I love this. A family of ducks is avoided while they crossed the road. Thing is, the car did it all by itself. It didn't slam on the brakes, because, like a good human driver might, it instantly realised there was no oncoming traffic, so it was ok to use the whole road. Dedicated AI is getting mighty clever. But that's another conversation:
He possibly has some mental health issues, I can't think of any other reason why someone would do that.
Chilco What is it like for birdwatching down there? I often go to places like Blashford Lakes, Titchfield Haven and Fishlake Meadows and am always staggered by what can turn up. Last time out I saw a Great White Egret at Blashford but Fishlake is the surprise package for me having grown up outside of Romsey. Always staggered whenever I have gone there.
There was an osprey spotted there a few years ago, but it was just passing through sadly. Here’s a guide: http://www.birdersmarket.com/acatalog/Blagdon_Lake.html
Thanks very much. There was an Osprey at Fishlake this spring although I never saw it. It is very strange to think of birds like that appearing near Romsey as they were so rare when I was a teenager in the 70s and 80s. The same is true with Red Kites which would have necessitated a trip to Wales to see. Now I have them in the village where I live. Conversely, a lot of birds that used to be familiar like Yellowhammer have vanished. Lucky if I see one a year now.
I’m not a bird watcher but a few years back, I looked out of the window and saw a Hoopoe. I didn’t know it’s name at the time, but recognised it from my trips to Spain, so was able to google it. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=h...8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=BV0Fbj7fJXIanM:
The wife and I are in Gran Canaria this week and actually seen one on the way to breakfast this morning........beautiful bird.
Used to see them a lot in Midrand (South Africa) in the English winter (SA summer) and was amazed they migrate so far. Love them - gorgeous
St Badger This makes me laugh as I have been hoping to see a Hoopoe for about 40 years without any luck! When I was a teenager me and my mate Conrad used to go birdwatching but it became realty competitive. The Hoopoe was the bird we were always out to find and would traipse up to Toot Hill in the hope of finding one. For some reason, we thought that you could find all the "rare" birds marked in the AA Guide to British Birds up there. I think hoopoes are only passage migrants now but they do turn on in Hampshire about once a year. A few years ago, one was seen in Micheldever. Gilbert White recorded them in his garden at Selbourne. Whenever I go to the south of France, I wander in to the countryside to go birdwatching in the hope that I will see a Hoopoe. They exist in the areas around Vienne and I tend to head out towards Condrieu where there is hilly country where the hoopoes are said to be found on the stone walls. Every year I walk many miles in anticipation but I have never see one although the owner of a vineyard told me they are about. However, I often see bee-eaters when out there which is a bonus.
Where I am currently living, our windows overlook a small copse, that most people in Southampton probably don’t know exists. I was genuinely surprised to see it and it spent a good 5 minutes or so rooting around in the grass. I took a few photos on my phone, but they weren’t very good, hence putting the link to google. The exotic location for this siting was just off of Hill Lane, very close to where the Dell was. If it had flown a few 100 yards further north, it would have been on the common. My wife regularly sees owls on the fence and we have watched a family of Great Spotted Woodpeckers feeding, sometimes from our feeders putting them just feet away.
Didn't quite know where to put this but here's as good as any I guess. This is what we should have before the game instead of those stupid flame throwers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/50381768
Boss: "How good are you at PowerPoint?" Me: "I Excel at it." Boss: "Was that a Microsoft Office pun?" Me: “Word.
While it is obviously good that petrol and diesel powered cars have a limited life time now with the development of electric vehicles, it seems that there is an environmental price to pay even for electric power. The first link from the BBC contains a lot of "maybe's" and "could do's" but it does illustrate how going from one health and environmental hazard can possibly open up other problems. The second link has more facts about the dangers to the environment from the lithium and cobalt used in battery manufacture. Here's an interesting snippet from the second article. "The battery of a Tesla Model S has about 12 kilograms of lithium in it" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49759626 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact QUOTE "But there’s a problem. As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required to enable that transformation could become a serious issue in its own right." QUOTE “Like any mining process, it is invasive, it scars the landscape, it destroys the water table and it pollutes the earth and the local wells,” said Guillermo Gonzalez, a lithium battery expert from the University of Chile, in a 2009 interview. “This isn’t a green solution – it’s not a solution at all.”
Simple answer is to find a different battery technology, such as graphene, which is well advanced. Plans already exist to build cars of graphene, so that the body of the car is also the battery.
I've been trying to think of anyone I might know lives out that way and would do such a thing. Latest Updates Posted at13:37 Boris Johnson's visit to bakery cancelled due to protest BorisJohnson has pulled out of a planned campaign visit to a bakery in Glastonbury due to an unexpected protest at the venue. Mr Johnson was due to visit Burns the Bread as part of his trip to the South West, but plans were changed after a group including climate change activists, anti-Brexit protestors and someone holding a Labour placard gathered at the only entrance to the business. It's understood the visit was cancelled due to security concerns on the advice of police. Mr Johnson is expected to continue the rest of the planned itinerary.