Westministenders: Brevid

[RedToothBrush]

The government have FINALLY started to treat no deal brexit and covid as one entity in terms of fucking the economy.

On the one hand you have one camp who think they can sneak No Deal through as a consequence of Covid. On the other you have people who realise that it might be quite a good idea not to doubly screw your entire economy and to continue to be able to import medical supplies freely.

We now no that No Deal Brexit will involve passports to get into Kent and 7 mile queues of trucks because this has passed the lips of Gove. Y'know one of those who has been denying this for the past 4 years and presenting it as 'scaremongering'.

We are now firmly into the end game where businesses have to make plans based on the government plans and technology. Y'know the ones that aren't complete yet despite it only being 2 months to go.

Johnson has today done an interview about covid restrictions in the NE in which he got all the detail wrong. Its almost as if he forgot the lines he was instructed to recite and have no fundamental understanding of what rules he's putting into place to control the lives of the population.

As we lurch into October, there is speculation of full local lockdowns being brought in to try and deal with the spiralling number of cases which have to be the result, in no small part, of a dire lack of local testing facilities in the North of England. Meanwhile we've got The App finally. The one that doesn't work and the police and many health care staff are being advised not to use cos its so bobbins and will lead to them constantly isolating needlessly. Thats just something the rest of us have to contend with.

The feeling is that Cummings is up for No Deal. Johnson has been brainwashed into it, which lets face it, isn't too hard given how hard of thinking he is. However there is a growing sense that Johnson may now bottle it and declare victory in the jaws of defeat. That might be a premature hope.

We await the answer and the all important question of whether Christmas is indeed cancelled - that is for everyone who hasn't already cancelled it due to financial hardship...

It's quite chilly in Provence after Storm Alex hit (so the sunlit uplands of Brexitannia will be fiiiiiine and warm).

Ta to DGR for confirmation of just how benighted we are compared to the Romans.

I have been trying to work out how I might get to Scotland before July 2021. And failing dismally. Between quarantine, no household visits, cuts to flights & train services and the living hell that will be the Channel Tunnel and Kent as of Jan, I've given up and just started to cross my fingers that I might ever see my DF again.

Weary wave and thanks to all.

But meanwhile after the Roman Empire declined, the arabic world was forging ahead in science and mathematics.

When we look at e.g. important mathematicians in history, we think of Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes, Thales of Miletus etc
The Greeks developed maths; the Romans ..... a Roman soldier killed Archimedes !

Not much that came out of the Middle Ages iirc

@Peregrina

But meanwhile after the Roman Empire declined, the arabic world was forging ahead in science and mathematics.

... Yes, be thankful to that unknown Arab genius / group of geniuses who developed the Arabic number system

Science would not have got far doing calculations with Roman numerals !
Maths classes at school would be hell, too

Auld
You have my sympathy. My dad is ill and many hours away. I try to stay upbeat talking to him, but have no idea when I'll get the chance to see him again.

@Peregrina

But meanwhile after the Roman Empire declined, the arabic world was forging ahead in science and mathematics.

With the irony that despite nicking paper from the Chinese (Aamarkand) they were unable to develop printing like the Europeans.

I know there is an ongoing campaign to rehabilitate the Dark Ages - and discoveries like the Staffordshire hoard have show that our forebears were in no way savages. But the fact remains that when you compare 500-1500 AD to 1000BC-500AD .... well there's no comparison. And I'm wary of the fact that a historical "reappraisal" of the European dark ages can be used to fuel all sorts of political agendas - after all who needs culture anyway ?

That said it's easy to go too far the other way and over-mythologise the classical era - just ask any remaining Victorians

BigChoc
The history of Zero is a cracker

Mind you, think of the Victorian times (not as JRM would, re worlkhouses !) re the train and postal systems vs today

Sherlock Holmes could make his calculations on the basis of post travelling the length of the country in a day.
Of course, the numbers of passengers and pieces of mail / packages have gone up somewhat

"when you compare 500-1500 AD to 1000BC-500AD .... well there's no comparison."

Yep, exactly my point, DG

a Roman soldier killed Archimedes !

To be fair it was against explicit orders that Archimedes was to be taken alive and honoured for his brave defence of Sicily.

I don't think the soldier involved got any extra rations.

And it's fascinating how we take for granted the veracity of this tale which predates the dark ages (where almost anything that happened is anybodies guess) because of the fact that Romans were literate and wrote everything down and more than enough survived to provide multiple sources.

And also the concept of zero, which I think originated in India, but came to us via the Arabs, and didn't reach Europe until the 14th century. BTW it is possible to add and subtract with Roman numerals, but I don't think multiplication and division are possible.

🐿 Fun fact: the UK postal service was set up by Henry VIII In 1516, when he knighted the very first Master of the Posts, Brian Tuke. Tuke's new status gave him the influence and authority to establish key post towns across the country and build out a formal postal network.

Multiplication is really just repeated addition, and division repeated subtraction, so yes it is possible...just not by using the conventional methods we use today.

Possible, because the Romans did it, must have done for the logistics of moving armies, supplying cities
but very cumbersome and time-consuming
The Romans had a version of an abacus, which would have speeded things up

With mechanical methods such as the abacus, one doesn’t necessarily require the theoretical concept of zero.

Robert Peston has tweeted that the authorities have found thousands more positive Covid tests down the back of one of their sofas 🤦🏻‍♀️

which may be why today's figures are going to be much later than usual .... like yesterday's were

and we don't know if track & trace were informed of this new lot or the old lot - except when they were found again.

We'd got used to test backlogs, but it's disconcerting if thousands of results keep getting lost in the system

The government / public health make their decisions based on the available data, which had been saying cases were levelling off,
but it is now clear are rising,

although not doubling as quickly - yet - as the Whitty / Vallance prediction of 21 September
... because Rule of 6 is working ?

Multiplication is really just repeated addition, and division repeated subtraction, so yes it is possible...

Not always - it can also be combining/ splitting into sets/subsets or so I was told when trying to learn how to teach maths. So two different concepts. Hence children talking about sharing for division.....

But from these digressions about what the Romans, Greeks, Arabs, whoever did for us, we have to conclude that Brexit will be fiiiine.

Using “sharing” for division can lead to conceptual problems later, particularly for the not so numerate. I see it very frequently. Many people’s problems with Maths are precisely because of these sort of misconceptions at an early stage.

However, despite the ambiguous nature of zero, or the usefulness of thinking of division as sharing, Brexit will be fineeee

for @AuldAlliance.

I can't see the restrictions going any way except tighter over this winter. Everywhere is up against the same logistical Covid nightmare (some starting from a better base than others).

If you don't need to be in Kent, swerving the Tunnel/ferries over there would just be wise. A ferry from Zeebrugge or even a flight/ferry via Ireland to Scotland might be a better option.

@AuldAlliance I shall keep my fingers crossed that you manage to travel to see your DF! We've had a difficult 2020, when DMiL passed away during lockdown and it was touch-and-go that DH even managed to see her in hospital for a few hours , and then my DF has been unwell in-and-out of hospital several times (on the other side of the world) with no way for me to get to see him .

I am really enjoying all the obscure 🐿, facts and discussion here (how awesome is "The Secret History of Writing"!) which, of course, must mean that all aspects of ToryBrexitannianNationalPlagueProject are fiiiiiiiine!

Nearly there - if the UK increased the Fishing Rights Transition Period to 5-7 Years the French may agree. Fingers crossed A Deal can be reached. I'm sure all here also prefer A Deal too.

Forgot link - it's from The Grauniad so should be an ok source for all:
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/03/johnson-and-von-der-leyen-extend-brexit-talks-by-a-month