He's following the polling there, definitely. The majority of the country agrees, dunno if that's lockdown fatigue, worry over livelihoods or that people have absorbed the government messaging that really everything is going to be fine now.
Be interesting to see how that breaks down according to region, though.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:37 (three years ago) link
i opened that biodiversity report btw, with one part particularly in mind
In the recent past the GB has intercepted two species (Asian hornet Vespa velutinaand raccoon Procyon lotor), eradicated three species (African clawed toad Xenopuslaevis, fathead minnow Pimephales promelas and black bullhead Ameiurus melas)and eradication is underway for a further four (water primrose Ludwigia grandiflora,topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasorba parva, monk parakeet Myiopsitta monachus,American bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus).GB’s first contingency plan for an INNS, the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) has beenadopted and measures implemented, leading to the destruction of two confirmed nestsin England since 2016 so far preventing their spread into the UK (Defra 2017).On a larger-scale, the GB Ruddy Duck Eradication Programme, which began in 2005,is almost complete. The population has been reduced from 4,400 to around 20-25birds. Control is ongoing.
tf is wrong with monk parakeets and ruddy ducks u fucking loons
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:39 (three years ago) link
also raccoons! altho i can see why they'd be disruptive. but raccoons!
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:40 (three years ago) link
xp combo of lockdown fatigue and the government somehow conveying the impression that they've got covid done and wow a thousand deaths a week became background noise even quicker than I predicted
― Committee of Public Scampi (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:40 (three years ago) link
there is wild colony of parakeets in my locality, they've been there decades apparently and it was nothing to do with jimi hendrix. What a beautiful sight they are.
― calzino, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:42 (three years ago) link
I don't know what Greenpeace's endgame is imago, roll back to a pre-Norman ecosystem? Pre-Roman? Pre the last ice age land bridge?
― Committee of Public Scampi (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:42 (three years ago) link
If they go after the wallabies in the peak district I'm gonna form an armed militia to shoot on sight tho
― Committee of Public Scampi (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:43 (three years ago) link
What a beautiful sight they are.
Noisy fuckers tho
― nashwan, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:46 (three years ago) link
the parakeets you usually see are ring-necked, and the bat is def out of the bag there
monk parakeets are smaller and newer. absolutely no idea why they need eradicating. i suspect they don't
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:47 (three years ago) link
*cat, even
Monk parakeets don't seem to be much of a threat to 'native' wildlife but apparently they build large communal nests that can disrupt electricity supplies
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/24/monk-parakeets-culled-dangers-species
― Boris the Spreader (NickB), Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:57 (three years ago) link
The key problem is the huge communal nests built by the monk parakeets as these can cause blackouts when built on pylons and then drenched by rain. The US has already spent millions of dollars removing nests for this reason. The nests have also been linked to fires.
I assume this isn't all parakeets - our living room is at treetop level and we've had a couple of parakeets hanging out there for much of lockdown and no one is fucking with them at this point.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:57 (three years ago) link
https://www.windycityparrot.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Monk-parakeets-nest-transformer-blog-2.jpg https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/04/17/nyregion/12Journal.600.jpg
― Boris the Spreader (NickB), Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:58 (three years ago) link
What's wrong with Ruddy Ducks?
― Mark G, Thursday, 2 July 2020 10:59 (three years ago) link
Those don't look especially safe, give them time and the monk parakeet will probably end up eradicating itself.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:00 (three years ago) link
otm
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:01 (three years ago) link
The majority of the country agrees, dunno if that's lockdown fatigue, worry over livelihoods or that people have absorbed the government messaging that really everything is going to be fine now.
About half the population round here is milling around as usual, no masks and no distancing and bleak looks for anyone who tries to scramble out of a 1m radius, so definitely seems to me like both #1 and #3 are happening.
Re Tundra, I grimaced at that tweet and its replies, but as with another Jewish friend of mine who used to be v v Labour but hates Corbyn - I don't believe JC was antisemitic and think the claims against him were almost entirely made in horribly bad faith, but I also don't want to skate too close to implying to Jewish people that their concerns were made up by saying anything even least-worst-option about Corbyn, so... time to shrug and leave the room when these topics come up, I guess?
sorry, this post is v boring and parakeets are much better, more parakeets please
― a passing spacecadet, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:01 (three years ago) link
Ruddy Duck is even more sinister tbh - it's to prevent it interbreeding with the v similar White-Headed Duck in Spain. basically it's eugenics
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:03 (three years ago) link
let the birds breed however they want, your priority is protecting the fucking ecosystems u fucking racists
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:04 (three years ago) link
I wdn't throw shade on any Jewish person hating Corbyn for antisemitism, fairly or not, but the tweet upthread was pure melt realism re: how to win an election by promising not to change anything
― Committee of Public Scampi (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:04 (three years ago) link
white-headed duck are a protected species in spain and if they disappear, the ecological protections afforded to their habitat will be eroded - it is about protecting the ecosystems xp
― Boris the Spreader (NickB), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:05 (three years ago) link
environmentalists in having a weird platonic notion of speciation shocker
― Committee of Public Scampi (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:06 (three years ago) link
basing protection of ecosystems on the genetic preservation of a single species is absolute madness, i will not budge on this
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:07 (three years ago) link
are you seriously telling me that if we end up with ruddy/white headed miscegenated superspecies then the Spanish government will wave in the fucking bulldozers
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:08 (three years ago) link
afaict if two species can interbreed to produce fertile offspring then really are they even two species anyway
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:10 (three years ago) link
wetland habitats are being protected becase the white headed duck are threatened; if they all hybridise with ruddy duck then the habitat will no longer be given protection by the spanish government - their habitat will be opened up to hunting and yes, development
― Boris the Spreader (NickB), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:10 (three years ago) link
lol at this offtopic tangent
also it seems to me that the problem is not the ruddy duck there
i mean it's not like there are no other rare species in the spanish wetlands
this all feels completely insane to me
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:11 (three years ago) link
can't we just trust the evolutionary process? the white-headed duck was not distinct enough to survive, it is a total toilet duck
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:13 (three years ago) link
if you want to protect habitat, a threatened species is your trump card - hence the newt thing with boris
it's not like there are no other rare species in the spanish wetlands
yeah but you need something that has some sort of marketability, some rare water lice or dull-looking sedge is hardly going to cut it with bringing in the tourists
― Boris the Spreader (NickB), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:14 (three years ago) link
We had a bit of problem with raccoons on ILX once.
