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James Watson is not a racist. That whole thing got blown way out of proportion and it shows how oversensitive people have become on anything concerning race and how we can’t have a mature conversation about it without resorting to finger pointing and name calling. One of his studies looked at genetic differences between different races, and one factor he looked at was measures of intelligence. Now, I’m all for calling out racists when pseudo science is concerned e.g. social Darwinism employed by the Nazis, but when a study uses true scientific method, we can’t simply refuse to acknowledge its findings because we don’t like the results and then the general conclusions arrived from it. Ofc it was ONE study, and there have been many, and MOST of them say that there are no significant differences in intellect between races. However, is it really hard to believe that there COULD be? For millennia many groups of humans were completely isolated from one another on this planet. It follows that they would have evolved separately and differently according to thousands of situational factors. Anyway, I don’t believe in shooting the messenger. It is the job of scientists to uncover the truth. Facts don’t care about feelings at the end of the day.

Well, there's a question. Let's start with the fact he is deeply ambitious: he's been aiming to be Prime Minister since Oxford and probably since Eton. Whatever nonsense he's said in the past about 'if the ball comes loose from the back of the scrum...' he's been planning to become Tory leader for years and probably seriously since he became Mayor of London. He backed Leave in the referendum essentially because he saw it as his best chance of getting the leadership (the base were Eurosceptic, even in a losing campaign, which he assumed it would probably be, he'd be a hero among the grassroots). Gove knifed him in the back but May still gave him the Foreign Office, a ludicrously high office of state which only underlined his support among the parliamentary and wider party - she needed him. He was planning his leadership campaign from the moment he resigned from government probably and seriously I'd imagine from around the end of 2018, when May faced her no confidence vote and started losing her Brexit votes. He also has a burning desire to be liked. By everyone. It's why he tries to avoid taking opinions on things to appeal to everybody and even when he does take positions, he tries to laugh them off and keep opponents on side. I think that's the issue that's come to a head this week: he's been trying to juggle all these different factions he's got on his side currently and it eventually becomes untenable as decisions need making in particular directions. He originally sided with Cummings and Cain but then was talked around by his girlfriend and her supporters. This is the other part of this: he isn't especially a conviction politician, he'll change tack according to the prevailing winds. And my understanding is that he's a 'big picture' kind of guy who doesn't like detail. He'll come up with the headline (e.g. "Garden Bridge in London") and then let others worry about how to make it happen. It's why his Operation Moonshot idea announced months ago is still looking like pie in the sky and why he agreed a Brexit deal with Varadkar last October and spent much of this summer trying to break his own treaty. He also yearns to go down in history. He loves history, he loves Churchill and he wants his own page. That requires some great achievement: taking us out of the Brexit shadows into a brave new world, permanently rewriting the electoral map, defeating the Nationalists and strengthening the Union, launching the Johnson age of innovation and prosperity. Take your pick - whether he can do any of it is severely in doubt. He's also an unashamed liar. He won't admit this, but he is shameless about it to get what he wants. He made his name writing absolute bullshit for the Telegraph's EU column, talking about them banning prawn cocktail crisps, classifying snails as fish and ensuring manure smelt the same. At best they had a grain of truth but were taken to ludicrous extremes with the sole purpose of riling up the Tory base. All the nonsense about bendy bananas and burgundy passports comes from that blond moron's lead. Then there's the fucking bus, which he insisted in the face of all evidence to the contrary from Robert Peston was true (but you can clearly see on his face he thinks it's all a game and knows he's talking out his arse). It's all about winning. By any means necessary. Oh, and he likes women. Alot. So in short: he's a great campaigner, rubbish leader, ambitious, narcissistic, lying, scheming and doesn't like detail. I don't personally liken him to Trump: Trump is completely egomaniacal at the expense of all others, lacks any empathy and is just plain nasty to most people. Johnson, to me, essentially still thinks he's at prep school - he's still in the Bullingdon Club in his head and nothing has any real consequences. Sooner we get a grown-up back in charge the better: but I doubt it will be for a while, this is a guy that turned London blue twice - he's not going to lose an 80 seat majority in one election. Finally, so this isn't just an anti-Boris rant: he self-isolating again after coming into contact with a COVID-riddled MP. Sounds like they reckon immunity doesn't last more than about 6 months in that case.

