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Post by Big Blue on Mar 11, 2022 9:13:44 GMT
(From my counter post)Not that shocked: Alpina would have had to move away from pure ICE cars and Andreas Bovensiepen never seemed to be keen on the idea. On the plus side I assume the next Alpina B5 will be a hybrid and be discounted like any other big engined BMW.
Don’t confuse BMW with Daimler Benz. Even the badged M-Sport cars are not ever called M-Cars. BMW have long understood that there is a different client that wants an Alpina and is willing to pay for it, hence Buchloe is allowed to develop cars alongside new models.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 10, 2022 20:47:41 GMT
Yep. Having had voodoo lights on a holiday rental a couple of years back they were a no brainer on Eva. Magical things.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 10, 2022 20:45:23 GMT
😆
That’ll teach me to go off on one.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 10, 2022 20:39:05 GMT
www.alpina-automobiles.com/en/tools/alpina-news/So BMW will own the brand. Not that shocked: Alpina would have had to move away from pure ICE cars and Andreas Bovensiepen never seemed to be keen on the idea. On the plus side I assume the next Alpina B5 will be a hybrid and be discounted like any other big engined BMW.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 10, 2022 20:00:49 GMT
To cut a long story short, the EU and US don't have the resources to remain in control of our own destiny in the long term and come the second half of this century chances are we will be more or less under the rule of the Chinese, Russians and possibly even the Indians. Life as we know it will change dramatically this decade. Don’t agree with that. Technological advance in the west outstrips everywhere else. Ok, so China is the labour market but that’s easier to change than most things. One could argue that the reason for this strike into Europe by Putin is because he knows his successors won’t have the fossil fuel stranglehold over the west within a generation so he can be remembered as the great visionary by striking now when he had that advantage. For all their faults the Chinese are remaining on the fence, neither condemning nor supporting Putin. They do a lot of trade around the world and anyone with a smidgen of history in their brain can see that trade has been China’s driver for a couple of millennia. China and India may both be super- populous but in terms of population control and organisation are poles apart. India is at best chaotic and the internal competition of its population amongst one another will prevent any meaningful digression outside its own borders for about a century. And therein lies the strength of the West. It allows free thought, opportunity and fosters advancement, both of technology and population. When that is threatened nations that are otherwise playfully taking the piss out of one another join together to protect the things that matter to them all, something Russia and China abhor as they consider themselves utterly sovereign. Russia has again resorted to the tactics of obliteration but are doing it against, again, a carefully selected foe. They out number most armies but this is not 1917 when Marshall Foch said the allied forces would defeat the Germans because they had more men in a war of attrition but as Ukrainian resistance is showing that only works against certain foes. Finally the ridiculous can never succeed in humanity as has long been proven. Fashion alone shows this as the most ludicrous elements of the catwalk never make the main stream, and I mean never. Why have I raised this? Today Lavrov said to a worldwide audience that “Russia is not planning an attack on any other nation, and Russia has not attacked Ukraine.” Ridiculous doesn’t really cover the official Russian position on this. ETA: one thing also. Never forget that for all our politically correctness and media face niceness, white European stock has long shown itself to be the nastiest element of humanity. The history of the 19th and 20th century showed that quite well, subjugating the majority of the planet and having no thought for destroying a generation of our own kind. The sheen of modernity wipes away easily and never forget which stock of human race actually dropped the two most devastating bombs of death and destruction.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 9, 2022 19:03:45 GMT
Magnussen is back. I think most people were expecting it to be Giovanazzi, but that's a sensible choice IMO. Being a Penske driver Gio was probably the least likely for a Haas seat.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 9, 2022 19:00:10 GMT
The Russian military leaders have had to resort to bombardment because their soldiers are totally disillusioned. Slav chat rooms have reported that when the troops are in amongst the civilians they realise that they are not being welcomed with open arms as the saviours and are visibly terrified when among huge numbers of people that want to tear them apart limb by limb with bare hands. Nothing can stop the genocide and physical destruction because no one that speaks common sense can access The Kremlin without being punished.
