carosio

There's mention of the unmentionables in The Beatles "I Am The Walrus".

How many these days have an optical drive, playing and copying cds etc?

I believe the general requiremnts for packaging by courier companies is that the item should "survive" a 1 metre drop, although,  delicate equipment might still be damaged due to shock, this can be minimised by good foam packing. If you don't think it was protected sufficiently then as said above contact the seller, save packing and take good photos.

There might be some specialist sites dealing with Avery scales.

You should be able to get a reduction in price if the seller doesnt want it returned. He/she also might have got it insured with the courier in which case good photos of the packing etc will be essential.

8 minutes ago, cuttsie said:

So not the Utopia that England is eh , What about Ireland how do they accept every one do they do it in a different way are these shifting populations heading there .

The government have started letting them in, but with a population at circa 5.5m, we're full, some say!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/22/anti-immigration-protesters-march-dublin-ireland-refugees

14 minutes ago, cuttsie said:

All the economic migrants are now heading for Russia ??????

They do take migrants, but look at the hoops that have to be gone through! No 4-poster beds there.

Substantive determination – definition of refugee status (Russia)

In order for an individual to seek asylum in Russia, he must be designated by the Federal Migration Service as such. The FMS will conduct a substantive investigation, or Refugee Status Determination (RSD), once an asylum seekers application is registered. The 1997 Law on Refugees defines the term "refugee" as "a person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution".^[7] The individual seeking asylum must satisfy the requirements set forth in the definition of "refugee" in order to obtain asylum in Russia.

Admissibility of Claim Determination - Exclusionary Provisions (Russia)

According to the Law on Refugees, some asylum seekers will be explicitly excluded from being considered refugees before any substantive determination is made by the FMS.

Article 2.2 excludes asylum seekers who have fled their country of origin for "economic reasons due to hunger, epidemic, or natural or man-made emergencies".

Article 5 of the Law describes in which circumstances a claim shall not be considered on its merits. These include: (1) if there is a criminal proceeding against the applicant for allegedly committing a crime in Russia; (2) the case of repetitive applications; (3) the case in which the applicant has received a negative decision on refugee status in any State that has acceded the 1951 Convention; (4) the principle of safe third country – the case in which an asylum seeker arrived in Russia from a country where he could have claimed asylum; (5) the case of asylum seekers who did not flee persecution and who are unwilling to return owing to fear of punishment for their illegal departure or for another offence committed in their home country, and; (6) the case of asylum seekers who illegally enter Russia and do not apply for refugee status within 24 hours from the moment of entry.

1 hour ago, spilldig said:

No frying pans then! 

I bought a lady friend a (hand) shovel for her birthday last year, well you ought to have seen the old one, like something off Antique Roadshow.

Whether by nature or nurture, women seem to enthuse over the minutiae of organising social events, and likewise are engrossed with TV soaps due to their emphasis on relationships. 

Eugene Finkel:

“We do not idealize the Ukrainian state and society. Like any other country, it has right-wing extremists and violent xenophobic groups. Ukraine also ought to better confront the darker chapters of its painful and complicated history. Yet none of this justifies the Russian aggression and the gross mischaracterization of Ukraine.”

One of the authors of the statement, Eugene Finkel, an associate professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, told us the influence of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi faction is relatively small.

“Neo-Nazi, far right and xenophobic groups do exist in Ukraine, like in pretty much any other country, including Russia,” Finkel said. “They are vocal and can be prone to violence but they are numerically small, marginal and their political influence at the state level is non-existent. That is not to say that Ukraine doesn’t have a far-right problem. It does. But I would consider the KKK in the US and skinheads and neo-Nazi groups in Russia a much bigger problem and threat than the Ukrainian far right.”

2 hours ago, melthebell said:

indeed, things like kitchen foil and oven gloves i believe

The very computer (and the vast range of all other sytems that use miniaturised electronics) that you use is a direct result of the "Space Race".

16 minutes ago, Organgrinder said:

And what exactly does that do to fill starving bellies, to provide clean water,  and to raise peoples heads above the flood and save their cattle and crops ?

 

See the aid budget above. Perhaps we interfere too much on how other countries spend their money?

Where does the money go?

NASA's budget request for fiscal year 2022 reflects a topical range of priorities. The four highlighted priorities are:

• Addressing the climate crisis nationally and internationally.This includes a next-generation Earth system observatory, sustainable flight partnerships, and university research.
• Restoring America's global standing.The Artemis missions to the Moon, the International Space Station, and international partnerships all fall under this category.
• Promoting racial and economic equality by increasing the participation of historically underserved communities in STEM. This also includes landing the first woman and person of color on the Moon through the Artemis missions.
• Driving economic growth by leading American dominance in emerging markets and space technology. There's also more than $280 million allotted for investments in small business innovation research.

