It’s traditional to crap on the brummies, but I’ve come round to the melodic innocence of a good brummie accent.

The actual worst is the unremarkable and boring middle class thames estuary accent, esp out the mouths of strivers in London who think they’re something special.

Make sure it’s a blind test ;)

The visual difference of the minimoon and supermoon is not that great, see here but hold your phone at arms length. This is the maximum difference (taken 6 months apart) that the moon ever is relative to itself. In practice, from one night to the next or one month to the next the difference is barely noticeable.

When people say “the moon was huge tonight” what they are generally seeing is the moon illusion

The reference to seasons is badly worded, but what I was referring to is that the earths seasons have nothing to do with how close to the sun it is

no, it’s not. it’s a meta analysis of multiple double blind studies. multiple

“For the children described as sugar-sensitive, there were no significant differences among the three diets in any of 39 behavioral and cognitive variables. For the preschool children, only 4 of the 31 measures differed significantly among the three diets, and there was no consistent pattern in the differences that were observed.”

if you did the same with cyanide you would be able to conclude that “taking cyanide and being dead is positively correlated” even if there were other causes of death. in this wide summary of multiple double blind experiements, there is no correlation between sugar intake and child behaviour. that’s not to say kids don’t act up and get hyper, but it’s other causes, most signficantly parents just underestimate how hard kids find it to regulate themselves when having treats of any sort (non-sugar included) or being in a party atmosphere with friends.

I listed it because it’s one of the things I would sworn by too having seen it first hand. However when you conduct a double blind experiment, kids still get excited at parties / treats / days out / when their friends are over when there’s no sugar in the treats.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/medical-myths-does-sugar-make-children-hyperactive

In otherwords as parents we massively underestimate how excited or crazy kids can get just because they’re excited and not because of something in their bloodstream…

No. At least, it’s not the general cause of ‘middle age spread’.

The base metabolic rate refers to how your individual cells respire when at rest. And a brain cell in 20 year old respires much the same way as a brain cell in a 45 year old. Same for all other organs. There is a gradual decline but it’s on the order a single percents.

Organs and tissue at rest respire at different rates, so some of the change people notice is due to change in body composition. Muscle at rest burns twice the calories as fat however this is still only a minor contribution.

Base metabolic rate doesn’t vary much at all. The vast difference in daily calories consumed as one ages is general activity level.

Overall metabolic rate = base rate (varies a little on body composition) + calories burned in general activity (varies a lot)

People typically are less active between 20 and 40. This is not just sport but also lifestyle. People become more efficient in their habits as they age. They drive instead of biking or walking. They sit in the sun on holiday with nice food and wine rather than dancing all night. Etc

Lifestyle choice is the primary cause of excess calorie intake and ‘middle age spread’. Not “my metabolism that I can’t do anything about”.

• that putting the thermostat up higher will heat the house up quicker (edit: I have in mind a bog standard UK home thermostat)

• that sugary sweets make kids act “hyper”

• that the moon’s apparent size is due to how close it is to earth (same for seasons and the sun)

• that your base metabolic rate slows as you age and is primarily responsible for you putting weight on in middle age

Looks more like a pregnancy test tbh…

Fundamentalists: “As it says in GOD’S WORD”

God’s Word: “if a foetus is fully formed treat it like a person, if it’s not, don’t”

Fundamentalists: “wait… what”

The whole thing seems incredible.

How is “oh it was epilepsy” a defence when you’ve never had an epileptic fit before? No history of it.

You’ve all seen a million YouTube videos of someone panicking and hitting the accelerator when they meant the brake. Unfortunately far far more likely than “invisible epilepsy”.

I can’t believe they didn’t charge her (first time round).

She was probably haring it along Camp Road (as well-to-do Chelsea tractor types are known to do). And completely fails to take the right hand bend properly. This leads directly into the school playground.

Or, by some miracle, are we to believe that, of all the moments for it to happen, InViSiBlE ePiLePsY struck at the exact point where someone driving too fast might lose control?

Pls… shame on the CPS…

Edit: if this is a defence that works then EVERY TRAFFIC DEATH where someone wasn’t paying attention could be defended on exactly the same terms. “It was mysterious epilepsy”. Crown prosecution: “well… can’t prove it wasn’t. Guess there’s nothing for us to do here”. ffs… it’s nonsense. Does she know someone influential or something…

The thinktank have since moved on to their next study: “The defecation habits of ursidae in arboreal contexts”

Places I’ve consulted at have typically gone through noun lists unconnected to the work. Noun lists like i) greek gods (project Perseus) ii) Roman gods (project Janus) iii) literally random nouns (project Rainbow) iv) precious stones (project Sapphire) and so on…

Is this a fragment of a sentence? Because it seems like an incomplete thought.

If there’s further information to come in the sentence with the monkey as the subject you could use brackets to indicate your thought and write…

“The monkey (about whom I’m wondering: ‘can they see my ears?’) did something or other…”

This isn’t strictly grammatically correct, but seems to be the most natural way it could be written and said without sounding weird.

Or is ‘monkey’ an answer to some other question and you’re adding that other information for context? If so, you could use a semi-colon.

“What’s bothering you?”

“The monkey; I’m wondering ‘can they see my ears?’”

I read a lot. I would read more.

If it does then we also lose the ability to even say that that’s what it’s done. And if that’s the case then has it really done it? /ponders uselessly

I like to think somewhere researchers are working on actual AI and the AI has already decided that it doesn’t want to read bullshit on the internet

Saved you a click of the Independent’s usual clickbait nonsense:

• the research is conducted by an author of a new book he would like to sell you

• ‘spiritual’ has such a vague definition as to almost mean anything

• one characteristic is “a yearning to connect with something bigger than myself”.

• entirely unsurprising this is how a younger generation categorise the lack they feel as a result of covid isolation and disillusionment with unobtainable material life goals

• ‘spiritual’ in this context means ‘life feels empty but I think there should be something more’

• belief in a personal god and the authority of religious leaders is at an all time low

• aside from that there’s a small minority of the conservative religious seeing a small increase (muslims, evangelical Christians)

Maximum profit is extracted being in a perpetual state of “will they/won’t they WWIII” which is why we’ll be right here in this mood for a long time…

“and now class I would like to draw your attention to a footnote that existed between the ancient empires of Britain and the Glorious Peoples Empire of China… for a time there was a thing called ‘America’…”

I had a washing machine that made audible chirps as you dialed through the programs and an irritating ditty whenever you engaged a program. It couldn’t be turned off. That was on a physical dial. But it also had flat touch buttons with no bevel or edge or tactile feedback - and these were always silent - so most of the time you didn’t know if you’d really pressed it or not. God. The first time I used it I was like… “what the fuck”. It was brand new in 2023. I cannot comprehend how someone can design, make, and program something so stupid.