ariotofmyown

"Cummings says the real problem was the the PM would not come up with a policy and stick to it. He was changing his mind every time the Daily Telegraph wrote a leader on the subject. He was “just like a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”."
I was always concerned that Johnson would pay too much attention to one particular section of the media.

I'm not sure about that actually. I've never liked him, but he comes across today as someone who wants government to work much better than it currently does.
He's putting the boot into Johnson and friends as his clearly thinks they are hopeless, but I'm not sure if he really has much loyalty to any party.
I imagine he would rather have competent leadership than one that believes in a particularly ideology.
Though his comment about Johnson and Corbyn both being bad choices was interesting. I imagine he now regrets the way Brexit has played out. Competent leadership could have delivered on some of the Brexit promises but he surely has no faith Johnson can do this.
 

A lunar eclipse / blood moon last night over Australia. First shot from Samford Qld and second one from Gippsland Victoria.

Hi all
Have bought my 10 year old an Xbox one for his 10th birthday. His first games console and mine since the Spectrum 48k ( which I still have in the loft!)
Anyway, any recommendations on easy to play games suitable for a beginner? Looking for something we can play together offline, get used to the controls etc. We like Star Wars, he loves Lego, I am really tight and both of us now hate football. Any suggestions for games based on these parameters? Maybe good two player games or something?
I considered Battlefront, which I pretty muck know nothing about, but was worried it would be too complicated for a beginner and possibly age inappropriate. Squadrons seems a little tricky as well although, again, this is only based on what I have read.
Any advice welcome. 
 

They’re going to release a new Lego Star Wars game later this year - the Skywalker Saga. That will be the one to get, as it will incorporate all 9 films. The original Lego Star Wars is quite dated now, originally being released on the PS2. I would go for the Force Awakens game, it’s short but good fun and has loads of replay value. Lego games on console are much better than handheld/iPad versions!
In terms of other Lego games, my 8 year old enjoys Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, Lego Harry Potter and Lego City. There are other Lego games that are worth looking into, but some are better than others.
Lego Worlds is similar to Minecraft but not as good. Minecraft is def worth picking up just for replayability.
Other than that, I would say try Game Pass and check out the family section. It has a bunch of games to try and see which ones stick. My 2 like building zoos on Zoo Tycoon which we found on there. Hope that helps

Fortnite is pretty good tbh - maybe you can also get him into the creative that comes with it?  One of my lads had great fun designing his own maps etc.  
Also you should look at 'Save the World', its the solo/multiplayer PvE game that comes with Fortnite.  I've personally had hundreds of hours of fun with that and it teaches you to build/shoot etc without the pressure of some PvP god gunning you down before you realise you're under attack ? You can get it pretty cheap now-a-days or iirc you can pick it up free with a fortnite membership.

Thanks for that. He has minecraft on his iPad and loves that. We have tried Lego Star Wars games on the iPad but never really fathomed them out. Perhaps better on a console? I might give that a try. I also thought about Star Wars episode 1 racers - older game but ‘re-released’ and meant to be ok. I thought a racing game would be ideal to get used to the controls. He’ll probably end up on fortnite though I would imagine! 

I'd second the Lego series.
Me and my lad have had a blast playing Lego Marvel this past year.
He's also loved playing Rocket League. We learned together. It's tricky to get the hand eye coordination right at first. But preserve because when you crack it it is enormous fun.

Wow - Cummings has literally just said that there is something badly wrong with the system that allowed him to hold such a position of power. And then added Boris Johnson to that same rationale - he's basically saying what we all know. The system is f**ked and none of them have a clue what they are doing

So we're back to the "I don't know anybody affected, therefore the problems are exaggerated" school of 'thought', are we?
 

Cummings is an utter tool, but he's coming across as incredibly plausible and this is devastating for Johnson.
And other than his conversations he has agreed to back everything up with documentation. 
Up until the vaccine I though BJ had done a horrible job.
It was much worse than that.

All places weren't impacted the same. If you had been in certain care homes, you'd have known lots of people who had died.
And according to a google search, the population of Derby is 260k, of which 0.2% is 520, not 5000.
I hope this is only a recent mathematical error and it hasn't been driving your opinion on here for months.