The American taxpayer has been generous to foreign countries. Between the years 2013 and 2018, nearly $300 billion in U.S. taxpayer money flowed as “aid” to countries outside the United States.

Every dog has its day.

Hope they cleaned up after themselves.

14 hours ago, hackey lad said:

Is it in Ameys contract to fix the road where the tram runs on it . All the concrete seems to be blowing and someone patches it with tarmac ,which lasts about a fortnight .

Some right holes and sunken drain covers / manholes round here .

They omitted to raise a lot of the ironwork to the level of the top dressing, probably due to time/cost. I spend too much time when driving trying to spot the myriad of sunken man-hole covers and such-like, especially on roads where they get pounded by artics and buses.

I believe it's an hour and a half in that park.

(EDIT- incorrect.)

One thing can't be denied, a crisp £20 note looks prettier than a plastic card, and a thick wad of £20 notes even more so.

We seem to lack the master songwriters of yesteryear. The pop tunes of the 50s, 60s and maybe 70s are prolific and timeless, but  the later ones seem bland and forgettable, perhaps with some exceptions.

The pop music industry has to keep churning them out I suppose.

Looking at it another way, if they were each given a million dollars to stop offending, would that sort it? Same here, if all offenders in Sheffield were given the same, would crime fall dramatically?

11 hours ago, cuttsie said:

As title , to me it was the second World war and the Holocaust,  Then the slave trade ,  Then the !!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps you are referring to the Atlantic slave trade (perhaps not) but it still exists today:

"In modern times human trafficking remains an international problem. An estimated 25-40 million people were enslaved as of 2013, the majority of these in Asia.^[11] During the 1983–2005 Second Sudanese Civil War, people were taken into slavery.^[12] Evidence emerged in the late 1990s of systematic child slavery and trafficking on cacao plantations in West Africa.^[13]

Slavery in the 21st century continues and generates an estimated $150 billion in annual profits.^[14] Populations in regions with armed conflict are especially vulnerable, and modern transportation has made human trafficking easier.^[15] In 2019, there were an estimated 40 million people worldwide subject to some form of slavery - 25% were children.^[14] Sixty-one percent^{[nb 1]} are used for forced labor, mostly in the private sector. Thirty-eight percent^{[nb 2]} live in forced marriages.^[14] Other types of modern slavery are prison labor, sex trafficking, and sexual slavery."  ( Wikipedia)

There's not many films I like to see more than once (apart from musicals), but these two I find rather eerie

The Forbidden Planet

The Incredible Shrinking Man

40 minutes ago, pattricia said:

When a young child I lived at Longley. I loved going to the Saturday morning cinema for children at The Forum to see Flash Gordon , Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. We used to gallop back home after seeing the cowboy films.

Ch 82 has been repeating (Sat Mornings) the 1950s Richard Green Robin Hood series, along with  Lancelot and William Tell, although there were none broadcast today. Flash Gordon series was on earlier in the year.

1 hour ago, crookesey said:

I’m age 76 and can’t remember when my memory started to fail. 😉

That's good, you'll forget that you have a bad memory.

20 hours ago, HeHasRisen said:

Interesting. They are advertised as 59g on that link, wonder if that's wrong or the change has only just happened? 

While on subject, I bought (a few years ago) a 1 kg pack of raisens from Tesco.  I had just acquired some digital kitchen scales and the pack weighed something like 770g. Unfortunately, I had just slit the top of the packaging before I thought of weighing them. I am confident these scales are spot on as they tally precisely with the local post office when I take small packages.

Regs on food packaging/weights:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1154246/Guide-to-packaging-regulations-2006-version-3B.pdf

2 hours ago, HeHasRisen said:

Have you ever seen Bloodbath At The House Of Death? It's on Netflix. You may enjoy that one too. 

No, but that's one on my list!

Yes, I could be wrong, when a friend and I saw it back in the 70s, we thought it was hilarious.

25 minutes ago, HeHasRisen said:

Have walked out of three films in the cinema in my life... 

 

Miami Vice

Stuck On You

Lost In Space. 

 

 

If you ever see this one, it might be no. 4!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049370/

10 hours ago, Anna B said:

Is it so surprising? The West were the colonisers who exploited the African countries in the first place and did them few  favours. And in spite of years of aid, which usually came with strings attached, failed to pull them out of poverty.

Now that China has stepped in, aid is working better and the improvement measurable.   

Perhaps the African who's seeking asylum will ditch the West and fall into the welcoming arms of China and Russia?