There are also large numbers of Russians that support the special military operation because they only watch and read Russian media so know for certain a just and right operation is being played out.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 9, 2022 11:13:18 GMT
Schools should be secular. There's a difference between the vicar / priest / rabbi/ imam etc. telling you about religion in a place of worship and a school telling you that 2+2 must be 4 and then there is only one true religion. T1 and T3 went to a CofE school: neither gives a thought to religion now.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 9, 2022 9:22:11 GMT
No one's driving their cars early this test: they got stuck on a broken plane. This makes a complete farce of Toto's comments about asking what Andretti Racing would bring to the F1 circus when one of the incumbent teams is in such dire straits having not chosen a driver to replace the pay driver, lost its title sponsor and can't transport its caravan around with the rest of the circus.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 9, 2022 9:17:35 GMT
I don't know if it is now the law that lights have to revert to "auto" on every start-up, or if it's just Ford who do this, but it drives me mad. Stopped to fill it with fuel and on start-up the headlights came on, blinding people leaving the kiosk because they'd gone from "off" to "auto" and decided that the forecourt canopy resembled night. Crazy. I think auto lights is one of the the great safety features of the age. It is also the rule that the default position is auto if you have DRLs for the very reason John gives above - older DRL cars can often be seen driving around with no rear lights on because most drivers are, by and large, inattentive idiots that just use their car to get from here to there in comfort. Coming from someone that had parents with Volvos, Chris, I'm surprised you make any negative comments about all day lights on - I have often recalled here my step-dad's experiences with a rental car in the '70s and pedestrians wildly waving walking sticks, pointing, shouting about leaving his lights on in the daylight hours.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 9, 2022 9:10:08 GMT
If you commute by car at a certain time ion the day no doubt the heavy traffic is in some part due to the school run. My neighbour a few doors up (ie closer to the school) has children at the same schools my two girls attend. This morning she reversed out of her driveway at the same time as we walked out of ours, she with kids in the car. Having dropped the children at school, including a bit of small talk, a goodbye wave at the 1st floor window to T5, I arrived back at home as she also turned the corner to her driveway.
I accept that not everyone lives a walk away from school but if you're lucky enough to why the fuck wouldn't you? The situation is made all the more ludicrous by the fact that our school is in a Safe Street, meaning no car (except residents of that street that have registered their car with the Borough) can drive along it during school start time and again at school end time meaning she and her kids are going through the rigmarole of packing themselves in to the car to drive half way, find a space to park, unpack themselves and walk the other half, which is the uphill section!
What goes through people's minds?
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 21:03:40 GMT
8500 miles in 15 months. Sounds like intergalactic use to me.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 16:25:00 GMT
I am also concerned at the impending scenario of Putin resorting to the nuclear option. The issue is one will be fired first and where will it be aimed at? I don’t think a second will be fired but I do see a huge non-nuclear war following it.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 13:08:12 GMT
I can’t actually tell if that’s a piss take or not but I’m looking forward to reading Twitter posts with the hashtag #InternationalMensDay in November. I reckon my phone will catch fire.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 9:48:25 GMT
So, this is today apparently. A Soviet public holiday, albeit with origins elsewhere, it was never heard of when I grew up. W2.1 refused to celebrate it after the collapse of the Soviet Union as she felt it was just a horrible reminder of the few sops given to the populace during the Soviet era. She just asked me where her flowers were and I replied that she told me it reminded her of communism so I didn’t bother but reminded her I buy flowers every week as part of the weekly shop - the fact that I like flowers in the house as well is neither here nor there, they’re for her Anyone else celebrating?
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 9:40:41 GMT
The problem for introducing any fundamental tax changes, of which road pricing is one, is that MPs are inherently keen on maintaining their income and lifestyle so anything which looks like a sure fire defeat at the next election is a bit of a tricky one. Imagine rural, conservative constituencies where there is one bus a day being told they’re now being charged by the mile when they’ve forgotten the Bisto and have to nip to the nearest convenience store on a Sunday, a 10 mile round trip.
The other issue with such systems is revenue collection and modelling. These technological solutions need to be paid for and maintained, so part of the road pricing is lost there. Then the initial model assumes pricing at peak hours at X price when suddenly everyone starts driving at cheaper times and the rates need to increase (like when fewer fines manifested when the C Charge was introduced in London). Collecting tax through the price of of liquid fuel is so simple that replacing it will only be an abject failure by comparison.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 9:29:45 GMT
Just under 60,000 thus far according to official figures. But if I were a Russian propagandist I’d say the Russians in Ukraine don’t need to flee and are now released from the Nazi stronghold in Kiev that has gripped them in terror for so long.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 7, 2022 21:15:47 GMT
The problem with arguing ‘what if nato didn’t like Belarus as a neighbour’ is that nato has expanded to the Belarus border. It has an expansionist policy that is central to the issue with Putin. I think it’s been said somewhere above that countries actively request to join NATO. That none are actively requesting to join the Russian federation says more about the view of “Putin bad - Western Europe good” than any personal rantings from me or anyone else.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 7, 2022 18:50:42 GMT
So just to prove how much Putin wants to see the stability of Ukraine as a non-NATO state his solution is to make it uninhabitable. Has he made the same statement about Finland? and what his response have been if NATO said they didn't like a Russian puppet-state in Belarus as a NATO neighbour and demand that no Russian military action could ever be launched from there?
