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Police investigating suspected gunshot fired at taxi containing Ian Hislop
  • Perhaps a warning rather then a genuine murder attempt?

    Though the list of suspects must be "Any politician, celebrity or person who has been in the news and done something wrong, stupid or hypocritical since the 1980s".

  • Framing cleaning help
  • Cool. Good luck!

    Just in case it's interesting/relevant, it turns out I've got a couple of a similar type knocking around - in one case, the fabric is simply glued directly to the front of the inset, between the inner and outer moulding (the other one is a fabric coated mountboard between the work and the glazing).

    In this case, you'd just tear the fabric off (from the front), try and clean up some glue residue off the backing, then stick some freshly cut fabric in its place.

    Technically, you wouldn't need unframe the work for that - but it's still probably safer to do so.

    Anyway, let us know how you get on with the framers - and give us a before/after photo :)

  • Framing cleaning help
  • As said above - you're going to want to take it apart anyway and see what it's made of. You may be able to clean the fabric - but you'd need to know if it's glued or stretched onto a backing board of some kind first anyway.

    I'd be inclined to replace it or take it to a framers for the amount of effort it may take. It wouldn't be an expensive job.

    If you're interested in home repair options, if the fabric is stretched and pinned/stapled etc (i.e. not glued onto a backing board), you can try unpinning, then cleaning with any general water/mineral stain removal instructions for clothes etc - dabbing, soaking, saliva, detergent, vinegar, chuck it in the washing machine etc, then re-pinning it.

    If it's glued onto a backing board, some of the cleaning might still work, but might be pretty impractical, and you'd perhaps have an easier time painting it.

    You'd need a stain-blocking primer/undercoat otherwise the mark will just seep back through - then you might want a few very thin coats of gesso or other quick undercoat on it, then several very thin coats of waterbased whatever-you-like matt paint on top (no real difference in using household emulsion wall paint or the finest of artists acrylics). Multiple very thin coats will keep the fabric texture more visible.

    I'd be inclined to say replacing it would be a whole lot less hassle :)

  • Random cats love me and it makes me happy. They always just approach me and want strokes.
  • Our silver cat is a huge fan of tummy tickles.

    He specifically requests them, and he's certainly gone over ten minutes without any hint of wanting to stop, he just "supermans" his arms out one at a time, and sometimes drools a bit.

    Cat tax picture:

  • Snap bad
  • Sorry, I might have misremembered the exact process (this was probably three or four years ago), though no need for the nasty aggressive attitude (though my apologies if I offended you somehow).

    Maybe it was version upgrades (e.g 18.04 to 20.04) instead of updates, or clean installs/new installs/reinstalls? I expect it was some of one and some of another.

    At the time I used to (casually) maintain a bunch of Ubuntu computers for a few community projects, small organisations and older people who live nearby. I don't remember the specifics, I just remember the phone calls of "the printer isn't working" "Linux has broken my USB pen" etc, and the fix being "remove the snap version and install the deb version". It caused a lot of problems.

  • Snap bad
  • If you were running a previous version of Ubuntu, where you had deb packages which worked, over the course of a few updates, they replaced half of your programs with snaps (without telling you), which were unable to see additional hard drives, USB pens, printers, scanners or cameras, couldn't use plug-ins, couldn't use 3rd party templates or presets, and didn't respect any system settings for fonts/text size, icon placement and so on.

    Snaps were fine for "aisleriot solitaire" or "calculator" (assuming you didn't mind a 5 minute loading time) or other things which didn't need to interact with any file or system or device, but for actual programs for people trying to do work? Bag of shite.

    Now, I imagine some years later they must have fixed some of this rubbish, and I read recently they might have finally done something about permissions, but no, they didn't ask anyone before they swapped working programs for completely broken snaps. They forced it on their existing users, and some of us bear grudges.

  • Billionaire Guy Hands’ property firm takes housing reforms to European court
  • I think it meant to say "Scrounger Guy Hands realises legislation loophole, which allowed him to steal billions of pounds of unearned money off the British Government and the British people, will be closed, leaving his company with a tiny fraction less of immoral profit, whilst still making billions in profit"

  • Interview: ‘The most horrific, sobering thing I’ve ever seen’: BBC nuclear apocalypse film Threads 40 years on
  • Also, if you're into the empty feeling of nuclear sadness, check out When the Wind Blows (1986) - it's from Raymond Briggs's graphic novel - who did "The Snowman" and that Santa Claus one amongst other family favourites. Surely a lovely, fun cartoon to watch with the kids!

