Prices of the electricity we use to charge

[AndyBike]

" Single person design may not suit couples or families "
Ya think!?

The AI commentary did my head in after 20 seconds.
But closer inspection kind of says its all AI pics and none of that exists. It's all concept, and from a design perspective i dont think any of it is possible - not in the formats and models they're showing in the vid.

 

[MikelBikel]

"While the European Commission has said that dredging is not banned by EU legislation, in effect member states are prohibited from undertaking dredging if it disturbs certain habitats which can then lead to a breach of the EU Water Framework Directive."

Got that? Dredging to prevent flooding is not *Banned*. But it is *Prohibited*. You can dredge *After* its flooded, when it's too late. Glad that's all cleared up! Clear as the mud drowning people around Europe, ja?

Floods: EU laws not to blame, insists European Commission

Reaction follows criticism that EU water directive prevents councils dredging rivers

www.irishtimes.com

 

[Woosh]

"While the European Commission has said that dredging is not banned by EU legislation, in effect member states are prohibited from undertaking dredging if it disturbs certain habitats which can then lead to a breach of the EU Water Framework Directive."

Got that? Dredging to prevent flooding is not *Banned*. But it is *Prohibited*. You can dredge *After* its flooded, when it's too late. Glad that's all cleared up! Clear as the mud drowning people around Europe, ja?

Floods: EU laws not to blame, insists European Commission

Reaction follows criticism that EU water directive prevents councils dredging rivers

www.irishtimes.com

Dredging decisions need to be carefully thought out. They release toxic silt into the water and how will you treat what is removed from the riverbed.

 

[lenny]

Will new battery-powered trains replace diesel, and are they safe?

Will new battery-powered trains replace diesel, and are they safe?

Manufacturers see lithium power as the future of rail travel in the UK - but the trains could pose unique challenges.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Peter.Bridge]

The History of Norwegian Hydropower in 5 Minutes

Modern Norway was built and industrialised when we started to utilize rivers and waterfalls to produce electricity. Hydropower is still the backbone of the Norwegian power system, and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

www.regjeringen.no

Could Scotland and Wales do this? Why not? Norway does sell *Oil* and *Gas* (sorry for using dirty language ) to Europe, and uses the money to set themselves up with almost 100%, state owned, hydro-electricity AND a Sovereign Wealth (apologies again) fund for every citizen to the tune of $1.4trillion or $244,000 for every man, woman, and child. Wealth, not Debt.

About the fund | Norges Bank Investment Management

Learn more about the Government Pension Fund Global and its role in the Norwegian economy.

www.nbim.no

So, do they owe all this to the EU?

The European Economic Area Agreement

The Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) is the cornerstone of relations between Norway and the EU. It brings together the 27 EU member states and the three EEA Efta states Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein in the internal market governed by t...

www.regjeringen.no

No. They are only in the European Economic Area EEA.
"Cooperation", Not subjugation..
"Norway must be *more clear and assertive, and more active* in the early stages of debate on issues of European policy."
In diplomatic language, they told the EU where to get off, right at the start, 1994!

The only coherent plan I had seen for Brexit was from Richard North : Flexcit (which was a fleshed out version of the Norway option)

EU Referendum

www.eureferendum.com

One thing I hadn't understood was when politicians complain of EU product rules is that in fact these are set by a multitude of Regional and International standard setting bodies , and the EU was in fact a a rule taker from these bodies. Leaving the EU did not free us from these rules - "the double coffin lid"

EU Referendum

eureferendum.com

 

[Woosh]

A customs union would help me a lot. I can then sell my bikes and kits into the EU.

 

[Ghost1951]

Have you ever seen them doing this:

https://x.com/i/status/1854597007643496493

That's a clever cat indeed.

I used to have a cat that stood up on its back legs at the front door and rapped the knocker until you opened the door. Then he walked through to the back door, which was often open except in winter, and he walked through to the back garden, around the house and then did the same again. He was a total menace. People used to stand in the street and watch him knocking the knocker. His mother used to climb up the front door and hang on the beading around the glass panes. The door still has the clawed beading.

We had three cats at the time. The eldest lived 23 years and went to the vets only to get spayed at the age of about 7 months, and only went back to the vet aged 23 to be put to sleep.

