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Crete. View of the Aegean. Roads are fine, hills are steep, mountains aren’t doable for me on this bike. Hard packed gravel along the coast is not too much an issue; have to walk along some sandy bits.

Sunny, cycle friendly, relaxed, v. light breeze. Recommend 👍👍

Even Biden does. They cook 3 dishes for him, and someone from the secret service eats 1 or 2 of them before he’s served. They carry special plastic pouches with them to take away his cutlery, glassware, napkins, anything that might have the ‘Presidential DNA’ on it.

I imagine a tyrant probably has a taster and a trusted supervisor who watches the chef taste it as well.

So the money was not only in the wrong column, it was also undisclosed campaign finance. And if he'd filed it correctly as payment to a porn star who he fucked just after his wife gave birth to his son Barron, he might well have never been president.

If he’d filed it correctly as a personal expense, we’d have never heard about it beyond speculative rumours. He fucked himself by wanting to claim it was a payment to his lawyer and a business expense, because wealth horders like him won’t spend a single ill-gotten dollar if they can avoid it.

Can’t quite tell. My initial impression was an MP5 with some sort of a suppressor or muzzle device, and holographic or red dot sights. Can’t manage a decent screenshot but I agree the sides look rather smooth and flat. Perhaps @Constable_Savage can ID it?

FT says it happened on a trip to northern Mexico, where you’d expect the ambassador to have armed close protection and a hardskin vehicle, but it seems odd to have him riding in front instead of having a second CPO. Even more odd is that they let him play around with their weapon.

British Ambo to Mexico quietly withdrawn from his post in April after aiming an assault rifle at a member of staff.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7pJsO5pWxs/

All other charges are misdemeanors.

All 34 charges are class E felonies, the least severe class, at a state level.

Resurfaced video of a young Rishi Sunak clarifying that he doesn’t keep ‘working class’ friends.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=9QJ_zkMcJ-ou2I3K&v=p9bbBYcwFOk&feature=youtu.be

The dad’s look of bemusement and panic at his son’s crassness… Raised a right wanker, he did.

Biden secretly agreed to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory near Kharkiv with US weapons. Key point is that Ukraine should only use them in a counter-fire capacity to defend region around Kharkiv.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/30/biden-ukraine-weapons-strike-russia-00160731

Helpful, and late, as the new rule may be, it’s an indication that things are not going well for Ukraine.

Finland has enough artillery to clear a motorway from Kaliningrad to Moscow. However, against Russia and without NATO, they’d be badly outmanned, outgunned in every domain, and reliant on the aggressive authoritarian state that attacked them to call off the war.

The Baltic states have openly said they have material concerns that putin will come for them next. My bet is he would, after poor non-aligned Moldova.

I’d love to read a history book from 50 years into the future dissecting our times and this conflict.

Thinking about taking a Brompton to Crete for some casual cycling around near Chania on the north west side to be precise.

Topo maps make it look somewhat daunting for a 3sp Brompton. Has anyone here cycled ‘round those parts? What’s your experience?

Glad your mileage varies. Several museums and restaurants I’ve visited won’t allow the folded bike passed the entrance, and it makes zero sense to leave an unlocked Brompton unattended and out of sight in public. I’ve managed to find workarounds, but it’s happened.

Thieves aren’t lurking under every rock, but in certain parts of London they might as well be. I know of 6 Brompton owners who ‘quickly’ locked their bike outside while they went shopping/dining/etc., and had it stolen.

As mentioned above, no need to worry about locking the bike up outside. This is also, arguably, the biggest problem with a Brompton: if you take it out, you’re stuck with it. If your Brompton is dripping wet and you don’t have a bag for it, many places won’t let it in. If you lock it outside, high chances are that it won’t be there when you return.

Horses for courses.

But then they’d get a strongly worded reminder from HR about English being the ‘operating language’ and the expectation that staff speak it on site. Their manager might throw in some related baloney about H&S in the working environment, and who really has time to listen to all that? Best just reuse the official language in one’s own way.

Sold for £300. Someone caught a deal.

Also the face when you’re having to accept that your immortal daughter has given up eternal life in blissful paradise in exchange for a couple of centuries romping around with the local popular kid.

https://apnews.com/article/severe-weather-storms-tornadoes-05-28-2024-281c8ad4600d6e7bc688fb4f720b1f92

Sudden severe storms, including a ‘gustnado’, leave over a million people without electricity in south central USA.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/climate/pfas-forever-chemicals-industry-lawsuits.html

Time and time again, a company knows something is literally toxic, and they keep it to themselves. Now it’s time for PFAS, the cancer-causing ‘forever’ chemicals in your bloodstream, in the food you eat and the water you drink.

How YouTube has removed embedded video previews in playing videos. Now there’s just loads of dead end references in otherwise well-constructed content, if that makes sense.

Been around since the 1930s, brought to you by the same company that knowingly sold (sells?) asbestos-laced talcum baby powder.

‘Mineral’ oil is another bs marketing spin, like ‘geofuels’.

Ask a doctor for alternatives. The internet suggests almond and olive oils.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/us/memorial-day-weekend-storms.html

Video compilation in the article is really something.

Indirectly, China and Russia benefited. China economically, Russia politically/militarily.

duped into thinking ‘we got our country back’

Willingly duped. A bare minimum of critical thinking was required to figure out that Leave wouldn’t save the UK £300 million a day for the NHS, but they refused to do the mental work to think and instead leaned into voting with their biases and most base emotions.

And I won’t even get started on the dumbfuck emigrants who live in Spain and still voted leave.

Bike or car?

Strangely, IME, many bike mechanics treat DOT fluid like it were a cartoon acid, while thinking mineral oil isn’t noxious at all. Mineral oil is a petroleum derivative, and unless it’s food grade it’s not exactly safe to ingest or be exposed to. (Even then, there’s minor debate about whether food grade mineral oil is actually non-reactive in the human body)

A fair distinction that I should’ve clarified. Imo, the mention of military service is part of what will get people to fall for the hysteria provoking attention grabbing ploy.

What are they hiding with this absolute nonsense? It’s politically dead in the water to push mandatory military service, and it’s such an inane platform to run on it’s hard to ignore how that could be the entire point.

Whichever it is, you can (and should, please) report it. There’s various organisations depending on your part of the country.

Mink and ferrets are invasive to the UK and cause a lot of damage to bird and fish populations.