Love to see it on its own merits, but even more so for shedding Barclays in particular. They have a bit of a stranglehold on UK NGOs, charities, government departments, schools, hospitals and most of the rest of the public sector, and they have grown very complacent about it.

Congrats to the members who sublmited this for a vote. It will probably inspire others NGOs and individuals to rethink their choice of bank.

Good news for red squirrels!

Recently, we (family) spend time each weekend looking for mushrooms and fungus (it calms my son and gives him something to focus on).

I was looking through old photos with my son when I found a fungi photo from 2023. At the time I didn't know what I was looking at but thought it interesting enough to take a photo.of.

We now think it was coral tooth fungus. I wish I had known at the time. Pretty special to see even if I'm a few years late in realising.

Coral fungi are frustrating for me. A few kinds that grow here look so much a like that you need to magnify their spores to tell them apart.

You're right. Much harder to police in disparate rural areas

the creatures that live in big cities punish humans for using fireworks in cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disaster

We had basically a whole city get fucked

I wasn't. It didn't even cross my mind. What I had in mind were people with chronic stress, age set dementia, autistic and other similar conditions which make difficult, if not impossible, for individuals to cope with that extreme stimulation.

There is a special care institution where I live and year after year they plead with the city to do not organize firework shows by the city holiday, as it is very hard to manage their charges. Medicating them into a near coma for three days and three nights is not a solution.

On another line, a very good friend of mine has epilepsy and fireworks can trigger it. I don't know if others are as affected but it is another practical example.

But no money in the world pays the loss of someone dear; where I live, there used to exist three fireworks shops. None exists today. Because people died in them. My country (Portugal) had hundreds of fireworks shops in the eighties and nineties; the number has been steadily decreasing since then and the industries is essentially dying.

Banning fireworks wouldn't infringe on anyone's liberties and rights. It's a shrinking industry and there are other ways to celebrate.

But I appreciate your point of view. And thank you for showing that cordiality towards me.

@qyron As a combat vet with PTSD, I would like to ask you, politely, not to use my particular condition to remove the rights of others. We knew this would be a possibility when we signed the contract. We have ways to cope with our own issues without abridging others' rights to happiness.Fireworks manufacturers know the risks, as do those who work for them. They make good money (at least here in the States) for the risk they take on in order to manufacture them.Regarding the wildfires issue and the cleanup, we agree; People should be held responsible for their INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS.Please leave the "people with anxiety and related issues" out of your argument. You're making incorrect assumptions about us in order to add weight to your argument, and your assumptions are, at least in the case of every veteran I know, patently incorrect. Do I wish people were a bit more considerate with fireworks going off near our homes? Sure I do, but most civilians who never served in the military rarely think about anyone other than themselves and their wants and needs. Humans are generally inconsiderate. We've learned to live with it.@GreyShuck

@qyron @GreyShuck It would be one thing if they were show-casing the skills and ingenuity of the pyrotechnicians with amazing patterns and displays, but it's all just loud booms these days.

I've enjoyed firework shows since I was a little runt and I'm the first in line to ask for a blanket ban on them.

It's a proven wildfires cause, horrible for wild life in general, terrible for pets and people with anxiety and related issues and it leaves a mess behind that nobody wants to pick up afterwards.

And firework making is a very dangerous occupation.

This is one tradition I am more than happy and willing to let go.

Aren't night time laser shows and drone swarm shows a thing already?

Also, domestic animals. I know people who have to spike their cats’ food with tranquillisers during fireworks season

For some absolutely unknown reason, increasingly we have people driving out of towns and cities, to beautiful wooded areas, letting off fireworks.

Nobody can explain to me why having 10 different local private monopolies control our eater supply is a good idea. They have no ethics except profit.

Thanks! I'm genuinely curious, so this is helpful!

Doesn't explain why murmurations start, but y'all might like reading about swarm theory. It's an elegant explanation of animal behavior covering ants and bees to wildebeest herds. There's a great Natural Geographic article on this I read in the magazine ages ago.

I expected great new tech from this understanding, not sure much has been done. In the article they talked about an tanker company whose computer chugged all night calculating the next day's routes. Drivers were annoyed to find themselves driving past delivery points to hit further places. Check it for yourselves!

https://blog.sapico.me/archived/the-genuis-of-swarms/

This is talking about the UK - where they are a native, breeding species - but the population has declined by more than 60% over the last 30 years. More detail here.

By declining, they mean that the numerous places they were introduced to are now seeing their numbers dwindle, or specifically their original habitats?

No, they won't, because they'll just move their net zero goals again

“Could”

Should the Uk really be spending the limited gas reserves on datacentres instead of something useful, like heating homes?

No shit

We have Starlings in New Zealand (introduced by the english), and I've never seen murmurations like I saw when I lived in the UK.

Maybe the populations in NZ are just not the same as in the UK to cause this?