CaaC (John)

@nudge, your thoughts, please, Bill Gates backing plan to stop climate change by blocking out the sun It sounds like a wacky idea out of science fiction - but it’s backed in part by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and top scientists from Harvard. The researchers believe that a fleet of specially designed aircraft could spray sulfate particles into the lower stratosphere to cool down our planet and offset the effects of climate change. A test of the technology has been proposed for this year, the Daily Mail reports, with the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) seeing a bag of carbonate dust released into the atmosphere 12 miles up. If that experiment proves successful, the researchers will move on to releasing the dust from planes. The researchers suggest that jets flying 12 miles up would complete over 60,000 missions in 15 years, starting with a fleet of eight and moving up to 100 planes. At present, there are no aircraft capable of doing this, so they would need to be developed. The Harvard researchers have claimed that (if it were launched this year), it would cost about $3.5 billion (£2.74 billion),, plus $2.25 billion (£1.76 billion) per year. The researchers said last year, ‘Dozens of countries would have both the expertise and the money to launch such a program. ‘Around 50 countries have military budgets greater than $3 billion, with 30 greater than $6 billion.’ The idea of ‘solar geoengineering’ or solar radiation management (SRM) is controversial, mimicking the world-chilling effects of huge volcanic eruptions. Some scientists have suggested that such technology could be used a ‘stop-gap’ to reduce temperatures while measures to limit CO2 emissions are put in place. But others have suggested that when the SRM was withdrawn, it could lead to rapid global warming in a phenomenon known as ‘termination shock’. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/bill-gates-backing-plan-to-stop-climate-change-by-blocking-out-the-sun/ar-AAFKQVN?li=BBoPWjQ

Aye, but what's good for the goose (Man City) ain't good for the gander (Chelsea). Chelsea was sanctioned by Fifa in February for breaching rules in relation to 29 youth players and were fined £460,000 in addition to their transfer ban. In June the Blues, who were not allowed to make any signings in the summer transfer window, announced they were taking their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, having failed with their first appeal to Fifa.

Drinking wine...Hic...

Joel Pereira: Manchester United goalkeeper joins Hearts on loan Hearts have signed Manchester United goalkeeper Joel Pereira on a season-long loan deal. The Swiss-born 23-year-old moved to Old Trafford in 2012 and has made three appearances for United. A Portugal U21 international, he has been loaned to Belenenses and Vitoria Setubal and spent the second half of last season at Kortrijk in Belgium. Pereira will be available for Friday's League Cup visit to Motherwell if clearance arrives in time. "I spoke with the staff at Manchester United and the idea was for me to get out there on loan and get as many minutes as I can," said Pereira. "I'm fitter than ever. I knew that I was going on loan so I knew that I had to be sharp and be ready for whatever was coming up. "Now I'm here, fitter than ever and I'm hungry for more and can't wait to get started." The new arrival will provide competition for Zdenek Zlamal, who has started all six games this season, and Colin Doyle, who recently extended his contract until 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49328509

Manchester City fined but avoid transfer ban for breaching Fifa rules on under-18 signings Manchester City has avoided a transfer ban after admitting breaching Fifa rules on signing youth players. The Premier League champions have been fined 370,000 Swiss Francs (£315,000). Fifa said City breached article 19 of its regulations: "International transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18."... FULL REPORT

I nearly forgot its the wife's Birthday tomorrow, legged it all the way downtown and picked a card and came home with a big smile on my face, opened it up then had a look and read 'Happy ANNIVERSARY my dear wife...' FUCK...had to leg it all the way back downtown and changed it, the lady that served me beforehand laughed her socks off when I told her and I said "I will more than likely come in here in December when it's our Wedding Anniversary and buy a...' Happy BIRTHDAY my dear wife...'

Agree with that one, better failing on Mother Earth than the launch and landing on Mars, finger's crossed it gets sorted out.

