In the news

I'm not sure you need to be an astro nerd to be fascinated by an eclipse. I saw the 1999 one from a boat somewhere south of the Isle of Wight. You wouldn't expect to see another soul out at sea, but about a dozen other boats showed up. When it was dark it seemed as if the wind got up, but only for a few seconds. The sea birds went quiet.

Cross Post from the Israel thread which seems fairly low traffic

Three former supreme court justices, including the court’s former president Lady Hale, are among more than 600 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges warning that the UK government is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

In a letter to the prime minister, the signatories, who also include former court of appeal judges and more than 60 KCs, say that the present situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and that given the international court of justice (ICJ) finding that there is a plausible risk of genocide being committed, the UK is legally obliged to act to prevent it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/a­pr/03/former-supreme-court-judges-say-uk­-arming-israel-breaches-international-la­w

How Israel is using AI for human target selection

[https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israe­li-army-gaza/]

The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy

Missed this

https://www.ft.com/content/4aa840a8-0e52-4960-a6bc-f93f15be9c4a

I got on a train to Penzance in the middle of the night to catch that, a six hour fucking journey. It was cloudy. The clouds were light enough that you could see the sun through them at some points, which made the experience a little less disappointing. Totality was incredible, one of the eeriest experiences of my life. Would love to do it again.

12th Aug 2026 path crosses the Balearics and northern Spain - should be highly likely to get a cloud free day for that.

Ooh, that's something to shoot for. I'll need to check the path, I can time that with a trip to see the fam in Galicia.

EDIT: Yes, totality at mum and dad's place! Think I'll drive to Oviedo for the longer eclipse, never been before and a perfect excuse to visit. Thanks!

And how many people can sleep on their living room floor exactly?

Haha, man, I hope they're both still here for the event. 🙏

one of the eeriest experiences of my life

For maximum eeriness I would love to see the upcoming one in Spain up a mountain without too many people around but with lots of animals. The effect of totality on the natural world is very profound. At least it seems that way. When I was in the ocean for the 99 one, even the swell seemed to change. It seemed as if we were glimpsing some of nature's hidden powers.

@RonAsheton
Agree! I rode from Canary Wharf to Okehampton on my motorbike in 2hrs 15minutes, which as an experience almost eclipsed the eclipse. Watched it from the top of a hill the next day on Dartmoor and it was genuinely hair-raising. The wave of darkness sweeping over and the temp drop. Oof.

thames water defaults on interest payment, lets hope the chairmans bonus isn't affected too badly

Margaret Thatcher wrote off £5bn of the water industry’s debts when she privatised the sector in 1989. Shareholders have received £56bn since then while the companies have been loaded with a collective £60.3bn of debts. Customers are paying almost 20p in every pound to service debts.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/05/thames-water-parent-tells-creditors-it-has-defaulted-on-debt

And yet they want more money from bill payers to pay for infrastructure improvements that they should have already been doing with the money we've been paying them. That was the whole point of privatisation in the first point right, to get private finance for improvements.

It took 7 dead Westerners to get Biden's attention. 30,000 dead Palestinians didn't matter.

Depends what the loan contracts say.
There's potential the loan lenders could be entitled to take the business and that involves the Chinese state...

7 dead Westerners

Anyone who’s anyone in DC knows Jose Andres or has at least been to his restaurants, so his charity is one of the worst for Israel to have bombed in terms of kickback amongst the elite.

Sad to consider, but the White House probably would not have changed tack if it had been an American and Europeans from a less well-connected charity who were killed. US citizens have been killed in Palestine by the IDF this year and the US Govt didn’t flinch.

Summer-style heat is piling into Europe right now. Unprecedented for
this early in April.

Watch how Storm Kathleen acts like a giant engine that scoops the heat
out of Africa and pushes it across Europe. Many records are about to
fall...

https://twitter.com/ScottDuncanWX/status/1776566921111978077

Temperatures in Biarritz last night didn’t fall below 22.5°C, beating not only the April record but also May & June’s.

Our neighbours had a BBQ last night, and I had to remind myself it was only the first week in April

I've often had our first lunchtime BBQ
of the year before the clocks change. This year the lawn is a water logged soggy mess.

I've been barbecuing year round. Is that wrong of me?

Why is this total bollocks 'in the news'?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68739398

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For anyone under the age of 25, they’ve likely never seen it in their lifetime – as the giggling blonde with an amazing rack has been stamped out of existence,

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/boobs-are-back-thank-you-sydney-sweeney/

Not at all weird

Very weird. "If you spend any time online at all, I’m sure you’ve seen the video"

I've spent time online and I've not seen the video. (Had to Google who she is). Must be in the minority...

She’s difficult to miss if you follow TV, movies and general entertainment news.

Has been in lots of viral marketed and semi controversial shows and movies, like Euphoria, White Lotus, Madame Web, Anyone But You, and also well known for a show stopping cleavage.

It does seem different that she seems to be celebrated for her flaunting her assets by both men and women, rather than being shamed for it.
Maybe we’ve reached the threshold where public outrage has been softened by gym influencers in sports bras on Instagram and Onlyfans?