Seemingly trivial things that intrigue you

rick_chasey

If you want a silver lining I guess the poor performance of the British and the lack of any tangible result will hopefully scupper future appetite to get involved in neo colonial wars and perhaps even help inform Britain how to be a more effective military power (as plainly they were not all that effective judging by most objective standard)

rjsterry

TheBigBean said:

rjsterry said:

kingstongraham said:

rjsterry said:

kingstongraham said:

Surely the choice was between get out or escalate? Both the last two presidents made the same choice.

We're basing this on Trump's foreign policy (if you can call it that)?

Do you think a substantial increase in American troops in Afghanistan would be a popular policy?

There seem to be a number of people with direct experience who think that it didn't need a substantial increase; just not a complete withdrawal,e especially the air support.

There's an article in the Guardian about this. It says that a number of US generals overstated the achievements of the occupation and that in order to have air support, you need troops on the ground giving directions.

I'm sure there is more than one view of the situation even from those directly involved. I also don't mean to suggest that everything was great until a couple of months ago. But having spoken to people who worked there fairly recently, I think things were much better than in September 2001.
Anyway we are way outside trivial or intriguing so I will shut up.

morstar

rick_chasey said:

If you want a silver lining I guess the poor performance of the British and the lack of any tangible result will hopefully scupper future appetite to get involved in neo colonial wars and perhaps even help inform Britain how to be a more effective military power (as plainly they were not all that effective judging by most objective standard)

Nato.
US
Canada
France
Albania,
Australia
Germany
Bulgaria,
Belgium
Croatia
And so on.
Literally dozens of countries have had troops there. The rapid withdrawal and subsequent power vacuum has clearly been a choice with severe consequences but is an incredibly weak stick to beat the UK armed forces with specifically.

elbowloh

Something keeps stealing my bird feeders.

Bought a peanut filled bird feeder that I hung from a hook on the shed. Something kept lifting the lid up and then one night the whole thing was gone.

Bought a replacement, but this time used gardening wire to attach to the hook. Something has had a good go at undoing the wire, but then has just wrenched the body from the lid to take the feeder and it's contents .


There are loads of crows out there that are known to be clever, but not sure if it's bird or a squirrel maybe behind this?

webboo

Some hungry vegan.

elbowloh

webboo said:

Some hungry vegan.

Whatever it is, it's ignoring the other feeder that has sunflower seeds in, which we all know vegans love.

webboo

elbowloh said:

webboo said:

Some hungry vegan.

Whatever it is, it's ignoring the other feeder that has sunflower seeds in, which we all know vegans love.

Maybe they have a sunflower seed allergy.

rjsterry

elbowloh said:

webboo said:

Some hungry vegan.

Whatever it is, it's ignoring the other feeder that has sunflower seeds in, which we all know vegans love.

How high off the ground is it? I was thinking Squirrels but I'm not sure they'd have the strength. Next thought was foxes, which will have a go at anything and can happily destroy a fence so probably wouldn't struggle with a bird feeder if they got a taste for peanuts.

elbowloh

rjsterry said:

elbowloh said:

webboo said:

Some hungry vegan.

Whatever it is, it's ignoring the other feeder that has sunflower seeds in, which we all know vegans love.

How high off the ground is it? I was thinking Squirrels but I'm not sure they'd have the strength. Next thought was foxes, which will have a go at anything and can happily destroy a fence so probably wouldn't struggle with a bird feeder if they got a taste for peanuts.

At the top of the feeder, where the hook is, about 6.5 ft

rick_chasey

morstar said:

rick_chasey said:

If you want a silver lining I guess the poor performance of the British and the lack of any tangible result will hopefully scupper future appetite to get involved in neo colonial wars and perhaps even help inform Britain how to be a more effective military power (as plainly they were not all that effective judging by most objective standard)

Nato.
US
Canada
France
Albania,
Australia
Germany
Bulgaria,
Belgium
Croatia
And so on.
Literally dozens of countries have had troops there. The rapid withdrawal and subsequent power vacuum has clearly been a choice with severe consequences but is an incredibly weak stick to beat the UK armed forces with specifically.

Ok so afaik the UK was the biggest force after the Americans and I understand it’s widely recognised that the Brits did not do a good job for the role they were given. No shade on the soldiers here - more about kit, institutional behaviour and strategy.

There is plenty of literature around explaining why they was, and why and how the Americans regularly bailed the UK out.

