In todays light hearted look at the (non-political) news

[Cousin Jack]

Very loud *BANG* not too far away & apparently some amateur pyro-technician is now minus a hand. Thank fuck all my memorable lessons in pyro were low yield events, I only suffered powder burns & the occasional eyebrow removal.

Been there, done that, eyebrows gre back again.

[ZRX61]

First F1 race of the season off to a good start...

LeClerc gets comedian of the day award for his comment about the water leak on lap 25 or 26. Literal LOL moment.

[Count Steer]

Possibly not light hearted, but I noticed a birthday at the bottom of the screen. Hilldweller is/would have been? 81. So I looked at his last post. It was in the old Covid thread back in 2020 saying Covid was just another flu and the fatality rates were the same....

Interesting to look back at what folk were saying at the time - one or two changes of tune since then.

[Horse]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0d1w33rlko

Alton Towers' new ride Toxicator had to shut on its opening day when a pipe burst and brown liquid leaked out.


Brown? Hmmm ... It has the look of untreated sewage.
.


Well, queue for a ride called 'Toxic', what do you expect?

[Yorick]

Oops

Didn't Spike Milligan say something like "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated "?
.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... ydxyv94k8o

[Saga Lout]

Oops

Didn't Spike Milligan say something like "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated "?
.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... ydxyv94k8o

Spike might have said it but Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) said it first. (Well, before Spike anyway).

[Taipan]

Spain is the new Cornwall!

Three popular Spanish holiday destinations have been deemed ‘forbidden’ for travel this year by a leading travel guide.
Fodors’ 2025 named Majorca, Barcelona and the Canary Islands on its forbidden list due to tourist saturation.
The guide acknowledged that Spanish locations were a victim of their own success, being unable to cope with the sheer number of tourists, warning that visiting such busy places ‘rarely results in happy travellers’.

The guide said: “Touring cities full of tourists is frustrating; Sightseeing in villages where locals resent your presence is disturbing and wandering through nature plagued by garbage is depressing.”
It echoed sentiments held by residents during anti tourism protests throughout 2024, saying “Governments tend to prioritise visitor experiences over the well-being of local residents”.
All three locations experienced anti-tourism protests last year. 20,000 protestors reportedly gathered in Palma, Majorca in July with signs which read: “Your luxury, our misery.”

Tourist services have sprawled so much over Cala Major beach that a Majorcan resident association was set to make a formal complaint.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona, mayor Jaume Collboni announced that tourist flats will be banned by November 2028, which he says restricts the local housing supply and drives up prices, in an attempt to relieve the city’s housing crisis.
The Canary Islands is looking to move away from the all-inclusive “sun and beach” tourism model, to instead promote environmentally conscious and sustainable tourism.

Despite the regions appearing on the forbidden list, Fodors acknowledged the beauty of these locations.

The travel guide said: “The destinations on the list of ‘forbidden’ places deserve the fame and adoration they receive and they are worthy of their time and money.”

Venice, Tokyo and Bali all feature on the Fodor’s 2025 ‘forbidden list’ as well as the three Spanish locations.

[Horse]

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/bla ... 16978.html

A new study of 263 galaxies has provided fresh evidence to support a theory that our universe is the interior of a black hole.

[Mr. Dazzle]

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/bla ... 16978.html

A new study of 263 galaxies has provided fresh evidence to support a theory that our universe is the interior of a black hole.

Shamir noted that an alternative explanation for why most of the galaxies in the study rotate clockwise is that the Milky Way’s rotational velocity is having an impact on the measurements.

So either the universe is inside a black hole, or the really complicated measurements are slightly off.

Probably one of the two

[KungFooBob]

Hopefully not this Black Hole...

[Cousin Jack]

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/bla ... 16978.html

A new study of 263 galaxies has provided fresh evidence to support a theory that our universe is the interior of a black hole.

Shamir noted that an alternative explanation for why most of the galaxies in the study rotate clockwise is that the Milky Way’s rotational velocity is having an impact on the measurements.

So either the universe is inside a black hole, or the really complicated measurements are slightly off.

Probably one of the two

And the measurements being off has already been suggested by other recent stuff, like really 'distant' and therefore 'old' galaxies being of size and type that shouldn't exist at that age.

Measuring stuff in astronomy is a pyramid of assumptions. A bit off in one can make another measure an order of magnitude out.

