The core info can be downloaded in GED format into a free genealogy program such as gramps. There will be some extra proprietary extensions but the basics will be there. Their selling point is that it indexes everyone's tree and it will offer hints when it spots overlap. Can be very time saving, but also misleading. Check everything against official BMD records if possible.
There is an even nicer word for dutch/german. slechtstschrijvende/schlechtstschreibende. Yes, 9 consonants in a row and you have to pronounce all of them like you are a beatboxer.
Yet I'm downvoted as usual the whole point of these shibboleths is that they're hard to pronounce but the LondonDerry/Derry example set forth is not hard to pronounce but based on cultural context anyone can call San Francisco "Frisco"
A second referendum would not solve anything. The original referendum should not have been called by PM Cameron. The core issue is one of national English identity. Scotland has its own Scottish nationalist party. Wales has its own nationalist party. Northern Ireland has two nationalist parties for good measure. But English nationalists have had to take cover in the 'broad church' of the Conservative and Unionist Party, to give it its full title. The trouble is that the English nationalists have always chafed under what they see as the heavy yoke of EU regulations. The 'one nation Tories' / Unionists consider keeping the UK together as an important ideal. The two factions have been fighting within the party for decades. It has now come to a head. PM Johnson is going for a break with the EU 'do or die'. Scotland and NI did not have a majority for leaving however.
It's a mess. It should not have happened. The UK is not Switzerland, it is a representative democracy, where Parliament is sovereign.
As an unintended consequence the UK could break up in the coming years.
Europe has long been the Conservative Party's kryptonite. I am almost surprised it took this long for the referendum to break them up, but you now have Ken Clarke kicked out of the Conservative party, along with people like Nicolas Soames, Churchill's grandson.
Ken Clarke has also been making statements that he would be willing to back Corbyn in a unity government.
We are in very strange political waters right now. But one thing that seems clear is that the Conservative and Unionist Party seems to be in rather deep existential trouble.
The original referendum in the 70s passed with 2/3rds vote, but they did not vote on what is today the modern EU. That occurred via feature creep. Your national identity and sovereignty should not be done in by feature creep.
The fact that the last referendum was so close should put increasing EU engagement at full stop to the feature creep. A big change should require a super majority vote to proceed, not a series of creeping measures over time.
It helps if you know how to leverage the legal system to get a good deal (and the personality which can negotiate a good deal). If you can exploit something which is scalable using new technology, that helps. And the IP and copyright laws are tilted against their stated aim - to benefit society. They almost always protect the IP owner to the detriment of society.
I would agree that some IP regulations go too far nowadays. Software patents are a mistake and copyright terms too long, but the basic idea of protecting and encouraging creators and innovators is a good one. Society benefits when creation and innovation is protected and supported.
Anyway, beyond software patents and copyright terms do you content that IP protections in general are a mistake? How do you see an alternative system working?
I'm reading 'The Demon Haunted World' at the moment - "Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don’t practise these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, a world of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who saunters along." From 1997. Very prescient. We've a mountain of suckers... a Suckerberg.
They even stockpiled paper themselves to survive the potential disruption and keep on printing:
> Disclosure: The Economist is stockpiling around 30 tonnes of the paper on which the covers of our British edition are printed, which comes from the Netherlands.
It's impossible to make a factual statement on BREXIT without drawing flak. (I'm actually in favour of it for long term reasons) But the car industry and fresh food supply chains will be affected in the short term. How can they not? It'll be a good test of the article's thesis.
Does anyone else experience a "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG" emotion when watching someone doing an action with different handedness from the way you would do it? I get very uncomfortable watching someone cut a loaf of bread the 'wrong' way for example.
Not at all but that might be related to the fact that I'm left-handed and as such have learnt to do many things in both left- and right-handed fashion simply because many tools are made for right-handed use, this goes from simple things like scissors to chain saws and rifles. Learning to use them in either fashion makes takes away the idea of 'doing it wrong'. It also makes me more flexible in that I have no problems swapping sides when the circumstances call for it.
When going to the UK I find it easy to orient myself to look in both directions when I cross traffic as I usually do that. Even driving a car as I am highly aware that it is different but I am at least still in control.
But the first taxi ride from the airport when we hit the first roundabout freaks me out every single time!
Have you tried using a mouse (in right) and a graphics tablet (in left) at the same time? It can be very productive. Large sweeping movements with the mouse and fine detail with the left. Plus it impresses righties.
Also - I would so like this site for brownies :-)