Stutopia

There's always two groups of people at work in the modern conspiracy machine. Those who can make packet out of dreaming up the latest one, flogging tee shirts, bumper stickers, YouTube videos and generally being the "leader". Then there's those that just want to be part of something, ANYTHING, to have a social group to feel belonging with and are happy to pay to do so. Flat earth was a big cash cow for some, this one might go that way. A quick google of "conspiracy theories which came true" reveals a multitude of clickbait, aggregating sites and if you do find some meaningful content its always part of some obscure theory you'd never heard of that some obscure part of the obscure theory turned out to be true. I could literally dream up a new one each day, and it some future point look back and, with a dash of confirmation bias, make something fit. There's nothing WRONG with people wanting to belong to something and someone creating that something, hell, we like to belong to a car club, which is itself and fairly strange concept - but seemingly much less so, because the thing is a physical thing. Where it goes wrong is when the followers get milked for cash and/or exposed to dangerous falsehoods that threaten them or others. We've already seen phone masts, serving hospitals getting set on fire. We've seen people who believe eating vegetables cures cancer die for that belief, worse still people have died following their 'guidance'. There are literally dozens of "Churches" across the US (and beyond) that exploit this model to draw millions of dollars from people who just want to be part of something. Corona virus proaction oil is a homegrown recent effort. Big Don himself plugs a malaria drug which is yet to be proven to do anything, maybe it will, but before that happens an old man is already dead and his wife became ill because of these lies.

In a sane and honest world, there would be no payout on any cover that explicitly calls out Pandemic as being out of scope. If it doesn’t explicitly exclude it, then write the ****ing cheques. Obviously we don’t live in a sane and honest world, so the second group of people above will be desperately being shovelled into group one; on the basis that if Insurers make life hard for many people they will either give in immediately or get bored by a lot drawn out process, potentially with expensive legal bills. This might cut the bill by many millions, so is totally worth it. Despite being dishonest. Big outfits won’t be scared off by this tactic, if they have the resources to fight, but loads of little businesses will simply walk away.

The size and flexibility of your equipment is very impressive, very jealous.

What happens in a casino, if they accept a bet which has the potential to wipe them out, and they lose? Do they get a state bailout? Does the gambler get stiffed? Does it go under because it accepted risks which it could not service?

I almost wish my car was sometimes this dirty, just for a big job like this. Nice one mate, looks mint. Never thought to use the wheel brush in the bay - good thinking.

Chris your photography skills have gone fully professional recently; everything is in focus, no digits. Another string to your bow - niiiiiice.

Is that for Golf?

how's the NVH v OEM?

It’s a real treat and only an outside detailer knows the true value of indoor work areas.

Hey! It’s not all plain sailing with fancy toys. Just imagine how long it’d take you to do a Z bonnet with just 3 inches AND those big metal arms on the hoist, really get in the way when you’re doing the doors!

Not build shizzle, but, due to circumstances, I had a day on my hands and, very rarely indeed for me, an indoor workspace to make use of - so what else is there to do but detail... Had a little go on my new polisher not long ago (dealing with a biggish scratch) but this was the first proper run out for the Rupes LHR75E Mini Bigfoot. All day I used almost exclusively yellow pads and yellow polish (fine), though I did have a quick blast with the blue (coarse) which just splattered polish everywhere (there's a possibility that was my fault, not the system's). The little machine is perfect for the panels on the BRZ and my weak desk workers arms. The car is all small areas and mid-panel creases - it' is too small when it comes to the bonnet, but that just means more sections. For me Clive, the advantages in the tight bits more than outweigh the disadvantages in the open stretches. Although circumstances presented me with the opportunity, she has been due a polish for some time. Work parking means I occasionally touch shrubbery and have people rubbing up against the paint, so it does get marked, also I like to wash her and that too leaves its impressions on the paint. This sort of thing is the problem. This last one on the bonnet is particularly hideous, it's like something coarse has been dragged over it. The spot shows the swirls but the tube reflection shows how it kills the vibrance of the paint. Yuk. Classic 50/50, left before right after (easier to see on the vid below). Also a bit of whopper here, something or someone has come very close to my bumper and put a few marks on the rear offside quarter - they mainly came out but you can see on the right it's still not perfect. P.S. If you're thinking of doing any detailing work during the lockdown, get a hoist, it's really useful, saves your back, makes inspection easier and improves productivity no end. I could spend a whole week doing cleaning jobs all around and underneath, with access to this work space. Couple of glamour shots when I rolled her out. Excuse the dirty wheels, this session was all about the paint, no other areas worked on. After the polish, gave her a quick once over with AMMO Reflex https://youtu.be/20zcTp_dTL8 She looks ok for 75k miles and 7 years use, if I do say so myself. You've read the text, now watch the (short) movie.

