Steve Walker

Holland, on a boat, with a guide?

100mm boilies

There is marketing, no doubt, but it's mostly down to a change in HRMC rules after a legal challenge by Sipsmith which made small scale gin production viable. A more diverse market with smaller players means that more diverse tastes can be accommodated. Imagine if it were only possible to make Whisky on the scale of Grouse or Bells, or beer on the scale of Carling. Everything would be lowest common denominator, don't frighten the horses blandness. Which is where gin was.

I've also been quite taken with the renaissance in gin distilling. When it was just Gordons or similar I could take it or leave it, but some of the new ones are really interesting.

Saw something the other day, some plastic gizmo for keeping luncheon meat on the hook. What's wrong with a bit of grass, isn't there enough plastic in the rivers?

Very true, Dave. They test certain of a match angler's skills in a very fair way, but many other skills are completely redundant.

Cant remember what Bowmore is like, but I am a burning hospital kind of guy.

No comment.

I would be more concerned about someone getting infected, waiting until they are symptomatic, getting into a public place and then doing their bang. Aum Shinrikyo were not, if I remember rightly, into martyrdom. It's easy to culture if you have volunteers who don't mind dying. And while it may be hard to culture in vitro, it's fairly robust so you wouldn't need to transport it in culture or in a host.

Smallpox is pretty terrifying, yes.

Spears or, worse, viciously sharpened mangos. https://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Umboto_Gorge

Adaptation in humans would be likely to make it less lethal and more easily transmissible. So there is a little balance there. I think the big fear would be something highly transmissible out of the gate. Mind you, it doesn't take a high case fatality rate to be terrifying - the 1918 flu only had a low single digit CFR but is estimated to have infected a third of the population. Something that "only" killed ten or twenty percent of victims would be apocalyptic with influenza-like transmissibility and haemorrhagic fever horror.

Thats a relevant point phone - cheap espresso machines generate pressure by heating the water in a pressure vessel. Expensive ones have a high pressure pump. The problem with the cheap machines is that the water is too hot - the optimum temperature for making espresso is less than boiling point, somewhere between 90C and 95C depending who you ask, so superheated water is right out.

Only takes a virulent strain capable of airborne transmission.

Exactly!

I still think my school chemistry teacher was wrong - he asked whether you would get the best cup of tea on top of a mountain, at sea level, or down a mine. He said down a mine - because the water would get hotter. How do we know that would make "better" tea? We don't brew it in a pressure cooker!

The "71%" one, and the non- existent mosque. https://twitter.com/MikeStuchbery_/status/1025343292563746816

Yes, you definitely see more brown faces now. I do not find that frightening. There have been well documented problems with faith schools - well, if you want to give one religion permission to corrupt education it is only fair to let everyone else have a crack. Not sure about the no go zones, is that real or just Trump and the EDL? As for prisons, I was kind of willing to believe it until Yaxley-Lennon was caught lying about it recently and now I am not convinced.

I do not see any reason to believe that, Chesters, and if I saw it happening I would object, as would most people. The only place I could see them getting away with that sort of nonsense is in schools, and that is our own fault (or at least Tony Blairs).

Thats pretty much what I said to her. Hes such a good kid that it is heartbreaking to think he is going to have to toughen up and not let that nonsense get to him, but what can you do? Hes got into the local grammar school, and they have pretty high standards, but I bet it is not the last he will see of it.

I dont like ethnic minority communities becoming more insular, ghettoising, thinking it is us-vs-them. It is unhealthy for a whole host of reasons, not least radicalisation. But playing into the persecution complexes of troublemakers is the last thing we want to do to fix that. I do understand the more benign reasons for it - things like specialist shops, places of worship, people who can translate, etc. But it is not healthy. I would rather have lots more mosques and ethnic shops in the suburbs and villages than large urban areas which are in fact not multicultural but monocultural. The problems we have with multiculturalism are not in the idea, but in the implementation. We f-d it up. I do not think we can return to the 1940s, I think we have to fix this and make it work. To be honest, I thought that the young people were past this, but my girlfriends son (who is half West Indian) got called a n****r at school. Now that is depressing.

And thats totally unacceptable.

Personally I have no interest in mandatory; Church on sunday Cricket Football support Sending my (hypothetical) kids to a boarding school where they will only mix with others from their narrow social background and come out unable to empathise with people from different backgrounds (irony intended) Tugging my forelock to the local aristocracy Joining a trade union and moaning about Thatcher Speaking Welsh Dying myself orange and worshipping TOWIE Dressing like a goth, punk, emo or hipster Buying a cardigan and taking up bowls etc British culture is not homogeneous and I am pretty sure that many groups would, if they chose to mandate it, pick something youd hate.

I am happy with enforcing the law equally. The other things seem, well, not very British.

Of course I expect them to obey the law of the land (so does their book, for what its worth). I agree that FGM should be illegal (and for what its worth, its more an African thing than a specifically Muslim thing, and occurs in both Christian and Jewish communities there). If the burka is banned, I expect them to obey that law too, I just dont think it should be. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110570413000258 I absolutely do not believe the behaviour you describe is acceptable. But nor do I think some of you attacked our culture so were going to attack yours is a grown up way to deal with it. I grew up in North West England, so yes, I have been around predominantly Muslim communities. I have been friends with Muslims, indeed my girlfriend is of Bangladeshi heritage. Shes not observant, but some of her family are. And theyre lovely people. I am sorry that you met those deluded murderous idiots, but they dont represent their communities as a whole.