Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

zagubov

I'm on BBC2 now. Along with 200 other audience members :j

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

I also think its interesting I. That context the loo looks not uncivilised. Its not like animals live there, just messy people....so, what was wrong with the kitchen and bathroom that day?

I'm still voting for "intentionally made into a tip by the tenants to put buyers off".

lemonjelly wrote: »

In other news, I've found that birmingham have removed the exemption for council tax for unoccupied/unfurnished properties.

How long do you expect to leave yours empty for between buying it and moving in?

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I think they'd have been better off just putting the floor plan, rather than some slightly out-of-focus shots of dirty clothes on sofas.

Good suggestion. Maybe an exterior shot of the building as well, or a view from the windows.

Nikkster

LydiaJ wrote: »

I'm still voting for "intentionally made into a tip by the tenants to put buyers off".

I'd go for a mix of that and the EA knowing that some very crummy pics still won't put buyers off. Or perhaps even hoping they'll go viral (who knows what was lurking in that flat :eek;). Agree with (?)lir that the choice of pics was odd though -close up of a coat on the back of a door and nothing of the kitchen or bathroom?

And I the basin in the loo screamed 'McDonalds' to me too, Doozergirl.

LydiaJ

Doozergirl wrote: »

Meh. I did what I could for a couple of hours to fix things and then took myself to the pub. Two glasses of wine later, it can bother me tomorrow.

How are things now, Doozergirl?

vivatifosi wrote: »

Good luck Barn Owl! We're all rooting (or should that be hooting) for you...

Indeed. All the best, Owl - I'm hoping to hear good news of you in the morning.

zagubov

I once had to explain superpredators to a class and they immediately thought of all the big scary ones like polar bears and tigers. They never think of harmless ones like owls.

I've found the first two houses we bought had weird electrics. In the first one they had power sockets for a telly in the bathroom.
And a spur from the mains running overhead to the garage.

And the second one my BIL who was helping us found a bulb and touched it to a tear in the wallpaper on one of the walls and it lit up! :eek:

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

I once had to explain superpredators to a class and they immediately thought of all the big scary ones like polar bears and tigers. They never think of harmless ones like owls.

I've found the first two houses we bought had weird electrics. In the first one they had power sockets for a telly in the bathroom.
And a spur from the mains running overhead to the garage.

And the second one my BIL who was helping us found a bulb and touched it to a tear in the wallpaper on one of the walls and it lit up! :eek:

Regular 3 pin, 13A plug sockets are completely normal here. It still does my head in! Especially if you're in an older house and the electrics seem a bit dodgy.

neverdespairgirl

zagubov wrote: »

I once had to explain superpredators to a class and they immediately thought of all the big scary ones like polar bears and tigers. They never think of harmless ones like owls.

I think lots of superpredators are quite small, but wouldn't be that harmless if you were their lunch.

A shoal of piranhas, for example; each is quite small, but a load of them can ruin the whole day of something really large.

Or a domestic cat with ambitions, like my own darling Yossie - he might be 10 years old, bright white and wear a bell, but he's still a pretty big threat to local leporine populations.

zagubov

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I think lots of superpredators are quite small, but wouldn't be that harmless if you were their lunch.

A shoal of piranhas, for example; each is quite small, but a load of them can ruin the whole day of something really large.

Or a domestic cat with ambitions, like my own darling Yossie - he might be 10 years old, bright white and wear a bell, but he's still a pretty big threat to local leporine populations.

Our pets cost the environment much more than they cost the owners. My dog has the same carbon footprint as my car. One third of the germs isolated in urban areas come from dog guts. The number of birds killed by cats is off the scale.

Everybody hates deforestation but when elephants endlessly knock down trees, we just think how cute and wise elephants look. OK elephants aren't pets but people never think rationally about cute animals.

neverdespairgirl

zagubov wrote: »

Our pets cost the environment much more than they cost the owners. My dog has the same carbon footprint as my car. One third of the germs isolated in urban areas come from dog guts. The number of birds killed by cats is off the scale.

Everybody hates deforestation but when elephants endlessly knock down trees, we just think how cute and wise elephants look. OK elephants aren't pets but people never think rationally about cute animals.

True. If it's furry or sweet in some other way, it gets a free pass. Elephants can be massively destructive, can't they?

Fortunately for his own sake, as well as birds, Yossie kills mice, rats and rabbits. In the case of rabbits, he's a Good Thing for the environment, because rabbits in Kent are a massive problem and eat everything.

I say, "for his own sake" because my Dad's very protective of his moorhens, swallows and so forth, and if Yossie started killing them off, he'd make himself very unpopular, fast.

Generali

There was a piece in The Economist years ago, which I have failed to find, about animals recognised to be endangered and those which receive public funding and proper protection.

Big animals; cute animals; and (especially) big, cute animals get plenty of protection. Ugly or scary ones get basically none.

For example, it's easy to buy dolphin-friendly tuna. However, over a million sharks a year are apparently killed as 'by-catch' by tuna fishermen but there are no major and well-funded campaigns about that.

I don't think tuna tastes anything like as good since they took the dolphin out TBH.