Exomars: Parachute test failure threat to launch date A European-Russian project to land on Mars has been hit by another parachute failure, during a drop test in Sweden. It's the second test mishap involving the parachutes, so with launch under a year away, the Exomars project cannot afford another failure. It means the next test is critical if the mission is to avoid a delay to its targeted launch date of July 2020. The plan is to send a Russian surface platform and a European rover down to the Martian surface. The European Space Agency's (Esa) Rosalind Franklin rover will collect samples of soil with a drill and analyse them for the presence of organic material. This could provide clues to the presence of past or even current life on Mars. Rosalind Franklin Mars rover nears completion Crashed lander was ill-prepared for Mars The rover and the Russian Kazachok lander will be encapsulated in a carrier module during their six-minute journey down to the surface. During a high-altitude test on 5 August in Kiruna, Sweden, a test mass designed to represent the combined lander and rover was dropped from a stratospheric helium balloon at the height of 29km. Engineers were testing the largest of two main parachutes, measuring 35m in diameter, designed to slow the vehicle to a speed required to land safely on Mars. The European Space Agency says it's the largest ever to fly on a Mars mission. However, the test article crashed into the ground at high speed. Preliminary analysis shows that the initial steps in the parachute's deployment were carried out correctly. However, specialists spotted radial tears in the canopy of the parachute prior to its inflation. As a result, the test module descended under the drag of the pilot chute alone. The same tearing problem was seen on a previous test at the Swedish Space Corporation's Esrange site, on 28 May. The balloon drop test was designed to test the deployment of the two main parachutes and the pilot chutes designed to extract them from bags on the descent module. Changes were made to the design of the parachutes and bags following that test, but they evidently didn't solve the problem. "The test took place eight days ago so, as you can imagine, the analysis is still running. We have to have a good understanding of the root cause because we have only one more chance to fix this issue," said Nico Dettmann, human and robotic exploration development projects group leader at Esa. "We have two remaining test windows. One is in November, the other is in February next year. If those tests are okay then we are on for a flight in July. However, if one of them was to fail, we would not take the risk. Our mission success is the first priority." He told BBC News: "But at the moment we are confident we will be able to find a fix and implement it in time." If Exomars misses its launch window in 2020, the next opportunity to fly the mission will arrive in 2022, when Mars and Earth make another close approach. But Nico Dettmann emphasised that there was more involved in such a decision than favourable planetary alignment. "This doesn't happen automatically. There are a number of programmatic questions to be clarified with the main stakeholders. "The main stakeholders are not only our Russian partners but also our member states. If we have to defer it will obviously cost some more money. This is something which is not yet under discussion because we are still optimistic that we can make the 2020 launch." A low-altitude test conducted in March 2018, in which a test mass was dropped from a helicopter, had been successful. The Rosalind Franklin rover is in its final stages of completion at Airbus' facility in Stevenage, UK. Engineers have been running through the end tasks of assembly and expect to get the six-wheeled vehicle out the door before August is up. Roscosmos' Kazachok landing platform (the name translates as "little Cossack"), will carry a suite of instruments developed in countries including Belgium, Spain and Finland - in addition to Russian-built experiments. It is also nearing completion. As it currently stands, the mission should launch on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in July next year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49333672

Liverpool cannot recall keeper Loris Karius, 26, from his loan at Besiktas after Alisson's calf injury and the German is also currently out with a calf injury anyway. (Liverpool Echo)

Inter Milan and Croatia winger Ivan Perisic, 30, has had a medical at Bayern Munich and is set to complete a 5m euro (£4.64m) season-long loan, which includes a 20m euro (£18.6m) option to buy next year. (Bild - in German)

I am from Edinburgh, my mother came from Glasgow.

Wasn't married then just a single guy out on the piss with my army pals, but it's a lesson of life I bought our son up on, never get pissed and get into a fight. I was lucky the army doctor said I never bled to death as I did not even know I had been slashed and crashed out on my army bed in my room, lying on my back, I woke up the next morning and my back was stuck to the mattress, apparently the army doc said the sheet and mattress had stopped the bleeding and I was lucky. I was also lucky as they tell you in the army that if you share a room with anybody and they come in drunk always make sure they are laid on there stomach and not their back as if they were sick laid on their back they could choke to death with their own sick, my room buddy at the time was also pissed as a newt and crashed out on the floor, when I woke him up the next morning and asked him to look at my back he did and said "For fucks sake Aussie...." and I was rushed to camp 10 medical centre and stitched up. I asked my roommate Jock after I got back from camp 10 and asked him what my back looked like before I got stitched up he said it looked like a piece of rumped steak.

Hehehe...I know, got you sweating

https://www.premierinjuries.com/injury-table.php

Perseids meteor shower tonight: How to see the stunning celestial display as comet dust streaks across the sky Watch: When and where to see the Perseids meteor shower (ES) VIDEO The Perseids meteor shower is about to light up the sky with a stunning celestial display. The spectacle – often hailed as one of the best meteor showers there is – is caused by debris left behind from Comet Swift-Tuttle. As that dust hits the Earth's atmosphere, it lights up and causes a sight that can be easily seen from down on the Earth. The Perseids are said to be among the best of Earth's meteor showers, because there is a particularly high rate of streaking lights and it happens to arrive in the warmth of the late summer, making it more possible for people in the northern hemisphere to stay out to watch it. But it promises to be a little complicated this year: unfortunately, there will be a full Moon that comes at the same time as the peak of the meteor shower, hogging the limelight and making it harder to see. Related: Magical images of the Perseid meteor shower over the years (Photos) SLIDES 1/44 But there will still be plenty of fireballs streaking across the sky, despite that collision. The Perseids normally bring around 60 meteors per hour at their peak, and that will be reduced a little but not entirely. Seeing the meteor shower is simple: just go out and lookup. But you'll need to make sure you do it right and at the best time. The peak comes overnight on August 12 to 13. You should be able to see something if you head out any time after dark, at around 9 pm local time – but you'll get a better view if you wait until around 2 am or 3 am, around the same time as the Moon sets and gives you the chance to see a little more. To give yourself the best chance of spotting them, head out to somewhere as dark as possible and start looking up. You don't need any particular special equipment, and they appear all over the sky, so you should be able to see them straight away. If the sky looks a little dark, then allow your eyes time to adjust by keeping them locked on the black of the night sky (and away from the bright lights of your phone). That can take up to 30 minutes, but is worth it – after it has happened, you'll be more able to see the details of the stars. If that proves too difficult, or you can't see anything, then Nasa will be hosting a live stream of the Perseids too. The Perseids get their name from the fact they look like they come out of the constellation Perseus. There may b a variety of other meteor streaks at the same time, so, if you want to be sure that you're looking at a genuine Perseid, you can track the trail back to the constellation to check. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/perseids-meteor-shower-tonight-how-to-see-stunning-celestial-display-as-comet-dust-streaks-across-the-sky/ar-AAFGPR0?li=BBoPWjQ

