Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Positive Signs

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Positive Signs

    Between Trump, Brexit, climate change et al, the news cycle can leave one with a sense of unrelenting despair, so perhaps this can be the place for developments that offer cause for hope - nothing so trite as a "good news" story, but maybe the election of a progressive candidate, or the sudden turn in fortunes for a country usually known for negative reasons. I will, naturally, immediately contradict myself with the video of a Syrian refugee girl in Ireland, who has learnt to sing in Irish after just two months, so we're not doing too badly.

    #2
    Solar power is getting cheaper every year.

    Comment


      #3
      UK wind power is increasing quite quickly. Yesterday saw the highest ever wind output (as far as I am aware) at 11.72 GW. Until fairly recently, the usual 'maxima' were around 5-6GW, but the records (by date) have been heading upwards:
      7GW 21/11/16
      8GW 11/1/17
      9GW 25/11/17
      10GW 17/1/18
      11GW 23/10/18

      Comment


        #4
        Or as Bert Brecht put it...

        “THE HOUSE-PAINTER SPEAKS OF
        GREAT TIMES TO COME
        The forests still grow.
        The fields still bear
        The cities still stand.
        The people still breathe. “

        Comment


          #5
          Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

          radicalised by the Sanders campaign and then Standing Rock. And now radicalising others.

          Comment


            #6
            The would-be dictator of the Maldives managed to lose his rigged election recently.

            Comment


              #7
              Imelda Marcos is going to stand trial for corruption.

              The Gambia has rejoined the Commonwealth, having got shot of the dictator who declared it an Islamic Republic and decreed homosexuality a crime.

              Comment


                #8
                Amendment 4 in Florida

                Comment


                  #9
                  EEG's Arron Banks tax tribunal thread.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Newsreaders don't get to say (mispronounce) junta so much these days. They have fallen out of fashion. The juntas, not the newsreaders.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Michael D is getting inaugurated today. Which meant that we didn't have to deal with a visit from President Trump. Which I think on balance was a good thing.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        The Bullingdon Club most probably boasts no more than 1 member this year.

                        Membership traditionally lay somewhere between 10 and 20 students, but by 2016 it was reported to have dwindled to two, as incoming students declined the offer to join.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          The Seanad (upper house of Irish parliament) has passed a motion tonight calling for citizenship to be granted to non-Irish children if they have been living in Ireland for three years - this follows a number of high-profile cases where nine year olds and teens were threatened with deportation.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            This is my home town.

                            When I was growing up, If you drew a ten mile circle around Cahir, I was one of about four kids who spoke a second language (two germans in ballybrado) and if you spoke that language people looked at you like you had two heads. Even after over 40 years, My parents were still blow-ins when they left, even after teaching in a couple of cases three generations of the same family. Playing traditional music was another way to get people to think you had two heads, and the only sporting outlet for my sister was Karate. Oh and we were known as the family that didn't go to mass.

                            Now there's a children's choir, and it's going to be singing carols in polish and lithuanian, the town is a national powerhouse in women's sport, traditional music is now so strong that they have a cracking music festival, and the standard is very high, and the Convent has closed, and instead the place is full of Copts.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              and two bypasses

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Why is everyone coming to Cahir?

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  As I mentioned in a previous thread I found out this year that Angeline, the case I am probably most proud of from my time at the PDO, is doing well and is happy and we actually spoke on the phone. With the shit storm that is the world these days that makes me feel good.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Nice one AHC.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      I live in a beautiful place. I like the pace of life here (very slow) and the natural beauty takes my breath away regularly. In many ways it's the ideal place to bring up kids.

                                      However, the downside of being in a rural isolated place is that, well it is isolated... and deeply conservative. I love taking the kids to London and being on the tube and breathing in the diversity, but that doesn't happen as often as it would if time and money were less of a limitation. My older one has now moved to Budapest to go to university which I figure will help in her education outside as well as inside the lecture theatre. And to be honest she is a bit conservative and, though open minded, a product of the environment she grew up in.

