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WAMT....what annoyed me today!
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AndrewFlannigan
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The thing that annoys me every day, is the idea that humans are a problem.
All biological organisms harm other organisms one way or another, whether by taking a space that another organism needs to continue growing, by using some other resource required by the other organism or by eating the other organism. We may as well make war on grass for taking the nutrients that clover needs.
All biological organisms harm other organisms one way or another, whether by taking a space that another organism needs to continue growing, by using some other resource required by the other organism or by eating the other organism. We may as well make war on grass for taking the nutrients that clover needs.
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Balance.
AndrewFlannigan
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Exactly.
gman
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AndrewFlannigan
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I suppose those who agree with that might choose to donate themselves to the worms and other grave consumers prematurely.
gman
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That's a worn out absurd response.
AndrewFlannigan
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I consider it neither absurd nor worn out.
When someone says there are too many humans, they mean that there are too many other humans. They don't seem to consider that they are one of the "too many". W.S. Gilbert summed this up nicely in Pish-Tush's song from "The Mikado"...
‘Who’s next to be decapited
Cannot cut off another’s head
Until he’s cut his own off.’
Cannot cut off another’s head
Until he’s cut his own off.’
...in other words, if you think there are too many people, why shouldn't you be the first to reduce the excess population?
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There are other ways of reducing population other than killing people.
AndrewFlannigan
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I fully agree.
If we agree that there are too many humans (I don't, by the way) then perhaps the best way is to use contraception. However, for many people, contraception is prohibitively expensive. So why not use tax money to make vast quantities, then use more tax money to pay people to distribute the contraception and teach people to use it wisely.
After this, we can use tax money to provide machines, to make up for the reducing population and to show the remaining population how to use those machines to improve their lives. I'm OK with diverting taxes from our own country to help others but I wonder how many would agree with such an idea?
JohnC6
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Took the family to Edinburgh Zoo yesterday and whilst viewing and listening it felt like species after species are endangered and each time because of humans. We really are the parasites of earth.
I agree with your sentiment. Fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom but it's not good. One big problem is that the governments of some countries do nothing to save species. Indonesia has a thriving pet trade with those involved taking birds and animals from the forests. It's illegal but not policed. There's the shark fin trade ..used for soup. Countries failing to act are..as ever....China. Also Singapore, Taiwan and Spain is a major supplier. Why doesn't the EU put a stop to it ? It's just allowed the shooting, annually, of 132,000 migrating birds. I recently posted about that. Also supplying shark fins is the US. China has banned bear bile farms but fail to police it. I could cite many other examples.
Green turtle bounces back from brink in conservation 'win'
Once endangered due to hunting, it is making a strong recovery thanks to global conservation efforts.
www.bbc.co.uk
Just to give you some hope... https://www.nwf.org/Our-Work/Wildlife-Conservation/Success-Stories
gman
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I didn't say that there were too many humans.
For example, there are an estimated 20 quadrillion ants in the world, substantially more than the 8+ billion humans, and whilst achieving constant harmony within an ecosystem is not common due to the dynamic nature of such, humans have comparatively caused astronomical amounts of overall global damage compared to any other species.
It is the scale, disregard and irresponsibility of our actions upon the world that is currently the problem. So yes, to suggest humans culling themselves because of their actions is indeed absurd. It should be our actions that are addressed.
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I was about to reply, but then realised you can't be being serious.
AndrewFlannigan
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I was serious but I pointed out at the beginning of that post that I don't think there are too many humans on this planet, so I was merely suggesting an alternative to mass slaughter for those who do think there are too many of us.
AndrewFlannigan
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One man's "irresponsible actions" are another woman's necessity for survival. In my opinion, we should just be glad for each day we're personally still here.
cambsno
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Moving a few accounts from my work email to personal email (part time tog). All easy, Adobe, Paypal etc... but Flickr... no easy way. lots of hoops so just deleted the account. crazy, if a financial place can do it easily why not a photo site
ancient_mariner
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Legacy accounts.