Glad I got that cleared up, really pleased myself.

Not sure about that reflexive pronoun (GLA @ATTAK Z can you rule please?) but in the spirit of getting along, myself and the lads are doing Century Club on Skype on Saturday. Expect chunder.

Why don’t the Civil Service, BBC and the other staff mentioned pay PAYE as employees, not to mention employers for the organisations? The mentality that if it’s bad for me, I want it to bad for others too, is totally beyond me. You don’t get more, if they get less. You may as well hope for it to rain next door to make it sunnier in your back garden More broadly speaking, let’s face it, the problem of people not having enough money has been around way before COVID-19, and perfected by the ideological (not economic) austerity of the last 10 years, which has demonstrably grown the national debt, despite promising to clear it. Sadly there was no magic money tree then. The aid they’re dishing out now is nothing to do with helping people who need it, if it was there wouldn’t have been any poverty or food banks in the UK for decades. This about discovering the magic money, when it suits your voters. It wasn’t that long ago the big plan was just to let everyone get infected and see who dies - they’ve not developed a selfless new desire to “do the right thing” overnight.

Get a grip you two. Tidied.

Mint. Love these.

Day 12 of WFH, Arnold Schwarzenegger workout is still not yielding visual results but is getting easier. Lewis Hamilton Challenge on GT is going better, improved my lines by following him around a lot and starting to take some time out of him now - just the 2 seconds a lap down on him at Interlagos. Please note, I was 0.14 seconds ahead part way through turn 1.

They look way better, now they are spick n span, have you put anything on to protect them from UV?

Seems like some areas have been battered by the panic buying, the worst I've seen on the Fylde coasts was there was no bread or milk on one trip, but that's stopped no (although there's obviously no hand sanitiser anywhere). I braved it yesterday and the only thing I couldn't get was chicken and halloumi, hardly a brave story of survival against all the odds! I hope it stays that way, now people have filled their cold storage.

Maybe you are right to b this way and I am too cynical. Regarding the root cause, I think China will do something about that just for the sake of their own economy in future, let alone the international pressure. I think SARS was also live animal contact wasn't it, not sure if it was jut farming on another market. Who needs their food THAT FRESH???

Working from home, IT project manager. I usually do a day a week from home, so it's not a massive departure, but I have started to miss the day to day office chat after 9 days. I realise that's a first world problem right now when so many have no income, but even if I wasn't still working, I'd still miss the interaction. My 'work flat' has just me in it, 3 floors up, so it's "easy" to isolate away from the world, which is a blessing. Think I might have an e-drinking session this weekend with the lads lads lads to mix it up. @andybp given the other nasties you must usually be exposed to, I guess this probably isn't such a big deal when you're fully suited up?

Has the pandemic been revealing? Who didn't know already people are selfish? Who thinks panic buying was invented by the pandemic - we've seen it in the past due to a few days of SNOW - that's just an excess of really cold drinking water. If anything has been revealed by this, it's the lack of preparation by the people who are responsible for contingency planing on a national and international level. I'd love to live where the public can be trusted to individually make risk judgements on leaving the house, but we proved last week, it does't exist. I'd love to live where people stop panic buying, because they realise it means someone else can't get some pasta, but we proved last week, it doesn't exist. Last night loads of people went out into the streets to salute the incredible work of the NHS, yet a few months ago they voted to slit its throat and let it die, so it can be privatised, all to save a few quid a year in taxes - a FEW POUNDS each. The pandemic hasn't taught us that adults behave like cornered animals when they are jarred out of their normal existence, only the terminally naive didn't know that. It's taught us that if there isn't preparation for this type of event in future, proper national preparation that costs tax money (gloves & masks & sanitiser, not bog roll) then we're likely to sleepwalk into the same again in future. It's only going to get worse as population density increases and we're too cheap to provision for it.

Because getting in your car is so much higher risk than just walking around I guess we had our chance to be sensible and people blew it.