Amos

grim reaper is sitting at a table smoking a cigarette and drinking from a can Alt: grim reaper is sitting at a table smoking a cigarette and drinking from a can

...and yet the Grim Reaper is still waiting!

B as well, actually.

I'd say D. No offence to the US team but I don't see them as being on par with the other top seeds so the group is probably more evenly balanced than most others.

That is, at best, an accidental win.

That is the plan. 👍

That was pretty much my gut feeling. I just have a (probably dated) memory that the more mainstream products were a little way behind the curve sometimes.

Will probably stick with the basics, at least for now.

Win 10, I think (second hand from reliable friends but yet to give it a run out myself)

Yup

What about the OS stuff (Windows Defender in my case), is that good enough to keep things reasonably safe or should I invest in additional protection?

I'm not particularly adventurous on the web but I have kids who are getting to an age where they will be browsing more and my control is limited.

#Wülferhsmpton seems to have a few techie types (@themeadhallbard.bsky.social, @psychicsquirrel.bsky.social, @theselectfyrd.bsky.social?) ...or at least more techie than I am!

Do any of you lot have a good, reasonably priced, antivirus software recommendation?

I'm not a classicist by any stretch but that was a particularly infelicitous quote to introduce the next section on teachers, @mrjamesob.bsky.social!

Worth remembering that the so-called "Jewish Lobby" in the US, insofar as it exists, is pretty much all pro-Israel evangelical Christians (specifically Israel, not wider Jewish concerns). The few actual Jewish voices there only have the power they do because of the evangelicals.

“The claim that this is a recent invention born of political bias is categorically untrue.”

@mrjamesob.bsky.social reveals that Peter Ettedgui made identical accusations against Nigel Farage in private six years ago.

Last year Sky News was rending its garments over Starmer's free eyeglasses: WHAT INFLUENCE DID LORD ALLI BUY?

Now, RefUK get £9m from a crypto bro, they have not one word about the donor's interests; just BRAVO NIGEL, barely concealed glee, and "what a huge boost... money goes where momentum is". 🤡

I also really like Hurts' All I Want For Christmas Is New Year's Day but that's one with any particular subversive interest. I just stumbled on it while looking to refresh my Christmas playlist and it's an awesome tune that's a bit off the beaten track that saw me through some dark times.

Give Tim Minchin's White Wine in the Sun too. He's an Aussie, hence the summery title bit it's a really sweet, funny attack on consumerism.

Have you considered Mud's Lonely This Christmas?

Written ironically about all of the miserable whiny Christmas music doing the rounds at the time but now gets played to death by people with no knowledge/sense of the original irony. Makes me smile every time I hear it...

Marketing department should hang their collective heads in shame for not going with "Dum-bel" anywhere ...they even have the shape for it!

I think there's always been a bit of a gap, at some points in history more so than in others, but I'm not sure there's ever been quite such a stark cleavage been the policy and the politics as there is currently.

In my more cynical moments, I despair that politics has become increasingly divorced from actual policy. Farage gets it; he knows the way to get attention is all about brand and image not any of the things he says (hence why anyone trying to analyse his words ends up in a self-contradictory mess).

how someone has managed to commit war crimes when there is not a war is not a question I expected to answer about actual topical events

Truly shocking that Rachel Reeves had the audacity to call herself the U14 girls chess champions when she won the U14 girls chess championship but some bloke thought she was talking about something else.

My personal favourite is down the drain. 👍

Um...

My one and only competitive goal for the university hockey team scored here...

Definitely worse places it could have been! 😎

Countless things wrong with Labour's pandering to the right but one, as we can see, is that the right will hate them with a demented fury regardless of what they do so one would be wise not to invite the hatred of the left (very broadly defined) as well. I've never understood that strategy

#PMQs, Starmer's first answer should definitely have been "I look forward to the Honourable Member opposite's resignation".