After reading that I have just counted up all the stitches I have had on my body in all my 70s years, it adds up to 32, the most was 10 in my back when I got into a fight in my army days and he razored me in my back, I learnt a lesson there, always watch your back when you hit someone and he hits the ground and you turn and walk away, and no disrespect as we were arguing over football, both drunk...and he was a Leeds United supporter.

Mohamed Salah visits a young fan who ran into a lamp-post while chasing his car Louis had his picture taken with Mohamed Salah before his family had "the chance to clean him up" Footballers often inspire unswerving devotion, but one boy has felt the full force when he hit a lamp-post while running after Mohamed Salah. Louis Fowler was trying to get the Liverpool striker's attention, who was driving out of the club's training base on Saturday when he ran into the post. The Reds fan fell and "busted his nose", his stepfather Joe Cooper said. He added that they were "gobsmacked" when Salah soon turned up at their home nearby to check on Louis' condition. Mr Cooper told the Liverpool Echo that Louis and his brother, who live near the Melwood training base, had been spending their summer holidays trying to get pictures of their footballing heroes. "Unfortunately, Louis went straight into a lamp-post while running after [Salah's] car and busted his nose when he hit the floor," he said. Neighbours took Louis and his brother home, only to be followed shortly afterwards by Salah, who had turned back. "It all happened so quick we hadn't even had the chance to clean him up," Mr Cooper said. "He'd seen one of the boys had hurt himself and he had the decency to drive back into the close to check that he was OK. No-one could believe it. Everyone was gobsmacked. "Mo asked if the boys were all right and gave them a big hug, which was what they both needed. They were made up and Louis forgot all about being injured." The young brothers were "made up" at meeting their hero Louis was later treated at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, where he was the "talk of the hospital" because of his encounter. Mr Cooper said: "The face is a bit sore but he is great! He can't stop smiling!" Since joining Liverpool from Roma in 2017, Salah has been praised for his high-scoring performance on the pitch as well as his charitable work off it, including tackling Islamophobia. The Egyptian striker was the only male footballer to feature in Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people of 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49313879

To all of you in Grizzly's sheep game, this is the ZEPP, @Bluewolf and @Harry know the Zepp music

This is the only place on Earth where lions live alone SLIDES 1-7 FULL REPORT

Bizarre fossils reveal Asia’s oldest known forest The diminutive trees of the Xinhang forest likely lived in a swampy environment near a coast, as shown here in an illustration. The narrow rods peeking out from the walls of the clay mine didn’t initially look like much. But as more of the spindly fossils appeared, paleobotanists Deming Wang and Min Qin soon realized they were in the midst of an ancient forest. Discovered near the town of Xinhang, China, the fossilized tree trunks date back to about 365 million years ago and cover at least 2.7 million square feet, which is roughly the size of 47 American football fields. This means they now represent the oldest forest yet found in Asia, the researchers report today in the journal Current Biology. The ancient forest found in Xinhang would have featured trees that grew straight upward like poles, their stems fringed with narrow leaves. Once mature, the treetops would have split into crowns of droopy branches, each tipped with a spore-filled cone. MORE

@nudge and all Star Wars nutters Darth Vader Hot Air Balloon Floats Over British City — and Mark Hamill Loves It In an English city far, far away, a massive hot air balloon shaped like Star Wars villain Darth Vader’s head floated in the air on Thursday. As part of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, taking place Aug. 8-11, the Star Wars-themed creation soared over Bristol, where the first-of-its-kind balloon was made, according to a fundraising page. The original Darth Vader was played by actor David Prowse, 84, who was born in Bristol in 1935, so it was fitting to fly the balloon at the Fiesta, the largest ballooning event in Europe, CNN reported. Mark Hamill, a.k.a. Vader’s son Luke Skywalker, celebrated the moment on Twitter. “After a horrible, no good, terrible week, there’s nothing quite like a giant floating #DarthVader balloon to distract from reality & raise your spirits. #ThanksDad,” wrote Hamill, 67. “I think David Prowse would’ve loved that,” one user wrote in response to a photo of the balloon on Twitter. “This is epic!” another user added. The balloon was built by Cameron Balloons and has toured the world and been photographed flying over Australia, the United States, China and Malaysia, but required fundraising to bring the balloon home for the festival. MORE

Me and you... @Toinho @Stick With Azeem