                                      But I still worry about my younger daughter growing up in a school environment which is entirely white (and nearly entirely monocultural, and in which common insults tend to be the ugly slang words for gay.

                                      And then there is her online life in which she interacts with people all over the world who are unknown to us, mostly through a shared love of certain bands (ones that she calls emo, but as we've seen on other threads of late this may be a fluid term). We try and take an interested but hands off approach to monitoring that.

                                      Anyway last night the three of us went out to dinner and in conversation she was talking about one of her online friends who is a 19 year old guy (at this stage I could see Mrs hoc tensing up a bit) but then she added that he is transgender, oh, and gay. This makes me very happy that through online interaction she's getting the diversity that she misses at home. She's obviously completely unphased by his identity.

                                      She also said that one of her friends at school told her "Paula, if you're gay I just want you to know that this is totally fine with me and we will still be friends" (she doesn't think she is gay, but she was really happy to get this message).

                                      So anyway even in the back of beyond in a place where the adults seem to be ultra Conservative, kids are getting much more rounded and open minded messages through various media. And I'm dead happy about that.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        That’s a lovely story ad hoc which reflects very well on you all- just one question: aren’t you worried that your older daughter might become even more conservative in Budapest?

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          It's a possibility in the big C Conservative sense. But Budapest is a fairly liberal place consistently voting against Orbán, and while she'll be hit with the messages fed from a FIDESZ dominated media I think she's wise enough to filter that stuff. She'll certainly be living in a far more diverse place than she was, and I only see a positive side to that.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Thanks. What’s she studying?

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Electrical engineering

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                                                I live in a beautiful place. I like the pace of life here (very slow) and the natural beauty takes my breath away regularly. In many ways it's the ideal place to bring up kids.

                                                However, the downside of being in a rural isolated place is that, well it is isolated... and deeply conservative. I love taking the kids to London and being on the tube and breathing in the diversity, but that doesn't happen as often as it would if time and money were less of a limitation. My older one has now moved to Budapest to go to university which I figure will help in her education outside as well as inside the lecture theatre. And to be honest she is a bit conservative and, though open minded, a product of the environment she grew up in.

                                                But I still worry about my younger daughter growing up in a school environment which is entirely white (and nearly entirely monocultural, and in which common insults tend to be the ugly slang words for gay.

                                                And then there is her online life in which she interacts with people all over the world who are unknown to us, mostly through a shared love of certain bands (ones that she calls emo, but as we've seen on other threads of late this may be a fluid term). We try and take an interested but hands off approach to monitoring that.

                                                Anyway last night the three of us went out to dinner and in conversation she was talking about one of her online friends who is a 19 year old guy (at this stage I could see Mrs hoc tensing up a bit) but then she added that he is transgender, oh, and gay. This makes me very happy that through online interaction she's getting the diversity that she misses at home. She's obviously completely unphased by his identity.

                                                She also said that one of her friends at school told her "Paula, if you're gay I just want you to know that this is totally fine with me and we will still be friends" (she doesn't think she is gay, but she was really happy to get this message).

                                                So anyway even in the back of beyond in a place where the adults seem to be ultra Conservative, kids are getting much more rounded and open minded messages through various media. And I'm dead happy about that.
                                                Well, ad hoc, you've brought her up with sound liberal values, and ultimately I suspect that will stand to her more than the political environment - after all, the Ireland of the Nineties/early 2000s could have been described as white, monocultural, and where any boy who was remotely quiet got slagged as gay, but that same generation has voted for abortion reform and same-sex marriage, whether that is because of greater life experience, or simply that lads are more emotionally aware than they let on to their friends. Once she's got a good circle of people she can rely on, she'll be grand.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Lovely ad hoc. Applause to you and Mrs. Hoc. Every success and happiness to Ms. Hoc.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X