@fedops@CloudyMrs Less hellish this morning, thank you. I think that I must take it very gently through today, but last night I was extremely rough and this morning not nearly so much.
Right, I've managed to compile UnrealEngine for #Debian Stable, which feels like an achievement. If only I could do the same for a reasonably modern version of Shotwell!
The Chatteratti are saying that the #Conservatives can't find enough candidates. Is it time for those of us on the revolutionary left to accept our patriotic duty, bite the bullet, scrub up, cut our hair, raid the charity shops for suits, and rock up at Central Office chorusing "pick me"?
I'm really proud of Standingstone today. A baby was born here this morning, in the yurt we erected for his parents a fortnight ago. I'm proud that we have been able to give them a place to be, relatively protected from the stresses of the world, at this important moment.
But I'm a bit ashamed for Scotland that the best place we can offer to a pair of strangers in our midst, only one of whom speaks English well, to bring a child into the world, is a tent in a field.
Two more babies will be born in the parish this summer, both of them here at Standingstone, one to parents living in a wheeled shepherd's hut, one to parents living in an old caravan. Both those couples have one member who grew up here, who went to primary and secondary school here. Both couples are in employment.
But in modern Scotland, rural people earning rural incomes can no longer afford rural #housing.
We need to break the capitalist market in #housing. We need a highly progressive tax on property in housing and in land. We need to prevent the use of dwelling houses as holiday homes or as short term lets. We need to allow people to live in structures they can afford, and to help them afford structures fit to live in.
None of our political parties -- with the dubious exception of @ScottishGreens -- are even trying to address the problems Scotland faces.
Yesterday I put the new oil seal into the transmission input shaft of the tractor. Pushing the seal and bearing back into place beyond me, so once again I took it to my friendly local blacksmith, who interrupted work on a customer job, made up a special adapter, and pressed the bearing into place with his hydraulic press – and would accept no payment. I'm fortunate to live in a place where this is normal.
I've been listening to the second half of The Rest Is Politics interview with #Kwarteng, and my take away is what TRIVIAL people everyone involved is. Kwarteng is supposed to be one of the intellects of the #Tory party, but they can none of them – not Kwarteng, not Campbell, not even Stewart – string two concepts together.
Leading: 74. Kwasi Kwarteng: Liz Truss, becoming Chancellor, and Britain on the brink (Part 2)
@simon_brooke I haven't listened, and I won't; my attention span for other people speaking is dismal. But somebody else who has listened said that Kwarteng would have been an outstanding academic, and it was tragic for him and the country that he decided to go into politics.
"spare a little sympathy for the conservative movement here. The fact that reality has a pronounced leftist bias must be really frustrating for the ideological project of insisting that anything the market can't provide is literally impossible" -- @pluralistic
This week's major project is splitting the tractor, to replace the failed oil seal which is leaking oil from the gearbox into the clutch housing. We've got to the point where the only thing still holding the front half of the tractor to the rear is the steering linkage, and I can't remember how we split that last time!
@simon_brooke I'd go for the track rod ends rather than removing the arm itself. Tool is either a fork type thing you hit, or a half cup with big bolt at the top. Old skool mechanics loosen the nut and hit end of the arm smartly to drop the rod end out, though it rarely worked for me.
Last time removing the arm on a landy I had to use spanner extension and heat. Be sure not to stand in the firing line when it releases.
@withaveeay@simon_brooke Sorry, no magic solutions. It clearly is supposed to come off that way.
So just the usual: leggo spray, banging on it, heavymetal music, swearing and threatening it with a blowtorch or welder.
If the puller already slipped a few times, it's perhaps time to sharpen its fangs. They do get knackered from that. Or the dodgy method: A Jubilee clip around the paws.
There have been plenty of valid complaints lately about Google's search results, but when I couldn't remember Carly Fiorina's name to reply to this thread, it came right through.
"After so long in office, with so very little to show for it, you need far more than to rely on the mantra of “competency.” That is the bare minimum anyone should expect from any government. It is not, by any measure, a vision or a strategy for political growth" -- Jonathon Shafi, in the @TheNational
But which government is he talking about?
(I'm encouraged to see Shafi being more of a voice in #ScotPol again; I've ae been impressed with him)
@simon_brooke@TheNational Not sure I see the point of his railing at a party that by its very philosophy and the breadth of its church is ever going to be as progressive or socialist as he wants when there is already a party closer to his ideal - the Greens. A bit like me demanding the Tories should be more left wing 😉
For the second time this year, I've ripped a calf's ear trying to tag it. I hate having to tag new born calves. It's horrible that your first interaction with a young creature is to hurt it; and it feels dreadful to interrupt the mother-calf bonding in such a way. I can't believe this is either a humane or a justifiable practice.
Still, it is done, and the tissue sample is taken.
@simon_brooke I became a vegetarian more than forty years ago as a result of what I saw during my veterinary training. I find this disturbing, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to unfollow.
"Palantir’s “work” was supplying Israel’s military and intelligence agency with advanced and powerful targeting capabilities — the precise capabilities that allowed Israel to place three drone-fired missiles into three clearly marked aid vehicles"