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WAMT?
ME not checking that a shop we went on an ~90 mile round trip to visit was open on Mondays... (Helmet City in West Bay)
Never mind, there's a branch of a lunchtime favourite restaurant/café in the town so it wasn't a completely wasted trip! (Rise, with the other 2 branches being Swim in Lyme Regis and Heydays in Exmouth)
ME not checking that a shop we went on an ~90 mile round trip to visit was open on Mondays... (Helmet City in West Bay)
Never mind, there's a branch of a lunchtime favourite restaurant/café in the town so it wasn't a completely wasted trip! (Rise, with the other 2 branches being Swim in Lyme Regis and Heydays in Exmouth)
JohnC6
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I was driving past a primary school at 3.15 ..end of the school day..and all the parents' cars were parked either side of the road. There are the customary yellow zig-zags but two were actually on the white zig-zags of the pedestrian crossing right outside the school gates..10m from the gates to the crossing and on the approach side..just a couple of paces infront of the crossing. Small children were running out to their parents and I had to drive a 5mph because if any of them had started over the crossing I woudln't have been able to see the parent easily. ,even less a child. Such selfishness.
LCPete
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Yes its selfish , a few weeks ago I had some woman just stop in front of me blocking the road while she was waiting for her child to arrive, I regret that I just sat and waited, certainly wouldn’t now
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As you're probably aware, win 10 has ended support from microsoft. Win 11 install or upgrade is blocked by microsoft, unless you have a very modern chip with a specific security feature. This makes countless millions of PCs obsolete.
There are many videos on YouTube telling how to get around this and load win 11 on almost any pC.
Many of the channels carrying these videos have got a warning "strike" from YouTube, as the video has been deemed " harmful or dangerous".
Big tech protecting itself.
There are many videos on YouTube telling how to get around this and load win 11 on almost any pC.
Many of the channels carrying these videos have got a warning "strike" from YouTube, as the video has been deemed " harmful or dangerous".
Big tech protecting itself.
Suvv
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O2 changing my mobile account and putting the monthly cost up by £2.50. I only pay £5.86 so that is a 42.7% rise.
My wife's mobile costs £8.60 so that is a 29% rise
As it is a change to contract I have already ordered a couple of SIM cards from someone else.
My wife's mobile costs £8.60 so that is a 29% rise
As it is a change to contract I have already ordered a couple of SIM cards from someone else.
LCPete
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Yes same for us too
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I left o2 a year ago.
They were charging me £26 pm for unlimited and 15gb of data.
I pay ID mobile £12 pm for unlimited and 250gb data. I find the ID (3 network) 5G coverage much better too.
LCPete
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ID mobile deal does sound good, we are with O2 because of the tie in with Virgin broadband get a good deal with the broadband if we have O2 as well
Was paying just under £5 pm for O2 , don’t actually use much data and the Virgin broadband is so much better than we had before, BT more than ten times faster literally
ancient_mariner
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My reason for staying with O2 is that they give me 25GB of data/month in France vs 5GB from everyone else. My phone is my internet connection, and it only requires an unexpected windows update on 2 laptops to have suddenly used up the entire data allowance.
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Wouldn't you be better off getting a French data stick?
My lad had French and Spanish sims when he was studying in those countries.
It may have changed now though.
ancient_mariner
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It's not worth the hassle for up to 2 weeks at a time, but when we spend more time there that will change. I also like the VoIP facility they give me, because otherwise work is a black hole for mobile signal.
FarrahBull
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A power cut.
Which usually wouldn’t bother me, but I have a Marine Fish Tank with no battery back up ( I live in Kent).
So currently having to manually turn the water over whilst fighting WhatsApp messages from the mother saying this is just the beginning (The best Mum but a complete conspiracy nut).