I didn't realise that it was live on TV - watching now and it's fascinating stuff
 

He is sort of implicating himself, but with a few get outs. Like "I should have acted sooner, but if they had listened to me, we would have got other people involved earlier who would have made us act earlier".
There is a nice irony that the cabinet MPs who could just say Cummings is lying like with his Rose Garden statement, can't say that as they were all forced to back him up then. 
Looking forward to when them come clean and admit that happened.
Cummings doesn't seem to be lying this time though, and imagine there are plenty of others who will back up what he is saying/documents exist saying the same.

To even it out - I know 5. Thankfully no one close, but relatives of friends &  work colleagues
It's like everything - hard to relate to it as real unless you have experienced it, or seen someone you know experience it. The innate human capability of being unable to see further than the end of their nose
 

I hope it stays that way for you. 
I worked in NHS, so two work colleagues, one younger one older than me, one school friend (my age) and also the father of a friend ( who I didn't count as I don't actually know him, just her.) I would say three of those four have died before their time due to Covid. The other was elderly and therefore it could have been flu or something else, tbh.
It's been real all right and is a horrible way to die. However, there has been a decrease in other deaths due partly to lockdowns, flu for example, road accidents etc. 
Cancer is a big one as while deaths have fallen, it is suspected there is an unseen crisis of people who haven't come forward for early treatment. This could lead to increased deaths down the line. 
I think it's been a tough call for the government to get it right and every decision is a calculated risk.
You mentioned the media's role and you're right about that. For every article saying we're moving out of lockdown too slowly, there is another one wanting borders to be closed again. 

You understand how the virus spreads do you? If 99% had carried on as normal the majority would eventually have been spreading it. That is the point. Ask Sweden, could be they got it wrong.
COVID-19 and the Swedish enigma - The Lancet
Now we have vaccines, the situation can be approached differently.

don't get what you are saying here.  So the figs are not made up but are not as bad as the press are making out?
I have had 2 close people who have died.
Like all historical matters some have a need to deny it existed or wish to bend the truth to somehow tell a conspiracy story.  It is a virus, it has killed many people (mostly those that were at risk and were taken from us earlier than would have been normal) and it continues to burn in other areas of the world.

All places weren't impacted the same. If you had been in certain care homes, you'd have known lots of people who had died.
And according to a google search, the population of Derby is 260k, of which 0.2% is 520, not 5000.
I hope this is only a recent mathematical error and it hasn't been driving your opinion on here for months.

Any updates that aren't bickering about history and sizes of other clubs?

Bearing in mind the lack of impact they made, it's infuriating that just not signing Blackman and Anya would have seen us ok with FFP.
 

Who?

You mean as opposed to Mansour buying City or Abramovic buying Chelsea. Neither were exactly behemoths prior to their current owners taking over, were they?
Now the flip-side; Liverpool were priced at >£2 billion when last under offer and at that price, there's no great potential for ROI, least none that I can see. The only way is down. Would Tepper buy a club as a plaything, o do you suppose he might want to build the club and secure a return on investment?
Let's take emotion out of the equation for a moment; in the good times; we can sell over 30,000 tickets for games. Derby is effectively a one club City; we are a founder member of the football league who have twice topped the pile; we have a large and loyal fan-base and a comparatively rich footballing history.
Furthermore, I'd venture it is the very fact that we are in such a mess that makes us an attractive proposition. I struggle with the fact that so many fans are unable to grasp the notion that you buy stock when it's cheap, not when it's already peaked. Why one shitty season, when we've been challenging for promotion for nigh on 10 years now, is being taken as the only viable metric.
We know there are multiple bidders currently and this without the EFL charges being put to bed. Surely there's a clue there for those who choose to see it? I've very little doubt that a consortium that brings the financial wherewithal of Tepper and the commercial skills and experience of a man like Glick, would be able to steady the ship and put us on back on a road we were already treading until 18 months ago without too much bother. 

Has everyone calmed down now the clubs responded and answered everyone of the fan bases concerns then?
Im still hurting that my Gluten Free options in the concourse wasn’t included.

Not sure if it's already been mentioned but "The Killing" on BBC4 makes for some excellent viewing. Danish with subtitles- a mix of murder and political skulduggery, although the series are quite long.
Worth checking out if that's your sort of thing.