General News

[Otis]

6 hours ago, Lionator said:

Huge power cut across Spain. I’m not going to put my usual conspiracy hat on as I’m not an expert, could they take down a whole country’s power or is it more likely a network issue.  

On the brightside they've achieved net zero ahead of schedule. 

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Otis said:

On the brightside they've achieved net zero ahead of schedule. 

Or rather a preview of what will happen in a great many places if the powers that be don't achieve that mark in time, thanks to increasing extremes of weather destroying infrastructure.

[Jattdogg]

@FoxesDeb live on location from Spain. What say you?  Suppose we have to wait until your power is back on. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

25 minutes ago, Jattdogg said:

@FoxesDeb live on location from Spain. What say you?  Suppose we have to wait until your power is back on. 

Don't interrupt the BBQ!

[Zear0]

5 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Don't interrupt the BBQ!

Eating her way through a freezer of food, might not be seen for a few days.

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Or rather a preview of what will happen in a great many places if the powers that be don't achieve that mark in time, thanks to increasing extremes of weather destroying infrastructure.

Last month we had a small sub station fire taking out the biggest airport in England, now a whole two countries taken out by an infrastructure meltdown. Who needs enemies when we put ourselves in these situations?

[Fazzer 7]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Or rather a preview of what will happen in a great many places if the powers that be don't achieve that mark in time, thanks to increasing extremes of weather destroying infrastructure.

There where no extremes of weather anywhere in Spain today. 

[leicsmac]

Just now, Fazzer 7 said:

There where no extremes of weather anywhere in Spain today. 

Indeed, which is why I mentioned preview of future results, as opposed to causes.

[leicsmac]

28 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Last month we had a small sub station fire taking out the biggest airport in England, now a whole two countries taken out by an infrastructure meltdown. Who needs enemies when we put ourselves in these situations?

"In an urban society, everything connects. Each person's needs are fed by the skills of many others. Our lives are woven together in a fabric. But the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable."

 

The infrastructure that makes up society is too complex and people are too lazy and/or money-grubbing to go beyond single points of failure for more critical systems than we dare think about.

 

And yes, the Earth will happily provide more than enough tests of those critical systems without humans making up more of them along themselves.

[theessexfox]

It’s been a fun day in Madrid to have limited cash - genuinely quite scary at times, with no way of getting anywhere and no power. Bordering on apocalyptic - hopefully can get a flight tomorrow.

[spacemunky]

Certainly an interesting election here.

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, spacemunky said:

Certainly an interesting election here.

A lot seems to have been put on Trump but surely a lot of people were just tired of Trudeau too?

[leicsmac]

22 minutes ago, Lionator said:

A lot seems to have been put on Trump but surely a lot of people were just tired of Trudeau too?

They were, but there's a difference between being tired of a leader and then another leader right next to you with the power to do so actively and enthusiastically talking about your debellatio. That might be the priority discussion.

Edited Tuesday at 05:47 by leicsmac

[leicsmac]

And congratulations, Mr Carney. Hopefully a safe pair of hands in a truly difficult situation.

[Trav Le Bleu]

16 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

And congratulations, Mr Carney. Hopefully a safe pair of hands in a truly difficult situation.

Canadian military personnel = 95k

USA military personnel = 1.3m

Edited Tuesday at 06:38 by Trav Le Bleu

[leicsmac]

16 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Canadian military personnel = 95k

USA military personnel = 1.3m

Right. If the US really wanted to conquer Canada, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to stop them.

 

That being said, history shows that the US, for all its might, has been bested in asymmetrical guerilla warfare more than once before.

[Dahnsouff]

Anybody watch/hear Jeffrey Sachs speech at the Antalya Diplomacy forum? (Yes, exciting I know )

[Md9]

[blabyboy]

Large fire at NW Ldn electricity sub station. Up to 100 firefighters on scene

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2wvz4pjryo

Edited Tuesday at 08:15 by blabyboy

[Spiritwalker]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Right. If the US really wanted to conquer Canada, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to stop them.

 

That being said, history shows that the US, for all its might, has been bested in asymmetrical guerilla warfare more than once before.

It’s one thing defeating a country’s military,  subjugating its population is far more difficult.

[Jattdogg]

2 hours ago, Spiritwalker said:

It’s one thing defeating a country’s military,  subjugating its population is far more difficult.

We will never be yanks. 

 

Interesting results. Expected a liberal minority but preferred a conservative slight minority myself. Poilievre and Singh both lost their own seats. Only Singh resigned (well he really had no choice given his party no longer had party status). Poilievre needs to go now IMO.

 

Now time to move on and support our government as they fight tariffs.

 

 

 

[FoxesDeb]

On 28/04/2025 at 21:32, Jattdogg said:

@FoxesDeb live on location from Spain. What say you?  Suppose we have to wait until your power is back on. 

Finally all is back to normal. Electicity went off at 12:30 yesterday but we still had a phone signal and data so could keep up with the news, and my husband rigged something up to charge our phones from a solar panel.

 

Lost our signal at around 9pm so we were literally in the dark about what was going on  

 

We cooked on the BBQ for dinner, thankfully my wine was still cold, and the weather was mercifully about as good as it could be here to have no power.

 

Electricity came back on at 06:30 this morning but still no wifi, that came back on at around 11:30 this morning, and phone signal reappeared at about 1pm.

 

Solar lights that we were able to bring indoors when it got dark, the gas bbq and a half charged power bank made things easier, as did the solar panel we retrieved from the garage and my husband's skill at making a charger with an old battery.

 

It was a bit scary if I'm honest, we are used to the occasional power cut over here, but obviously nothing like on this scale before, and even when the electricity goes out we still have our data. We were obviously much luckier than some others, especially those people travelling, the only casualty was work, goodness knows how much this will have cost businesses.

 

Make sure you are ready for something similar people, you never know!

Edited Wednesday at 08:32 by FoxesDeb

[st albans fox]

3 hours ago, blabyboy said:

Large fire at NW Ldn electricity sub station. Up to 100 firefighters on scene

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2wvz4pjryo

Now out thankfully (and didn’t affect power supplies) 

[Bellend Sebastian]

Those two lads on trial for cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree seem a bit....I don't know, unusual in their outlook? Or just good old fashioned thick, it's hard to tell

[Foxdiamond]

4 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Those two lads on trial for cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree seem a bit....I don't know, unusual in their outlook? Or just good old fashioned thick, it's hard to tell

Obviously this is at the higher end of vandalism but all the mindless cretins who engage in it make me sick