrous, is not a extinction level event for me. If surviving such events is really one of the principal reasons for building Mars colonies, then it's surely far easier to building self contained, isolated and safe colonies here on Earth that would survive those calamities...underground or even under the sea.  And much cheaper too. 
I don't think humanity's problem is that we think Earth is too special, our problem is rather is that we don't realize how special it really is. We take it far too much for granted. No matter how successful any potential explorations of space could be, we will never find any planet or moon as suitable for human life as this one. That's surely a given, seeing as we have evolved on Earth, and have billions of years of adapting to Earth's particular habitat behind us. Our physiology and anatomy has been determined by our home planet. 
Again, I am in favour of space exploration, it's a great source of scientific innovation among other things, but right now, given all the problems we face on this planet, our larger priority should be dealing with terrestrial issues. 
 
 
 

I agree with you about the politicians who've weakened regulations, but you can't let the water companies off when they do things that they know full well are harmful or when they allow standards to fall so far that they're effectively poisoning people through negligence. 

The heads of the water boards have a legal obligation to make money for shareholders. They are simply doing capitalism. Without regulation this is what corporations do.
The politicians who have weakened the environmental regulations and allowed them to poison our rivers, lakes and seas should be prosecuted for treason. If a foreign power deliberately polluted our country it would be an act of war.

Conor did his best and his best was often pretty classy, but essentially playing a 2 in MF did him no favours, indeed, even Bird struggled in a league where you have to have legs in the middle of the park. Irrespective, I think it's telling that the lads themselves made him their skipper and it was noted that he stuck staunchly by the team even when effectively benched late on in the season. No bitching, no ego, just help the team get over the line. I respect that. He's a good egg and has shown himself to be a seriously talented footballer and I wish him well in his future career as a coach. I'd not be at all surprised to see him do rather well.

Without doubt, a capable playmaker as well as an excellent finisher.  A great all round CF, the only thing you could say he lacks is pace.. 

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders
 
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for war crimes.
Karim Khan KC said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from the day of Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October onwards.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh, along with the group's military chief Mohammed Deif, are also wanted for arrest.
Full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ggpe3qj6wo
 
 

Hard to believe that golf exists when there is w*nking

This seems to be the crux of Wolves' arguments against VAR:
1) Impact on goal celebrations and the spontaneous passion that makes football special.
2) Frustration and confusion inside stadiums due to lengthy VAR checks and poor communication.
3) A more hostile atmosphere with protests, booing of Premier League anthem and chants against VAR.
4) Overreach of VAR's original purpose to correct clear and obvious mistakes, now overanalysing subjective decisions and compromising the game's fluidity and integrity.
5) Diminished accountability of on-field officials, due to safety net of VAR, leading to an erosion of authority on the pitch.
6) Continued errors despite VAR, with supporters unable to accept human error after multiple views and replays, damaging confidence in officiating standards.
7) Disruption of the Premier League's fast pace with lengthy VAR checks and more added time, causing matches to run excessively long.
8 )Constant discourse about VAR decisions often overshadowing the match itself, and tarnishing the reputation of the league.
9) Erosion of trust and reputation, with VAR fuelling completely nonsensical allegations of corruption.
 
Can't argue with too much of that personally.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c4n1ndlknk1o

Ok so there's a small increase in the percentage of correct decisions - and it is only small - but that's not worth all the waiting, the end to spontaneity of celebrations.
When VAR gets it wrong, there's more bitterness than when a lino errs when making a difficult marginal call.
VAR, like everything else the rich clubs do, is killing football. Get rid.

Throw it in the bin.
It's a game, accept the referee's decision.
Mistakes happen, live with them.
Every player on your team will make a mistake.........
Wrong decisions don't ruin football, whining about wrong decisions ruins football.
 
For saying all that, it's going to be amusing watching forest vote to keep var.

I wrestle with this complex issue, as it's just as much an individual's right to choose to make a stand and boycott something as a way of expressing their feelings in a world where we feel increasingly powerless about what our governments do.
Plenty of athletes boycotted the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but then plenty also went along to compete and shook hands with Hitler and did Nazi Salutes. In hindsight - who do we respect more?
So I think I am OK with people choosing not to go/watch/be involved, but it doesn't seem OK to boo and intimidate a young girl just because of her nationality. She is just as powerless to change anything as the rest of us. The direction of protests at her seems pretty shameful

Ignorance mostly drives intolerance, not tolerance. People who are completely ignorant about  Islam are often the most Islamophobic, and people who are ignorant about the religious practices of Jews are often the most antisemitic. In both instances, they often conflate separate issues such as race with religion, for example. Israel/Judaism/Jews, Hamas/Palestinians/Islam, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that those forward slashes might as well be = signs unless a person actually educates themselves.

Totally understand, not your words, I meant to clarify that. Just annoys me that the term is being used all the time for all these anti Isreal protests. One should be allowed to not like Isreal the state, the country, the policies, the regime, without being accused of not liking Jews. Like not liking Saudi Arabian or Iranian policies is not anti-Islamic. Not liking American policies is not anti-Christian. Etc. 

It suits israel and the msm that the terms anti semitism and anti zionism are conflated. In reality I think very few people are anti semitic - largely people don't know enough about Judaism to dislike it and most Jews that people meet are good people. Most people however, me included, do have many issues with the cruel policies of the state of israel and are rightly anti zionist. 

Totally agree. It was the words used in the campaign, not mine. Used deliberately I expect to get an emotional response and more votes.

It's not really countries voting for the neighbours though as such....it's migrant populations voting for their home country. Except the Greece-Cyprus thing....   And people in N.Ireland can vote for Ireland. 
That's why Russia was such a good bet for the win before they were kicked out...they have populations is so many other Eastern European countries.  

100% agree.
Roger Milford. Last game of his career.
Nailed on first place......all other dodgy decisions are playing for the runner up spot.
Still irks 30 years on. Probably the worst day of my life from a footballing perspective.

Best dodgy decision in our favour the penalty against Rotherham in 1986, the most crucial anyway.  
Worst decision, not to give a foul when Roberts elbowed Taylor in the face in 1994...or course that injustice was compounded by Paul Williams' worst attempted clearance in Derby history one second later. Still hurts.

Best dodgy decision in our favour the penalty against Rotherham in 1986, the most crucial anyway.  
Worst decision, not to give a foul when Roberts elbowed Taylor in the face in 1994...or course that injustice was compounded by Paul Williams' worst attempted clearance in Derby history one second later. Still hurts.

Jack Taylor 1976 FA Cup Semi final v Manure when Dave Nish chipped the ball over the defence and ran on to score when the game was 1-0 but disallowed for a mystery player who was supposedly interfering with play. 
Roger Milford in the play off final v Fester not giving a blatant foul on Martin Taylor for their equaliser and letting Steve Walsh and co kick our players all over the park . 

No need for Wembley, just whichever team finished higher in the regular season gets home advantage.

I can survive without the play offs idea, was just a spur of the moment thought to keep most teams interested and something to play for until the very end. 
FWIW i'd have the bottom two automatically relegated and then 15th - 18th battling it out for the final drop. But ultimately i don't think the PL would ever trial something like this.
I'd be intrigued to see how we would reinvigorate the cup competitions. It may be a generational thing but i hold very little feelings towards the cup comps.