Today, American painter Wayne Thiebaud celebrates his 100th birthday. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/wayne-thiebaud-at-100-1920403 What advice do you have for people who’d like a long and happy life? I would just tell them to stay healthy, have a nice life, read poetry, listen to good music, and get exercise—which I’m going to do as we speak. I’m heading to the tennis court at the moment.

Psychologist Lawrence LeShan dead at 100. Yet another 1920 born with no staying power.

No wonder if it took them over 6 years to operate ! And I thought our health service was bad !

As soon as anybody says “snowflakes” or “facts don’t care about your feelings”, you know not to even bother with them.

I’ve a PS5 on the way. I’ve been on PlayStations since I was *gestures low* that high. Can’t break the habit of a lifetime.

Interesting. He can't travel. Some kind of "last visit"?

So, anyone on here with more political insight than me, storm in and sort this conundrum The one thing conspicuously missing for me in all this reporting of the ins and outs at Downing St. is Boris himself. Obviously, he's there physically but who the fuck is he? What I get from the various infighting stories is a sense of warring factions all of whom want him to be the person they think he is. I read something recently that was funny and tragic in equal amount about Labour strategists debating what was meant by some missive Corbyn let slip whilst campaigning a year ago, they couldn't figure it out and Corbyn - in the room at the time - said nothing. Boris seems to have that same cypher like presence. I know there's a biography out atm suggesting he's like Trump (basically an inner child trying like hell to impress a brutal father who has the power to charm in public and terrorize at home). So, I get that Boris is good at fronting campaigns - but what kind of person is in there, anyone have an idea?

That's an interesting one, because I thought 'isolate' was a transitive verb, and that people have been using it as a reflexive verb by adding "self". But the OED has picked this up and drafted it as an intransitive verb. As for "self-isolate", they've got it already:

I read (or heard) recently that people who contracted and recovered from the SARS-CoV-1 virus in 2003 still have antibodies. So that gives some reason for optimism.

iain's slightly disingenuous weeping puts me in mind of Homer's response to Pinchy's tragic murder/lobsterslaughter.

Ecuardorian Roman Catholic cardinal, Raúl Eduardo Vela Chiriboga, passed away yesterday at the age of 86. 

Neither. PC. And if you could get any of it, AMD zen 3 5600x / ryzen 6800xt or nvidia 3080. But since you can't, not. Well, not yet. FWIW both new consoles run on custom variations of AMD hardware (last gen in the case of the cpu;s and rdna2 gpu;s, not that i suspect anyone much cares ).

Please change my score to 9 points on the master list on the first page. Thank you. @Sir Creep

And now dead.

Nah. James Watson is a racist.

I'm a Yorkshireman but living in Geordieland, and was quizzed for an hour and a half after that guy sent the police the tape recording. Someone had phoned the police suggesting I might be the ripper. Quite scary at the time I must say.

I would love to see the lists of Death Impends & Joey Russ. Do you have insider informations? From a hospital ward for celebrities? From a place where old aristocrats meet? I'm terribly curious, I know.

I posted this a while ago, but this is a reminder that June Spencer turns 102 next year and is still in The Archers.

With the amount of deaths that have happened this year there are lot of possibilities I can think of that can be added for 2021. Musicians. Ozzy Osbourne (so surprised he is not on the list already), Brian May, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards. Sports. Sir Bobby Charlton, Gerd Muller, Sir Frank Williams. Hollywood/Film. Sidney Poitier, Sophia Loren, Michael Douglas, Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, John Williams. Military and Space. Sir Tom Moore, Jim Lovell, Gene Kranz, Thomas Stafford, Hershel Williams (Medal Of Honor). Other celebs who are very old, terminally ill or in poor health. George Shultz, Rush Limbaugh, Barbara Walters, Barbara Windsor. With the amount of deaths that have happened this year there are lot of possibilities I can think of that can be added for 2021.

I think there will be one surprise hit..so I went with Dick

Malaysian Roman Catholic cardinal, Anthony Soter Fernandez, passed away today at the age of 88. 

Why don't you pass on over, Vaaaleryyyy? Vaaaleryyy.