 

[Ghost1951]

Washington Post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really, my friend!

So what?

The question ought to be 'Is this a properly researched and accurately written story?'

I'm COMPLETELY amazed that you systematically exclude sources of information and won't even consider them just because of prejudice. That account about Routh is born out by several other sources, and interviews with people who met him in Ukraine, but perhaps, because they don't fit your obsession that he has been setup by some dark, establishment cabal, it has to be dismissed.

I can't believe you would submerge yourself exclusively in MAGA sources and dismiss everything else - especially since you seem to go for transparently invented nonsense when ever t presents itself.

 

[lenny]

'If you see one during the day, there is something wrong' - Staffordshire animal lover who saved 800 hedgehogs in one year shares important advice

'If you see one during the day, there is something wrong' - Staffordshire animal lover who saved 800 hedgehogs in one year shares important advice

A Staffordshire woman who has saved 730 hedgehogs so far this year, and expects to save dozens more, has shared some advice to people who want to help save the dwindling hedgehog population.

www.expressandstar.com

 

[Ghost1951]

What you have to remember is that those animals would never even have a life if we didn't eat them.

This is certainly true. The fields around here would not be populated with sheep and cattle unless people were buying the meat and milk. On the other hand, that fact does not excuse really horrible management practices which still go on. Unlike most here I suppose, I have spent a fair bit of time since I retired working on a couple of farms - not as an official worker, but helping out friends who are farmers. I've had some harsh discussions with my sister whose daughter is a raving vegan, full of terrible stories about how farmers are cruel exploiters. She and her daughter believe that farmers are routinely cruel. They are not in my experience. I have been around farms regularly since I was about twenty and I have never seen cruelty. That said, some management systems relating to pigs are cruel and the animals lead needlessly barren lives. The same is true of some poultry systems. I remember being invited into an egg producing battery unit. It was pretty horrific. It would be illegal now - this would be about thirty years go, and the huge shed had thousands of hens in cages, four or five to a cage that was about 2.5 feet log and maybe one and a half feet wide. The stink and noise were over powering. It would be far better never to have lived than to live like that.

 

[Ghost1951]

That's the scale of problems that eu politicians are facing. They are put in charge of finding the way forward for 450 million people, 20 trillion euros a year in gdp and get paid a good but still middle of the road salary. No wonder so many of them accept gifts from lobbyists.
However, take Ireland as an example. Leaving is suicidal. Your economy will instantly crash.
If you look into the root causes, the billionaires are at the root of all of this. They do as they please, answer to no one in particular, control the politicians, control the MSN, perpetuate their wealth to the next generation by avoiding taxes.

The EU is a grotesque, bloated, anti-democratic monster. It is riddled with corruption, and its accounts have not been audited for well over a decade because no one knows what has happened to some of the vast funds it handled. NO politician should ever take money from lobbyists! To do so is corrupt. It influences their decision making. It means the lobbyist has bought them and their integrity. That you casually excuse this is astounding.

If billionaires are allowed to avoid taxation, that is the fault of the people who make and enforce the rules - THE POLITICIANS!

It is they who write the tax codes and it is they who enforce (or don't enforce) compliance.

If you want to make an assessment of how the EU does for its citizens, just consider the debacle at the time of covid when the cumbersome, gabbling left 450 million people without any covid vaccine for many months while the UK paid up front for the rapid development of one vaccine and made available to anyone who wanted vaccination the means to get it. The fkers actually tried to seize vaccine that we had bought months earlier which was produced I think in Belgium.

If there was ever a war involving an attack on the EU, they would be totally invaded and taken over before the imbeciles in Brussels had decided on a programme of meetings to talk about defence.

Whatever damage those bas tards have imposed on us in their tariff barriers, I am glad we left. No financial penalty would be too high for me as long as I know I live in a country where the people can over-turn the people who make the laws. That can NEVER be done with the EU commission. THEY alone can present new law, and none of them are elected by the people as representatives of their interests. It is no use saying that when in the EU our government (elected) could nominate two commissioners. The commissioners our government set there were obliged to take an oath swearing that they would NOT represent the interests of their own nation, but would further the interests of the EU as a whole. WTFK!!! DEMOCRACY????? That is like people in Parliament here swearing an oath NOT to represent the interest of their constituents, but instead would further the interests of the politicians. Since the EU Parliament does not initiate legislation and regulation, but only rubber stamps it, the actual people are entirely unrepresented in the EU. In practice, the EU Parliament almost never rejects any legislation that the EU Commission brings forward. Look up teh record. It is barely ever seen that a commission initiative is rejected.