    WARNING: DO NOT ACTUALLY WATCH WHEN THE WIND BLOWS WITH YOUR KIDS (unless your kids are adults)

  • Interview: ‘The most horrific, sobering thing I’ve ever seen’: BBC nuclear apocalypse film Threads 40 years on
  • The tone and scale is quite different, but the overall themes or message certainly have a lot in common. Both worth seeing.

    I can't remember The Day After as clearly as I can Threads, but I remember it was definitely worth seeing, though I feel like it had a little more of a film/plot/narrative/entertainment element to it, whereas Threads was just quietly bleak and undignified - a gritty soap-opera story in Sheffield, then everyone gets nuked and you see all your favourite characters as they piss themselves and their hair and teeth fall out from the radiation and then they slowly die from illness and starvation, then you watch a documentary style presentation of the tiny remainder of population, scrabbling in dirt, trying to find a still living plant.

    Absolutely watch both - all humans should watch both at some point in their lives - but maybe not on a day where you want to have any fun or talk to anyone, or do much except stare into the distance in silence.

  • MP tells broadband companies they must share infrastructure
  • Yes please! Most of the streets near me have been dug up three or four times now, over the last few years, for new companies to put identical cables next to the other company's cables, because they don't want to pay the rental or whatever it is.

    I'm sure the extra telegraph poles are even more annoying.

  • Interview: ‘The most horrific, sobering thing I’ve ever seen’: BBC nuclear apocalypse film Threads 40 years on
    www.theguardian.com ‘The most horrific, sobering thing I’ve ever seen’: BBC nuclear apocalypse film Threads 40 years on

    Ahead of a timely re-airing of Mick Jackson’s famously bleak docudrama, its director recalls why he unleashed a mushroom cloud on Sheffield in 1984

    ‘The most horrific, sobering thing I’ve ever seen’: BBC nuclear apocalypse film Threads 40 years on

    >Ahead of a timely re-airing of Mick Jackson’s famously bleak, rarely seen docudrama, its director recalls why he unleashed a mushroom cloud on Sheffield in 1984, while our writer explores the film’s lasting legacy

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    Share your stories
  • "The Darkness Out There" by Penelope Lively.

    In short, a "nice old lady" tells a couple of young kids about what they did to a young German who survived a plane crash over Britain during WW2.

    I think it was there for the "the nice old lady was actually nasty and cruel and the evil nazi was actually just a scared, fairly innocent boy".

  • What's the easiest way to update bios on my Ubuntu laptop without a USB?
  • Yeah, I had a look at it myself last night and it showed up empty to me as well, which is a bit strange. I wonder if their 1.64 iso is corrupt?

    Though it will not resolve anything, for the sake of curiosity, I might be tempted to check the previous 1.63 iso to see if it is also empty. If the 1.63 iso is not empty, then there's a problem with their 1.64 iso file, and see just wait for them to fix it. If the 1.63 iso also shows up as empty, then I guess the mystery continues!

    [Edit] 1.63 is also empty, so something odd about how iso is formatted?

  • What's the easiest way to update bios on my Ubuntu laptop without a USB?
  • Glad you're making some progress with it! It looks like the 1.64 update is only a few days old, so perhaps it will make its way into the system updates in a few days? (In the same place you found 1.63).

    Otherwise, I wonder if the windows .exe or .iso contains the .cab file (can you extract with archive manager or mount the iso?), which could then be installed using the instructions under "1.1.2 Manual (fwupdmgr)"?

    Alternatively, if everything seems to be working well with 1.63, perhaps no need to worry for a while?

  • Opinion: There is a far bigger threat to Britain than fringe extremists: Tory radicalisation | Rafael Behr
    www.theguardian.com There is a far bigger threat to Britain than fringe extremists: Tory radicalisation | Rafael Behr

    If Michael Gove really wants to root out the forces threatening British society, perhaps his party should look in the mirror, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

    There is a far bigger threat to Britain than fringe extremists: Tory radicalisation | Rafael Behr

    "If Michael Gove really wants to root out the forces threatening British society, perhaps his party should look in the mirror"

    2
    Man playing music out loud on train: What are our options? [Update: Solved]

    There's a man on my train this morning, and he's listening to stuff out loud on his phone, like fully out loud, not even slightly subtle. The train is in Britain. He keeps listening to 5 seconds of an annoying song, then switching to another song. It sort of sounds like kids TV music. He appears dressed to go work in a fancy office or something, and this is a morning commuter train, so I don't think he's escaped from a prison or mental hospital.