Occam's razor suggests we may need a new tape measure.

[Yorick]

Do we need to start hording food ?

[Cousin Jack]

Do we need to start hording food ?

Obviously yes. If we can't measure how far it is to the furthest galaxy we may have got other stuff wrong too. Like when the next food delivery to Lanzerote is due. It might be 3 mins late.

[Count Steer]

Do we need to start hording food ?

Obviously yes. If we can't measure how far it is to the furthest galaxy we may have got other stuff wrong too. Like when the next food delivery to Lanzerote is due. It might be 3 mins late.

Off to all the supermarkets tomorrow to clear the shelves of bog roll.

[Cousin Jack]

Do we need to start hording food ?

Obviously yes. If we can't measure how far it is to the furthest galaxy we may have got other stuff wrong too. Like when the next food delivery to Lanzerote is due. It might be 3 mins late.

Off to all the supermarkets tomorrow to clear the shelves of bog roll.

You can't be too carefull. Now all we need is a Govt spokesman on TV telling us not to panic.................

[gremlin]

Spain is the new Cornwall!

Three popular Spanish holiday destinations have been deemed ‘forbidden’ for travel this year by a leading travel guide.
Fodors’ 2025 named Majorca, Barcelona and the Canary Islands on its forbidden list due to tourist saturation.

Venice, Tokyo and Bali all feature on the Fodor’s 2025 ‘forbidden list’ as well as the three Spanish locations.

Barcelona is mental, as is Venice. I'd rather paint Yozza's walls than go to either again. Ditto Santorini and Rome.

I can also understand the resentment to all-inclusive resorts. As well as being a five star prison for a few weeks, they kill any local bars and restaurants within range. If you have to suffer Terry and Sharon from Billericay, you should at least be able to make a living out of selling them Euro-fizz beer and faux-regional meals.

[Cousin Jack]

I found Venice was OK as long as you avoid the main route to St Marks Square during the day. We were staying in a hotel on an island with free boats to St Marks area. Land, turn right and walk away from the crowds, then dive into the back streets and all was good. In the evening when the hordes have gone St Marks Sq and the main route down the Grand Canal was ok.

Expensive though.

[Taipan]

Spain is the new Cornwall!

Three popular Spanish holiday destinations have been deemed ‘forbidden’ for travel this year by a leading travel guide.
Fodors’ 2025 named Majorca, Barcelona and the Canary Islands on its forbidden list due to tourist saturation.

Venice, Tokyo and Bali all feature on the Fodor’s 2025 ‘forbidden list’ as well as the three Spanish locations.

Barcelona is mental, as is Venice. I'd rather paint Yozza's walls than go to either again. Ditto Santorini and Rome.

I can also understand the resentment to all-inclusive resorts. As well as being a five star prison for a few weeks, they kill any local bars and restaurants within range. If you have to suffer Terry and Sharon from Billericay, you should at least be able to make a living out of selling them Euro-fizz beer and faux-regional meals.

We certainly got a bit of the old cold shoulder in Spain last year. A few others in our hotel felt the same too. My colleague is from Malaga in Spain. He rented his apartment out whne he came to work here. Its just come up for renewal and they want to put it the rent up 3 fold. He is outraged by this as he has family there and doesnt know how his younger relatives will be able to afford to stay in their home city, hence the resentment of airbnbs and holiday home buyers etc. I do get it, but if it turns people away it wont end well for Spain. I guess we'll see how it settles down over the next few years...

[Yambo]

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/bla ... 16978.html

A new study of 263 galaxies has provided fresh evidence to support a theory that our universe is the interior of a black hole.

The trouble with theoretical physicists of course is that they can come up with any old idea and then they and others try and make it work. The Big Bang is one such idea that seemed to fit the data but now there's more data . . . Luckily the Steady State theorists hadn't gone away.

There are more galaxies than stars in the Milky Way, 263 is rather a small sample.

Shirley though, if 'our' universe is inside a black hole all of the trillions of galaxies should be getting pulled towards the centre of that black hole due to its enormous gravitational effect. But current observations confirm that the universe is expanding and at an increasing rate.

A black hole is not a hole of course, it is a spherical object so I think the black hole idea is a load of bollix.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The black hole itself is just a single infinitely small point right....a singularity in fact. The event horizon around it is a sphere.

The bigger question to me would be, which universe is that black hole in?

It's black holes all the way down!