Probably the only thing that MickelBickel and I would agree on is that the EU is an undemocratic disaster.

 

[Ghost1951]

Why it it a problem? It's a very small percentage of the EU budget. Contrast that to the 44 billion dollars that Musk paid for twitter. He is not making commercial profit with twitter, he uses it to boost his political views. Most MSN is owned by billionaires and they use it for propaganda for a long time. Bezos, barclays, rothermere etc
Name a single MSN that does not have billionaires owners or backers.
The culture war is not only wokism, but also billionaires oligarchs against democratic institutions.

Musk can do what he likes with HIS OWN money.

The money the EU has, it takes from the people. It is not the EU's money and its use must be accounted for to the people, or it should be. Of course, because of vast inefficiency and probably fraud, the EU accounts have never been signed off by an auditor for a very long time. No one knows where millions of Euros have gone.

 

[MikelBikel]

So how much do these poor EU staff get paid for such hard work. We've already read about the MEP's "extracurricular" payments.

They might pay an average of 25% eu income tax. (Varies 8 to 45%)

2,917 (clerk) to 23,031 (administrator) euros per month, up to Urzula at 335,000 a year (or 138% of top rate). While allowances can *double* that, kerching.

So are we getting value for money, seeing as they really contribute nothing but trouble?

 

[Ghost1951]

So how much do these poor EU staff get paid for such hard work. We've already read about the MEP's "extracurricular" payments.
View attachment 60665
They might pay an average of 25% eu income tax. (Varies 8 to 45%)
View attachment 60666
2,917 (clerk) to 23,031 (administrator) euros per month, up to Urzula at 335,000 a year (or 138% of top rate). While allowances can *double* that, kerching.
View attachment 60667
So are we getting value for money, seeing as they really contribute nothing but trouble?

No wonder she is grinning so much.

What did she ever do?

As I recall, she was a defence minister in Germany and left the state of the armed forces in chaos. Then she was by magic, elevated out to her current lucrative position unopposed and certainly without election (as far as I know).

As you all know, I despise Trump, but he was chosen by the people.

 

[Woosh]

The EU is a grotesque, bloated, anti-democratic monster. It is riddled with corruption, and its accounts have not been audited for well over a decade because no one knows what has happened to some of the vast funds it handled. NO politician should ever take money from lobbyists! To do so is corrupt. It influences their decision making. It means the lobbyist has bought them and their integrity. That you casually excuse this is astounding.

If billionaires are allowed to avoid taxation, that is the fault of the people who make and enforce the rules - THE POLITICIANS!

It is they who write the tax codes and it is they who enforce (or don't enforce) compliance.

If you want to make an assessment of how the EU does for its citizens, just consider the debacle at the time of covid when the cumbersome, gabbling left 450 million people without any covid vaccine for many months while the UK paid up front for the rapid development of one vaccine and made available to anyone who wanted vaccination the means to get it. The fkers actually tried to seize vaccine that we had bought months earlier which was produced I think in Belgium.

If there was ever a war involving an attack on the EU, they would be totally invaded and taken over before the imbeciles in Brussels had decided on a programme of meetings to talk about defence.

Whatever damage those bas tards have imposed on us in their tariff barriers, I am glad we left. No financial penalty would be too high for me as long as I know I live in a country where the people can over-turn the people who make the laws. That can NEVER be done with the EU commission. THEY alone can present new law, and none of them are elected by the people as representatives of their interests. It is no use saying that when in the EU our government (elected) could nominate two commissioners. The commissioners our government set there were obliged to take an oath swearing that they would NOT represent the interests of their own nation, but would further the interests of the EU as a whole. WTFK!!! DEMOCRACY????? That is like people in Parliament here swearing an oath NOT to represent the interest of their constituents, but instead would further the interests of the politicians. Since the EU Parliament does not initiate legislation and regulation, but only rubber stamps it, the actual people are entirely unrepresented in the EU. In practice, the EU Parliament almost never rejects any legislation that the EU Commission brings forward. Look up teh record. It is barely ever seen that a commission initiative is rejected.