    Anyway, amongst myself and another couple of hundred quiet passengers, we've tried everything:

    • tutting and rolling our eyes
    • harrumphing, whingeing and sighing
    • when a bloke got on the train with headphones on, someone said loudly "Isn't it great when someone wears headphones? They can listen to whatever they like and nobody else has to hear it"
    • sometimes it stops for a minute, and there's a widespread muttering of "Ooh, thank god that's over with"
    • followed by an en-masse groan when it starts again "Oh no, not this again!"
    • a lady on the phone saying loudly "Sorry, I can't hear what you're saying, because someone is being inconsiderate and playing music really loudly"
    • saying to one another, loudly enough for the man to hear "isn't it annoying when someone plays their music out loud? I wish he'd stop doing that"
    • muttering aggressive words, under our breath, in his general direction "prick", "wanker" "knobhead", "bellend"
    • Someone getting onto the train, and not sitting at his table and saying "God, I'd rather stand than sit next to that prick", loud enough for him to hear.
    • the ticket-checking man rolled his eyes, but didn't do anything

    I think generally we're running out of ideas. I heard someone behind me mentioning they were thinking about "sparking him out", and someone else had suggested they might grab his phone and throw it out the window.

    I was toying with the idea of going nuclear on him, and directly but politely asking him to turn it down, but it's a bit early for that kind of extreme behaviour. Perhaps I should throw something at his head?

    Anyway, anyone who's been in a similar situation have any suggestions?

    [Update] The train got full, so people were standing all the way down the aisle. Three people sat on the table next to him.

    Opposite him, an older woman stared at him and shook her head at him, in a gesture I interpreted as "I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed". He put his phone in his pocket and stared out the window. I gave her the subtlest of nods, to communicate "thank you" and "good job".

    So we're safe, this time - but I'm still interested in solutions, as something like this could happen again!

    29
    Why are kids doing the ‘Brexit tackle’? They’re having fun at adults’ expense – and mocking our toxic politics
    www.theguardian.com Why are kids doing the ‘Brexit tackle’? They’re having fun at adults’ expense – and mocking our toxic politics | Lola Okolosie

    My son says it means taking out the player without getting the ball, all while shouting ‘Brexit means Brexit’, says teacher Lola Okolosie

    Why are kids doing the ‘Brexit tackle’? They’re having fun at adults’ expense – and mocking our toxic politics | Lola Okolosie

    > My son says it means taking out the player without getting the ball, all while shouting ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Sound familiar?

    > For the umpteenth time, my son, with an Ikea stuffed ball he has had since infancy, is playing football in the living room. He is joined by one of his best friends, an equally football-obsessed 10-year-old who, before slide-tackling in what can only be described as a deliberate attempt to knock my son’s legs off, shouts: “Brexit means Brexit!” Confused, I pass it off as an example of tweenage precocity: which 10-year-old is happy to quote Theresa May while playing football?

    I must admit, this gives me some hope for the future.

    10
    Obituaries @feddit.uk fakeman_pretendname @feddit.uk
    Damo Suzuki, experimental musician, dies aged 74
    www.theguardian.com Damo Suzuki obituary

    Singer whose idiosyncratic performances helped the German band Can stretch the limits of experimental rock

    Damo Suzuki obituary

    > "Singer whose idiosyncratic performances helped the German band Can stretch the limits of experimental rock"

    Saw him sing/speak/make noise at a 2 hour long improv set in a small gig venue in Yorkshire about 10-20 years ago, supported by a handful of local improv musicians.

    After they finished the set, he individually thanked (and optionally hugged) every single audience member.

    2
    "Upstairs is closed, mate. Think you need to move along to that kitchen and see about those empty bowls first."

    Three cats spread over the stairs, staring at the camera person, blocking access to the upstairs. (Actually they're just waiting for someone to throw the fuzzy ball for them to chase).

    4
    Returning to the surface after exploring deep in the duvet caves.

    Photo is from about a year ago, when the cats learnt that as well as "on the bed" and "under the duvet", if you explored the area where the buttons were, there was also "inside the duvet cover".

    6
    Self-aligning cats

    Three cat brothers, sat neatly on a staircase, Jan 2023. This is probably my favourite photo of the three of them together.

    11
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)FA
    fakeman_pretendname @feddit.uk
    Posts 9
    Comments 573