It is one of the main reasons behind the big UK military strategic change.

The fact the UK general was out yesterday explaining to the press that the soldiers didn’t die for nothing and they were not “defeated” suggests they probably were….

Pross

elbowloh said:

Something keeps stealing my bird feeders.

Bought a peanut filled bird feeder that I hung from a hook on the shed. Something kept lifting the lid up and then one night the whole thing was gone.

Bought a replacement, but this time used gardening wire to attach to the hook. Something has had a good go at undoing the wire, but then has just wrenched the body from the lid to take the feeder and it's contents .


There are loads of crows out there that are known to be clever, but not sure if it's bird or a squirrel maybe behind this?

Set up a camera?

orraloon

Guess squirrel. Those rats with better PR are smart little buxxers.

pangolin

https://youtu.be/DTvS9lvRxZ8

pinno

Mark Rober ^ was an engineer with NASA for 9 years where he spent seven of those years working on the Curiosity rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

rjsterry

I know I said I'd shut up about it, but this is at least part of what we could do to clear up the mess. If we can make that kind of offer for Hong Kong...

https://twitter.com/CitImmCanada/status/1426291941503819777?s=19

Also we need to sort out the the visa admin error that is holding up a number of Afghan scholarship students with university places waiting for them.

surrey_commuter

rjsterry said:

I know I said I'd shut up about it, but this is at least part of what we could do to clear up the mess. If we can make that kind of offer for Hong Kong...

https://twitter.com/CitImmCanada/status/1426291941503819777?s=19

Also we need to sort out the the visa admin error that is holding up a number of Afghan scholarship students with university places waiting for them.

You should know by now that the Boris way is to do nothing until the decision makes itself

shirley_basso

I woke up this morning to find an animal had buried a donut in the lawn.

orraloon

shirley_basso said:

I woke up this morning to find an animal had buried a donut in the lawn.

Shirley_b! Thought the ban stick had hit you.

veronese68

shirley_basso said:

I woke up this morning to find an animal had buried a donut in the lawn.

Welcome back

First.Aspect

Was this designed by a man, or a woman?

pblakeney

First.Aspect said:

Was this designed by a man, or a woman?

I wonder the same about all women's bathroom products.

morstar

Why for an island nation, the RNLI is a voluntary organisation.

Seems an odd distinction from the police, fire brigade or ambulance service.

mrb123

First.Aspect said:

Was this designed by a man, or a woman?

Wouldn't fancy that thing slamming into me from behind in a peloton pile up.

rick_chasey

mrb123 said:

First.Aspect said:

Was this designed by a man, or a woman?

Wouldn't fancy that thing slamming into me from behind in a peloton pile up.

Don’t lie, you’d bloody love it

mrb123

rick_chasey said:

mrb123 said:

First.Aspect said:

Was this designed by a man, or a woman?

Wouldn't fancy that thing slamming into me from behind in a peloton pile up.

Don’t lie, you’d bloody love it

Well OK then. So long as I'd applied my chamois cream that morning.

briantrumpet

morstar said:

Why for an island nation, the RNLI is a voluntary organisation.

Seems an odd distinction from the police, fire brigade or ambulance service.

morstar said:

Why for an island nation, the RNLI is a voluntary organisation.

Seems an odd distinction from the police, fire brigade or ambulance service.

Not entirely voluntary, of course: at St Ives, there's one salaried person who looks after the kit and drives the tractor thing into the sea to launch the boat.

But crew, yes. I guess it's because people will do it for naught. Why pay people, if you can get them to do it for nothing?

Pross

morstar said:

Why for an island nation, the RNLI is a voluntary organisation.

Seems an odd distinction from the police, fire brigade or ambulance service.

Coast guard is the maritime emergency service isn't it? I guess the numbers of people who use the sea are relatively small but I still don't see why lifeboats aren't on a retainer like the fire service in many places. Same with mountain rescue.

orraloon

There is a segment of the population who are not selfish self-centred twunts motivated by self only, but are willing and able to contribute freely to "society".

pangolin

orraloon said:

There is a segment of the population who are not selfish self-centred twunts motivated by self only, but are willing and able to contribute freely to "society".

You reckon it's for the good of society, not because they love it?

briantrumpet

I'm sure they'd do policing with volunteers if they could get enough, and who weren't either incompetent or corrupt. Special Constables were a thing... not sure if they are any more.