reporterpenguin

I only look at my balance when I need a laugh. I was in the first year of £9k fees, ended up taking 5 years to do a 3 year course because of health stuff, so left uni with about £70k in loans. Fast forward a few years and it’s now nudging £100k which is hilarious, the interest for this financial year (so far) has added £3.5k. I’d love to be in a position to pay it back, but I’m not. It’s an extra tax that I’m happy to pay for the education I got, much better to see it that way rather than as a debt to be repaid.

On that subject, for anyone desperate to make a guaranteed whopping 1% return, the best odds from a couple of different bookies (via OddsChecker) allow that at the moment if you bet in the right ratio. Yes, I need to get out more.

Amen to this, fascinating hearing her perspective and understanding what the teams are weighing up in real time. It's a good reminder that however much we focus on the drivers or to a lesser extent the team principals their's an army of people behind the scenes making it all happen. She's got a lot more relaxed the more she's been part of their team as well, fits in well.

I hate to say it, but he has had bad luck so far this weekend with the timings of the flags prior to the race. Karma in action I guess…

Lance Stroll truly should be an inspiration to each and every one of us. If he can be a professional F1 driver the sky is the limit for all of us*. *If your dad is a multibillionaire

I did get to use this once which was pretty cool Though as it came with its own building and was on top of a volcano I'm guessing it might be a bit out of your budget?

I've got that Skywatcher and it's a decent beginner scope. Plus points: - It's a good sized aperture, - Nice and compact - You're spending the money on optics rather than fancy electronics or mounts - I'm a big fan of the red dot finder, especially once you get used to it Downsides: - I'm not a fan of the focus, it's a screw rather than a rack and pinion which is more common. This can make it hard to maintain the focus and is easily knocked. - It's not particularly evenly balanced so making fine adjustments to where you're looking can be tricky - Being a partially truss tube it can get some funny reflections if there's an inconvenient light source around. They do a slightly smaller 100P which has a better focuser, better balanced, is a solid tube, and is cheaper. The downside of course is that you're losing a lot of collecting area (~40%) so what you see will be a lot dimmer. I'd definitely recommend considering what @leicsmac and @SpacedX suggested about binoculars, they're a great way to get going. Again though, you're getting a lot less collecting area and, as they say, size really does matter... It also depends on what you want to look at. If you want to see faint objects like galaxies, clusters, and nebulae, you want as much collecting area as you can which generally means a Newtonian (like those Skywatchers). If you're more interested on seeing things like planets and the moon which are a lot brighter by need more magnification you need a longer focal length, so a reflector is better suited. You can look at anything with either of those, but each has advantages. There are all sorts of fancy designs that use a combination of lenses and mirrors, but they start off eyewateringly expensive and only go up in price from there. A final point I'd make, genuinely without sounding negative, is to have realistic expectations about what you'll see. The moon does pretty much look like the photos, but even things like Jupiter are basically large dots with some hazy features. Galaxies and nebulae often look not a much more than faint smudges, but you do learn how to see more detail in them as you get used to using a telescope. On a clear night with dark skies you can just about discern the bands of dust in Andromeda with the 130P. That is not in anyway to say it's not spectacular though, there's something incredible about seeing with your own eyes objects so unimaginably enormous and far away. It's can be a very powerful experience that makes you feel both very very small, and strangely huge that you're seeing them with your own eyes.

Verstappen dropped to 4th after getting a 5 second penalty for the VSC infringement. Poor Max, so unfair that the rules apply to him. I assume that’ll be something like Horner’s response?

Maybe they could split it like in a divorce? Trump gets it on the weekend and every third Friday?

The best way I have seen it described is that the workers of today support the retired previous generation through their taxes. We may like to think that what we pay in is kind of stashed away for us for when we're older, but in reality that's not how it works. Accordingly the circumstances of the time affect the whole population, working and retired. As the ratio of workers to pensioners gets ever smaller, it's currently 3.5 workers per pensioner, the strain on supporting pensioners gets ever harder. And that's not even taking into account that we're living so much longer, and are costing more and more in terms of healthcare. It's not saying the aged are the problem, it's just acknowledging that we're now in a time where the cost of supporting those who are deservedly retired after years of paying in are unfortunately a greater cost as a whole. The support today's retirees saw, and paid for, their predecessors to get isn't possible due to the changing demographic. It's not their fault and it may not be fair, but it's the way it is.

The only bit of it that I really don’t get is the removal of the inheritance tax on farmland. How is a farmer meant to raise 20% of the land value when they take it on from their family? Surely it should only be taxed if sold as it’s essentially an unrealised asset before then.

Get out of here with your facts, Tommy G has already made his mind up!

Not that I particularly know what I’m on about, but that was my impression too. Presumably that was the point of all the doom and gloom they’ve been on about, when it’s not that bad the public are more palatable to it.

Sunak's last PMQs as leader of the opposition shows how much better suited he has been to that role than he ever was as PM. He's found a dignity and distinct sense of grown up professionalism since swapping sides of the house. And he's to be followed by either Jenrick or Badenoch...

Max has got away lightly with just 10 seconds there, seems to have only been investigated for the second one? Could easily have been 10 for each incident.

Indeed. I live rurally and my dog’s favourite walkies route goes through a field that often contains cows. I’ll very rarely venture into a field with cattle in, they’re beautiful animals and generally very docile and friendly, but stories like this are common enough that the risk of one getting a bit boisterous isn’t worth taking. I’ll stand at the gate and give them a nose scratch which is enough to recognise the danger of their size and speed. It often results in quite the disagreement between me and a very stubborn Jack Russell when we don’t go through that field…

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845442658397049011 Unbelieveable!

With an attempt to catch the booster with the tower no less! I saw that they said the booster landed in the ocean with 5mm (sic) accuracy which is remarkable and is no doubt what has given them the confidence to go for the catch this time.

I’ve got the 2nd gen AirPods Pro and they’re absolutely fantastic. The noise cancellation is very impressive, particularly if you’re playing something through them. The transparency and adaptive modes are also great, you can quite easily forget you have them in it’s such natural sound.

Could have just left it at that

I thought I was imagining things when I heard that, turns out he did say it

In other news, I can't see Sydney Sweeney marrying me

I didn’t have defending Owen Jones on my to do list today, but hey-ho. In fairness to him, the allegations made by the Sun were nothing to do with this case whatsoever. What he’s been sentenced for today came about because the police found he’d been sent images by a nonce they were investigating in a separate case. Were the initial allegations indicative of some underlying, errr, tendencies? It sure looks like it now. But Jones is right that what was raised by the Sun was found not to be criminal and the way that panned out wasn’t great. It just later turned out that there was criminal behaviour similar to this, but wasn’t uncovered completely independently. And having defended him, to balance it out and make myself feel better, I’d also like to add that Owen Jones is pr!ck.

BUILD THE WALL

Got to be looking at the keeper there to. Headed in from about 4 yards out with nobody in front of him, surely should be going to punch or catch it. Cracking delivery from Youri though.