Yes a simplistic kind of demand from Putin to feed his simplistic advocates, but not really any kind of simple solution. As ever the Russian simple solution is as we are seeing being played out. The Rouble is just about half the value it was before this invasion - even his simplistic advocates must see that he's a dickhead as they work out if they're having half a loaf of bread or only 2 hours of heating a day.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 7, 2022 16:11:14 GMT
Sounds like getting used to a four stroke bike after years on a two stroke. When I got on that Fireblade I had about 15 years ago after years of 250s I nearly went through the screen just rolling off the throttle.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 5, 2022 20:04:31 GMT
The seats. Air cooled, heated, massage function and immensely comfortable.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 5, 2022 9:08:54 GMT
Last time they tried there was that little problem called the Cuban missile crisis. You told me earlier that my 12 year timeline between Budapest and Czechoslovakia was taking poetic license and now this The Warsaw Pact was NOT like an alliance: it was control by Moscow. Forcible control and the installation of a puppet government. Like Ukraine would be if Putin has his way. I agree (as I did earlier) that Putin is not our version of Hitler - he is geographically but not in political terms. Geography shows that Rusyn tribes spread across Russia and the Ukraine but the Polaks were different and controlled a lot of Ukraine through war-gains. Hitler the same: German speaking in Czech, Poland, Slovakia (which didn't exist really) Hungary, Austria (still) was from the Germanic tribes that were indigenous there. So they are geographically the same. Politically: Hitler came to power from a background of a Germany perceived as militarily and industrially castrated by the Treaty of Versailles, thrust upon the German people by the victors of war. Putin is coming from a wealthy state with vast natural reserves and trade influence, no real restrictions on its military or the travel of its population. So yes, we have to deal with him because he is the face of Russian politics but unlike Hitler he has not become so through restrictions imposed on the nation by others.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 5, 2022 8:27:54 GMT
Why does he want a buffer zone? Because he doesn’t want what he sees as hostile and expansionist forces camped on his border. NATO started as 8 countries, its now 30. Most of that growth coming from Eastern Europe. It’s hard to argue that it’s not expansionist. And if Ukraine can join NATO can Cuba establish a military alliance with Russia? Yes, Cuba can - but would it be along the lines of NATO? Putin sees NATO as as hostile and expansionist but in reality its expansion is by countries that were subjugated by Moscow for half a century+. They made the choice to join NATO not for aggression but to protect themselves from the horrors and restrictions they had already experienced. NATO does not tell each nation state how to behave but offers a guarantee of joint action to protect - something done to avoid a divided internal European war. Putin doesn't like NATO not because it is expansionist and aggressive but because it prevents Russian domination of its neighbour states, who (I'll repeat) have independence from one another and both Russia and the USA.* The Warsaw Pact era was nothing like that: you did what the Kremlin said or were imprisoned or shot and so were your family and associates. This is why attempting to blame the NATO expansion as the cause of Putin's aggression riles many: it's an excuse to grab very fertile and ore-rich lands for Moscow's benefit not for the befit of the local nation or the wider market. *Even the EU states have independence from one another and EU wide rules and directives are only enacted after representatives from ALL member states have ratified them. This independence was clearly demonstrated by the individual rules applied by states during COVID.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 4, 2022 15:55:13 GMT
It looks nice. But dressing up a dreary person to the nines doesn't automatically make them dynamite on a night out... 😆. I went out with a particular pretty girl a couple of times as a 6th former and one of my school friends said “bloody hell, mate - you need something with half a brain in it!”
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 4, 2022 14:41:58 GMT
If the water supply is disrupted then the controls would remove the rods to perform a controlled shut down I would imagine.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 4, 2022 12:58:37 GMT
Current storage design for waste decrees two simultaneous hits by a pair of A380s (guess what I’m working on…….) The problem with ordnance attacks is that they’re not factored in as the assumption is the most likely attack will be terrorist based, not military as attacking a nuclear power plant is banned under the Geneva Convention.
Any uncontrolled release of very active material is horrendous - remember that stored material is already depleted but still has a 100 year storage requirement. The act of attacking one is more a sign of reckless insanity and desperation than anything else as the aim of gaining land is ended by not having land that is usable.
For Russia and ROTW the only “out” is a change of leadership allowing a change of policy allied to immunity for Putin’s inner circle.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 22:45:12 GMT
Petrol and diesel in the Watford area was still about 6p/litre cheaper than at home last Saturday Would you rather live in Watford or Camberley?
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 15:15:12 GMT
He doesn’t want a NATO border but is happy to keep moving west until he meets one…… then another …… then another. When the Soviets controlled Hungary they didn’t like the relative freedoms of Czechoslovakia so went there in 1968. A bit of poetic licence there! As well as being 50 years ago, in the Soviet era when the Warsaw Pact was in full swing, the two events were 15 years apart I think? 12 years. I agree on the timescale but the reforms being pushed from Prague (ie more like Western Europe) were the trigger to invade a neighbour. As to the Warsaw Pact element I don’t think the pact was the kind of collegiate forum NATO is: Moscow led end of story. Putin’s views were formed by this period of Russia is boss and any view of even semi independence from Moscow is anathema.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 14:47:02 GMT
He doesn’t want a NATO border but is happy to keep moving west until he meets one…… then another …… then another. When the Soviets controlled Hungary they didn’t like the relative freedoms of Czechoslovakia so went there in 1968.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 14:31:04 GMT
Andretti
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