some Ukraine-British plot to steal a museum relic. But - Why?

THE BRITISH MUSEUM’S APPETITE CANNOT BE SATED. LOOT FOR THE LOOT GOD, ARTIFACTS FOR THE ARTIFACT THRONE

But nah more seriously they were upgraded to be actually manoeuvre and avoid interception at the end of their flights earlier this year, so I could imagine getting the details of that would be good for developing countermeasures

It’s absolutely beautiful! If you can make it look like that I trust you’ve got the skill to make it play nicely too

“I’m definitely not a cop”

Never mind getting the Union Jack the right way up, at least some of those dumb fucks managed to paint the Danish flag on a roundabout because they forgot what the English one looks like

It’s essentially a model parliament, but one that gets contact with the actual government. Under-18s fight for election and hold debates in the same manner as the House of Commons

No, I have absolutely no idea how this makes it “woke” beyond that some people just use the word to mean “thing I don’t like”

Funny you should say that, they actually caused one in Moscow just over a week ago (October 31st)

It seems to me like Ukraine is focussing its efforts on military targets and oil production, though. Russia’s oil industry has been getting absolutely hammered, to the point where it has had to start importing fuel

I can’t necessarily offer an answer here, but I can give you a bound at least. I was able to find this 1703 geography of the Kingdom of Naples that explicitly calls Italy a boot, so “some time before 1703” can be said for sure

Forma una Penisola, à guisa di uno Stivale, fi come l’Italia tutta fù meditata da Strabone, e da altri Geografi di rigo

Machine translated:

It forms a peninsula, like a boot, just as all of Italy was studied by Strabo and other renowned geographers.

I’m fairly sure the Strabo bit means “we’ve known it was this shape since Strabo” rather than “Strabo said it was boot-shaped”

To speculate a little more, I think the style of boot that Italy looks like started off as riding shoes developed in 10th century Iran (heels are good for staying in stirrups, apparently). If that is correct then it can’t be earlier than the 10th century since there weren’t boots that Italy looked like

Didn’t they start handing blue checks to high-profile people that didn’t ask for them? Some time soon after they immediately became a marker of accounts run by warped knobheads

Hell yeah, that’ll be my listening for this afternoon. Thanks!

Yeah that’s true actually, I would recommend it at least once given how it’s just right there and dead easy to get up! I suppose it was the place the immediately came to mind for me when I saw the weather and thought “this would look cool if I can get a good view from somewhere”

Let’s be honest this is the kind of thing that only gets more and more appealling with each drink

It’s us that ought to appreciate your efforts! This place is alive because of you

Can’t say the Law is that special to be honest, it’s just a convenient little high point in the city. Had a nice second date with some pizzas from Luigi’s up there once I guess! Then again it does have the war memorial and a few of those cool little “here’s an annotated version of what you can see” boards

It’s the day of Stonewall, so there are loads of pride marches, but also it was the last day of the first battle of Seoul in 1950 so the soul was slightly too early

Hadn’t heard of this band but I’m three minutes into A Solitary Reign and I’m liking what I’m hearing. What do you recommend starting with?

Me when the Friday social thread isn’t there

I was just about to post it myself, figured you were busy, but I took too long making Pablo E-Scot-bar there

Was in Dundee this morning and took a wee detour up the Law because the mist over the river looked cool

Also this is kind of a dumb thing but I had a really fun evening playing some racing games with my friends tonight. Sometimes a bit of low effort hanging out with a whisky and some making fun of each other is just exactly what the doctor ordered

The article doesn’t give a lot of hard numbers, but two of the four things it talks about are European (Franco-British storm shadow missiles and Rheinmetall’s Spanish division producing a shitload of 155mm artillery shells). I think rocket artillery specifically remains pretty much an American thing within NATO, though

“Well I thought you were all real, genuine clowns. Very disappointing.”

Dvorak during the week to prepare for responsibilities, Beethoven at the weekend to celebrate freedom

I’m a cafetiere fan, but I’ve got a moka pot and a V60 as well because sometimes you just want something else. Getting a nice double-walled pot for ~£20 and some good coffee to put in it is some of the best value for money I’ve gotten. I don’t spend big on anything or go for any fancy gear. There definitely is space to treat it as a hobby/artform and go into all the tiny details if you want, but you don’t need to do all that to get great results

Should be this one https://xkcd.com/610/