Which usually wouldn’t bother me, but I have a Marine Fish Tank with no battery back up ( I live in Kent).
So currently having to manually turn the water over whilst fighting WhatsApp messages from the mother saying this is just the beginning (The best Mum but a complete conspiracy nut).
seaodyssey
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Fireworks - Was out walking the dog before bed, and I heard some super load bangs, just as well the poor thing is going deaf. I thought there was a noise restriction on fireworks these days.
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Yes!
My phone, tablet and pc have both updated in the last few days and all have given me problems with things that had been working fine suddenly not working until settings were changed.
JohnC6
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I loathe fireworks . I found three spent rockets in the back garden and one was at the front close to the car.
Surely, they can be made without the explosive content ? There can be some lovely displays but what's the point of a 'bang' ? The maximum legal limit is 120 decibals. You'd have to have a decibel meter to know what level the noise was at. A couple of really loud bangs, near us, made me jump as I was watching TV.
I read (below link) that it causes great distress to roosting birds, too and wildlife in general not to mention domestic pets. We have to put up with them on New Year's Eve,too. Infact, there were some set off recently, celebrating Diwali.
Hundreds of roosting starlings die after fireworks set off in Rome
An animal rights group says a display of firecrackers is the likely cause.
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ancient_mariner
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Many of us enjoy the explosions. There was a time when nearly every home would have firework parties, but now most of us go to displays in order to contain the noise and upset to animals.
gman
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We didn't do any home fireworks this year, too many neighbours with pets and the last time we got rockets they were from Costco and insanely loud. We actually found the catherine wheels a far better visual treat and didn't need all the bangs to be good.
JohnC6
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I don't think even you, Toni, as someone who enjoys explosions, would have enjoyed the ones near to us. They sounded like air bombs.I was surprised fireworks with such loud explosions were even legal. To set them off in an urban environment is having total disregard for the vulnerable. As you say, they cause stress to animals but also the,frail,the vulnerable, the elderly, small children, babies. It's why there are laws designed to protect a peaceful and safe environment rather than allow people the freedom to disrupt those desirable aspects.
Yes..having them in one location is the best way and, as you also say, more people are attending public displays than home displays.I checked the stats. In one survey covering a three-year period, 41% of people had attended a public firework display. In a more recent, single-year survey, 25% of people attended a public display. In contrast, only 17% of those surveyed had attended a private home display over a three-year period
If we are to have them atall, that's the best way ..public displays but they will still cause stress to wildlife, especially in more rural settings. It would also address the safety aspect,too. I've checked the stats for that,too. In the UK , approximately 2000 people a year are treated in A&E for firework-related injuries.They mainly occur re November 5th and Diwali, for Indians. No need to go into that side of the issue because my gripe was about the explosions but that side of it needs to be taken into consideration,too Over the years there's been talk of banning home-displays.
I read this,too.
A study, using GPS trackers, conducted in three European countries, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, shows the’ effects of fireworks on Arctic migratory geese during the New Year’s Eve celebration. The research revealed that the geese flew away from their sleeping sites in response to the fireworks. They never returned. The University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics used weather radars to detect how birds, mainly waterfowl, react to New Year’s Eve fireworks. The radars showed that thousands of birds flew up to altitudes of 500 metres in the air after the explosions.
There's hope and the point here is that authorities recognise the spectrum of environmental damage that firework displays ,in their current form, cause. Canadian cities located in the province of Alberta, like Banff and Canmore have replaced fireworks with special-effects pyrotechnic displays which are quieter and have a lower altitude in order to protect wildlife. The town of Collecchio, in Italy, also switched from standard fireworks to silent fireworks to help reduce stress on local wild animals. Although these fireworks do not have the traditional loud bang, they still have their colourful and illuminated displays, making them a great and more environmentally friendly alternative.
It's the right way forward and just needs the will of government/LAs. ..and, of course, people putting pressure on authorities to act.
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