Preparedness for when

nuatha

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

Evening all. Haven't had time for more than a brief glance at the last couple of pages but this caught my eye:

IMO the last invasion of Britain was the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 when William of Orange, a hard-bitten European politician turned up with 40,000 heavily armed Dutch mates and took over the government. The fact that the incumbent king, James II was as about as popular as a !!!!! in a nunnery didn't make it legal or justified. Which goes to show, you can choose the history you want to support your point of view, as all politicians do. In which respect the current bunch are no better and no worse than their predecessors.

He was invited by a substantial number of Whig politicians, which is why I don't see it as an invasion. I've long thought of this as the Second Civil War.
I agree you can be selective in choosing your supporting arguments and facts. Though we've almost 1000 years of the current lot and their predecessors aren't that well documented. (And there has been some decent examples, just not many)

In an attempt to heave this back in the direction of on-topic. Its not a case of holding grudges (life's too short and its takes far too much energy) so much as trying to learn some of the lessons from the past and not get caught unprepared. Its no good saying they can't do that, when you can find examples of them doing that and worse.
Depending on politicians to be fair or moral isn't a sensible world view - largely because fair and moral aren't absolutes.

nuatha

Lessons from a much more modern historical perspective.

I spent a couple of days last week poking screwdrivers into live power sockets (actually its a voltage tester designed to safely test for live mains that doubles as a screwdriver - but it makes a more boring tale) after realising that a table lamp had remained on when the mains had been isolated. I found 5 sockets across three floors of a house that remained live. 1 socket was powered from the house on the left, the other four from the house on the right side. The building had for a chunk of its life been a hotel comprising itself and the house on the right. I gather that when it had been put back to two buildings a couple of circuits got missed, how the other socket came about I haven't any idea. This house has several years of electrical safety certificates including 2 issued since the building was split back into two.
Different house, our current house, while stripping wallpaper I found a flush mount pattress with live wires lying beneath the wallpaper, not even insulating tape protecting the wires.
In-laws house, a whole ring main with no earth bond. Same house, I had to call an electrical engineer in to sort some of the lighting wiring.
The last two cases are both a result of incompetent DIY (different vendors).

We're currently thinking we may have to sell both the last two houses to jointly purchase something more suitable for MiL and be on hand to support her - checking the electrics of potential purchases is going to be a high priority.

moneyistooshorttomention

Actually the very first thought that struck me Nuatha is that there are two houses involved in that first scenario that might have been wondering why their electric bills were higher than they should have been. Maybe those sockets never got used - but, on the other hand maybe electric fires were plugged into them and thus the neighbours were getting substantially higher bills because of someone else's fuel use.

I've seen that happen before now and I questioned the fuel bills of the "innocent" property and told them they were much too high and it wasn't their fault and they needed to investigate to find out what the problem was. They didn't listen to me. More fool them - because, at a later date, it was found I had been correct and the neighbour had been using some of their electric (quite deliberately as it turned out). They never did admit to me that I had been right - an apology would have been nice:( - but I found out through the local grapevine.

mrs_lds

I am a big fan of emergency kits. Thought this one was good if you are intersted

http://fivegallonideas.com/emergency-kit/

Karmacat

Nuatha, thats **horrifying** about the live plugs! Good for you for finding it all out.

Frugalsod

I think this is the last invasion in 1797 though not successful.

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/The-Last-Invasion-of-Britain/

Frugalsod

mrs_lds wrote: »

I am a big fan of emergency kits. Thought this one was good if you are intersted

http://fivegallonideas.com/emergency-kit/

Be aware that this site uses canvas finger printing. I have javascript blockers and this is what is thrown up when you access a page with such trackers.

themarsbargirl

What is canvas finger printing?????

Frugalsod

themarsbargirl wrote: »

What is canvas finger printing?????

This should help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_fingerprinting

Canvas fingerprinting works by exploiting the HTML5 canvas element. When a user visits a website with canvas fingerprinting, their browser is instructed to "draw" a hidden line of text or 3D graphic that is then converted to a digital token. Variations in which GPU is installed or the graphics driver cause the variations in the rendered digital token. The token can be stored and shared with advertising partners to identify users when they visit affiliated websites. A profile can be created from the user's browsing activity allowing advertisers to target advertising to the user's inferred demographics and preferences

Frugalsod

This is disturbing. The fact that the negotiators have absolutely no clue what will happen.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-11/euro-slides-after-reports-troika-preparing-greek-plan-b-c-d-including-parallel-curre

They actually think that the alternative will mean three or four more years and all greeks being poorer is any different to what they are being offered now. Greece has undergone more reforms than anywhere else in Europe and it is simply not working, and yet they are told that it will be worse for them if they change directions. Yes Iceland did change directions and it is now doing much better than it would if it followed the advice of the banks.