Craig Sawyers

At least they got one vowel correct. The only vowel, grantd.

My mother's maiden name is Styants, which is pretty unusual (like Samost). Because it is so strange it is easy to trace back. I've got as far as the late 1600's, but its root is the Anglo-Saxon Stigand. In fact the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1066 when William of Normandy invaded was called Stigand. But clergy back then would commonly take a wife or two, and/or other women, so who knows - I might date back to a very naughty Archbishop 960 years ago.

I have a similar problem with my name. I used to say "Spelt like Tom but with an S at the end" until I realized that the vast majority of people haven't read much at all, let alone The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (which we did at school). But I've seen so many spellings of my name. Sawyer is most common, but I've had Saunders, Saywers, Swayers and just about every variant under the sun.

From the link above it looks like Maersk isn't the only shipping outfit to pull out. It might be the biggest though by a decent margin. Nestle's position is totally untenable. That it is "only" supplying "essential" items like baby formula and pet food to Russia misses massively the point that a number of Ukrainian cities are under siege, the population is starving, and have had no power, food or potable water for weeks. And they are having seven kinds of shit bombed out of them daily. Well Mr Ulf Mark Schneider with your $20m salary - how about some essential items for Ukraine? And how about pulling the plug on Russia, like over 400 companies so far? Bastard.

Who would have thought that KitKat chocolate finger biscuits was a global brand? I ain't buying any more of them.

Yup - this is the opportunity to apply the rest of the world sanctions on Nestle products. Looking at the brand diagram, the only one we regularly buy is KitKat. No longer.

Very belated best wishes Al - hope it was a spectacular day!!

Astonishingly though this is the first step - alignment of the primary to one instrument. There are umpteen other steps involving the whole suite of instruments, followed by "fine alignment". But that image is a first taste of what this machine will do.

I missed this a couple of days ago courtesy of Covid - but the JWST has reached full optical alignment. The alignment object is a star well within our own galaxy, and you can see the 6-fold diffraction from the hexagonal mirrors. It is only visible because of the extreme brightness of the star. But everything else you can see are galaxies - right down to the faintest streaks you can pick out. This image is a tour de force of stunning optics and an astonishingly complex machine.

Good on Schwarzenegger. I really hope it makes some difference, but most information channels have been shut down in Russia to make sure that the Russian citizens have no access to anything remotely true.

Panic buying Russian tubes

Thank god he is not in charge of anything. We'd all be going to hell in a nuclear handcart

Donkey's years ago, my Dad really mashed his thumb. My Dad could never afford a decent car, so he had a succession of old beaters. One day he was working on the starter motor, and for whatever reason needed a hefty 2lb hammer. He picked a one that my Grandad (by this stage, dead) has fettled, by replacing the shaft. But he has put the head on at a jaunty angle of maybe 15 degrees or so the the shaft axis. So my Dad (a quarter century dead himself by the way) took a massive swing with this thing - and of course the head missed the target and hit his thumb. Which split wide open. Of course his hands were coated in black grease and road dirt, not ideal for sterility, and he had to press on to repair the starter, and put it back in the car, before he could drive to the Hospital. I really cannot recall him making a big fuss about this. Other than quietly cursing his Dad for the "repaired" hammer! Come Monday he got in the car and drove to work. Tough cookie.

Fuck me, Steve (not an invitation 😁) that looks bloody awful. I'd be heading for casualty for sure.

It is on YouTube too - the link is for the full movie. And yes - HBO. The basic topic is how a limited nuclear war breaks out. In the days of the USSR. Thinking of James Earl Jones, we were lucky enough to see him on the London stage, with Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy. Front row seats. Around 10 years ago. Awsome. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/oct/06/driving-miss-daisy-theatre-review

I think that is unclear

Happy birthday Fitzy! Hope it was superb!!

You'll get a pal for Silver in due course. I hope your ma's hip surgery goes well. I know a few people who have had this done, and say it transforms their lives.

Anyone seen a movie called "By Dawn's Early Night"? Now on You Tube. James Earl Jones, Martin Landau and Rip Torn among others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_Dawn's_Early_Light and

Jeeze. At least India immediately apologized for the "regrettable incident", and it was a relief that no one was killed. But it is technical malfunctions like this that could be absolutely disastrous.

Two Putin attacks in the UK in recent years need to be taken into account. In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a defecting KGB and FSB officer, was poisoned in London with Polonium added to his tea. He was so radioactive that he was buried in a lead coffin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko And then in March 2018, two identified Russians travelled to Salisbury with USSR era Novichok nerve agent (one of the most potent ever made) in a perfume bottle, and sprayed the door handle of a Russian double agent's house with the stuff. He and his daughter were hospitalized for weeks but ultimately survived. They then astonishingly dumped the perfume bottle in a waste bin, where it was found and then used with fatal consequences. There was a major cleanup with teams in full hazmat gear that went on for days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Sergei_and_Yulia_Skripal Both of these attacks on UK soil were widely reported, their perpetrators identities known and absolutely identified as being initiated with Putin's knowledge. And what did we do? Precisely fucking nothing.