― Future England Captain (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:14 (three years ago) link
they have pratincoles do they not?
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:15 (three years ago) link
also this isn't off-topic i'm getting to the dark racialised heart of the european mindset
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:16 (three years ago) link
also the fucked celeb-species-centric conditional biodiversity protection protocols
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:19 (three years ago) link
protect foxes. protect mice. protect crows. protect fucking ants
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:20 (three years ago) link
Tell me about it.
― Future England Captain (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:22 (three years ago) link
Oh I absolutely agree with that
just, it was tempting to reply drawing comparisons (maybe not even so much to the original tweet but a reply doing the whole "why won't people get behind Starmzy" thing) but even hinting at Corbz as least-worst option in certain circles - which tbf it's possible neither MT or my old friend belong to but I don't want to test it - results in a "how can you not see why I absolutely won't acknowledge that man as ever having been slightly less of a very real threat than our current Johnson government" and that way lies nothing but pain
anyway. I like ducks
― a passing spacecadet, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:23 (three years ago) link
"We don't want to look like we care more about trans rights than jobs"
Substitute "gay rights" for "trans rights" and you'll read a sentence which could have been said in the 1980s. Gay people didn't want to be the centre of debate back then either. It was their opponents who decided otherwise.Starmer's team lack understanding of minority rights. pic.twitter.com/wTfYYhELeT— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) July 2, 2020
Useless shower
― nashwan, Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:29 (three years ago) link
a few years ago our internet started to get unreliable and very slow and eventually as it continued to deteriorate we called BT round. engineer made a few cursory checks and then disappeared outside and came back to report that the wire from our house to the nearest pole went through a tree: squirrels ate our internet. am I even allowed to say what sort of squirrels they were or will imago throw me in jail?
― rumpy riser (ogmor), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:43 (three years ago) link
Imago is no friend of the greys iirc.
― American Fear of Scampos (Ed), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:46 (three years ago) link
user imago believes in the free market of natural selection and will happily leave our humble, troops-supporting red squirrels behind, just as he would consign to oblivion the entire cosmic order upon which #towns rest. fortunately he is part of a minority of rootless neoliberal over-educated elitists and the british people have voted so that they can speak plainly about predatory gangs of grey squirrels gnawing through cables without being told they're racist
― rumpy riser (ogmor), Thursday, 2 July 2020 11:56 (three years ago) link
well i can't exactly argue with that, love a #town tho (within reason)
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 12:13 (three years ago) link
RLB's melt replacement supports the govt's compulsory school attendance in sept, but not fining parents of students who don't return. No opposition just for the sake of opposition.
― calzino, Thursday, 2 July 2020 12:15 (three years ago) link
it's all very well finding yourself accidentally aligned with the countryside alliance on the broad topic of conservation until you realise they just want to hunt grouse and shoot hen harriers so that they don't get the grouse instead
oh sorry an actual politics has happened
― imago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 12:15 (three years ago) link
Pretending that you can make a decision on September now is ridiculous – the conditions could change massively by then. Fines should be opposed on principle, but the real question today isn't "do you support it', it's "we now have to time to preapre, so what are the plans for sustained schooling under the four phases, and what are you doing to support the likeliest scenarios?". This "we'll open schools come what may" is the "GBD we're leaving on Dec 31st GBD" approach, and both could end the same way.
― stet, Thursday, 2 July 2020 12:20 (three years ago) link
if shadow education listened to teacher's unions she might be fit for purpose because they are talking more sense than the UK govt, but unions are bad in the Labour party now.
― calzino, Thursday, 2 July 2020 12:26 (three years ago) link
fuck off apostrophe, I'm multi-tasking at the moment - not as if my grammar is shot at the best of times!
― calzino, Thursday, 2 July 2020 12:34 (three years ago) link
banging revive
Why bother doing elaborate photoshops of Keir Starmer in an attempt to make him look bad when you can just post this clippic.twitter.com/Upv5ZFLOzT— Labour 'Legitimate Concerner' (@LabConcerner) July 2, 2020
― Committee of Public Scampi (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 July 2020 13:09 (three years ago) link
This paragraph from the DfE guidance is so depressingly centralising it is hard to believe it comes from the government of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. Even the best-behaved pupils are going to struggle to adapt to getting back after six months at home. pic.twitter.com/GUSXucp2ba— Jane Merrick (@janemerrick23) July 2, 2020
― stet, Thursday, 2 July 2020 13:11 (three years ago) link
"sanctions" ffs
― Committee of Public Scampi (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 July 2020 13:13 (three years ago) link