Lighthouse

So if that family had transmitted the virus to say six people, who then transmit it to another ten and eventually 50 people are infected and three of them die... what would you call that?

It’s fine by me. The message has been hammered home a thousand times in every media and social media outlet going, as well as the warnings that you could be fined if caught. If you’re thick enough to do it and stubborn enough to ignore the rules, you can’t complain about the fine. It’s not a fine for idiocy, it’s basically manslaughter by wilful negligence if you ask me.

It’s not even a loan, that would imply an actual movement of money from player to club. This is basically the players saying, "look, I’ll make do with just £54,000 a week for the next few months, you just pay me the extra £6,000 in autumn." I’m not going to slate them for it but I won’t praise them either. There is literally zero sacrifice on their part, even if they deferred 50% you physically couldn’t spend that much money at the moment. You can’t travel, buy a house or a car and even if you were just putting it in a savings account, interest rates are through the floor of the basement right now.

I'll start

This thread was better when it was about ducks.

Yes, absolutely. That Sunday is my one chance when I have a reduced risk of killing myself and other people. It would come as a welcome relief from having to drive at terrifying speeds the rest of the week. The alternative is killing people because it somehow seems more fair.

It may seem that way but if you are unfortunate enough to rely on the tube, you should be doing everything possible to minimise the risk in other aspects of your life. It’s like driving down a motorway at 130mph and saying, "well, it’s really dangerous anyway, so I might as well have a beer and take my seatbelt off."

Surely that’s a lot worse? I can understand people wanting to do that but if you have to work in London and take the tube, there’s a very high chance you will pick up the virus at some point. If you then spend your day off in the park with friends and extended family, you’re just spreading it around. I fully sympathise with people wanting to do that but actually doing it is a different matter. The more people do it, the longer we’ll have to live like this.

That depends if he is a straight bloke in Eastleigh or a lesbian living in Karachi or Alabama. I would imagine it’s very harmful to the later. Organised religions impose beliefs upon people which aren’t their own, based on nothing at all. Because there is no evidence for any of them, they cannot be argued or disproven, so they can fly off on all sorts of tangents completely unregulated.

Tim Brooke-Taylor dies 'with' Coronavirus aged 79. No idea if he was otherwise ill but sad news.

A true gentleman racer and the best driver never to be World Champion. RIP Sterling.

Sorry to hear that Duck. Sadly I think a lot of that advice will fall on deaf ears. There're already plenty of people ignoring the social distancing and lock down rules and if people aren't put off smoking and obesity by things like heart disease and lung cancer, I doubt this will chance the minds of many.

Today marks 36 days since our home defeat to Newcastle, meaning we’re now on our longest unbeaten home run of the season. The previous record was 35 days in between defeats by Everton and West Ham. Well done to Ralph and the boys for turning it around.

Won’t happen, even if people aren’t getting infected. There will come a point when we have to start lifting measures or the world’s economy will just collapse, vaccine or no vaccine.

Dalglish tests positive but shows no symptoms. Will be interesting to see how that develops, whether he’s just in the very early stages or simply fought off the disease without illness.

Raiders of the Lost Arc is on.

Well we’ve ended up with a worldwide lockdown thanks to a disease with a 1% fatality rate been bred in one of these places. It’s no coincidence that these things crop up in abused, unhygienic, urban livestock in some of the most densely populated conurbations on the planet. These things never seem to originate from vegan restaurants in Copenhagen. What if another strain of SARS mutates, with a 20% fatality rate, that mutates so that even survivors can catch it again after three months? Four months ago, what we’ve got now was unthinkable, like something out of a dystopian zombie movie.

TBH I’m not suggesting anything. Organised religion is here to stay and I’m willing to accept that. What I don’t really agree with is when something unpleasant happens and the moderates claim innocence and deny any responsibility or involvement. There is a collective responsibility; if you attend a Christian church for example, you might well do it with the best of intentions but assuming you make regular donations, might be helping finance boarding schools where young boys are sexually abused. At the very least you’re spreading a culture, a belief amongst the herd that your given religion is absolute. Others being brought up into that culture will never know another way and will never challenge their beliefs, that’s how fanaticism and indoctrination is bred. In short, I think it’s wrong but I tolerate it. The difference being there is no scripture instructing pianist to abuse there children. No commonly held belief that, ‘if a child shalt play an A flat instead of a G, he shall surely be stoned until dead.’ That’s simply an example of an individual committing child abuse, which could equally be applied to homework, playing the bassoon, ballet or anything else. If you had used those American teen beauty pageants as an example, I’d have been more inclined to agree with you. There you have a commonly agreed ideal of skinny is beautiful and an institutional culture of weight loss. That then leads into extremism and problems with unhealthy self image etc.

The problem is you don't have the loons without a solid base of moderates. I see it as kind of a pyramid, with the wide base on casual believers at the bottom. The further you go up, the fewer people there are but the stronger their beliefs become. As an example, you don't get ISIS without a solid base of countries imposing strict Islamic law. Likewise in America, you wouldn't have the KKK without the bible belt Southern states. The extremists don't just pop up out of nowhere, you need that strong population of 'moderates' supporting it.

Absolutely this; livestock does not belong in built up areas. There have been charities campaigning for years to stop this sort of trade. Tiny cages stacked on top of each other of various animals, p*ssing and sh*tting onto the one below, then selling them for human consumption. If the Chinese don't put a stop to it, one day they're going to breed something properly, properly nasty that'll wipe out half the planet before we can develop a cure.

I completely agree with live and let live, on the assumption that it is reciprocated. As a straight, white male, living in the UK I’m lucky enough that this is the case (aside from the 1/100,000 chance or whatever of being stabbed/blown up by some fanatical nutcase). Other people perhaps aren’t so lucky, like the Pakistan girl who was shot by the Taliban for wanting a basic education.

Largely agree except the last sentence is where it all comes a bit loose. So many out there aren't letting live when it comes to other people's beliefs and choices conflicting with their own religious beliefs. Organised religion to me is like a company sending big, burly men round to people's houses and telling them they need to pay the oxygen tax. Sure, you need oxygen to live but they've just proclaimed themselves the provider without any actual evidence backing that up.

The bank holidays thing is just convenience as much as anything else. Ties in nicely with kids holidays and having nice regular 6 week terms or whatever, so there’s no need to change it. Same with church weddings really, it’s all just tradition for the sake of tradition. Try telling most brides they can’t wear white because they’ve sh*gged half the village cricket team.

Ooh goodie, I love when someone bumps this thread. Turks! Where are ya buddy!?

Boris out of ICU.