Probably the only thing that MickelBickel and I would agree on is that the EU is an undemocratic disaster.

I would have thought you know that the EU, excluding the EU parliament for the moment, we can always discuss it later, isn't a democratic institution.
It's an association like UEFA. It has memberships. It has a board of directors.
Is it corrupted? Some says it is. So why shouldn't we leave UEFA?
I don't know why half of us continue to insist that the EU needs to be democratic.
We don't ask GATT to be democratic, or the UN, why do we insist that the EU behaves like a state?

If it were the EU state, I can understand the requirement for one person one vote. At present, all the directors of the board are nominated by member states, not by universal vote.

 

[MikelBikel]

So after 1957 they completely re-routed the river away from Valencia, but didn't finish the job, hence the new flooding. Lesson: Dredging? Just keep digging til it's done!

 

[MikelBikel]

'If you see one during the day, there is something wrong' - Staffordshire animal lover who saved 800 hedgehogs in one year shares important advice

'If you see one during the day, there is something wrong' - Staffordshire animal lover who saved 800 hedgehogs in one year shares important advice

A Staffordshire woman who has saved 730 hedgehogs so far this year, and expects to save dozens more, has shared some advice to people who want to help save the dwindling hedgehog population.

www.expressandstar.com

She'll be alright as long as she doesn't call one of them "P'nut"!

 

[Ghost1951]

My LOATHING of the EU is mostly about the fact that our elected, supposedly 'supreme' parliament was repeatedly over ruled and forced to accept situations that our elected government thought were disadvantageous to the British People.

When Cameron went to the EU and begged for a temporary dispensation on free movement as tens of thousands of Romanian Roma were turning up here, he was dismissed and sent home like a naughty schoolboy. THAT was the end of the EU here.

The Conservative party was RIGHTLY thrown out by the British People this year. That stings for me, because I normally vote Conservative, but they DESERVED it because of the mess they created.

For me, it is an essential part of democracy that the people can reject those who fail them. It just happened in the USA. The Democrats deserved what they got. The fact that I have no time for the Labour Party or Trump does not affect the fact that they were chosen because their opponents were rejected.

Look at the way thePoles and Hungarians have been threatened by the EU for voting in governments sceptical about EU power.

The EU is designed to keep the people away from decision making. They have no power. Look what happened when the French and the Irish people voted in referenda to reject the EU constitution...... Their decisions were ignored and they were made to vote again until the 'right' answer for the EU was delivered.

Money comes nowhere near the value of freedom to chose your leaders.

 

[Ghost1951]

I would have thought you know that the EU, excluding the EU parliament for the moment, we can always discuss it later, isn't a democratic institution.
It's an association like UEFA. It has memberships. It has a board of directors.
Is it corrupted? Some says it is. So why shouldn't we leave UEFA?
I don't know why half of us continue to insist that the EU needs to be democratic.
We don't ask GATT to be democratic, or the UN, why do we insist that the EU behaves like a state?

If it were the EU state, I can understand the requirement for one person one vote. At present, all the directors of the board are nominated by member states, not by universal vote.

THEY MAKE THE LAWS THAT BIND THE PEOPLE.

That is why it is different to UEFA. Football doesn't matter. LAWS do.

 

[Woosh]

My LOATHING of the EU is mostly about the fact that our elected, supposedly 'supreme' parliament was repeatedly over ruled and forced to accept situations that our elected government thought were disadvantageous to the British People.

Was it Dyson who objected to the EU restricting power of his vacuum cleaners to 1600W or lower?
Has anyone of us bought a vacuum cleaner more than 1600W since?
If that was the best Dyson could find, I reckon you too, would find it's difficult to point out just one big case where our national interest was opposite to what was adopted by the EU beside the fishing quotas. Even on this and now we are out of the EU, we still have to negotiate these quotas to preserve fish stock anyway.