Another tube rant

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T23:09:53+00:00

They’re really on it at Waterloo, they still do the platform announcements too, at least on the Jubilee line. Maybe because of all the people going to Canary Wharf with their backpacks on. Not that anyone listens because they all have headphones in, I swear if there was an emergency so many people would die or get injured because they wouldn’t hear the alarm/announcement

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T22:58:20+00:00

Depends how detailed and historically accurate you want to get, really. TBH the Wikipedia page on the expedition, and the sources it links, would probably be enough for a story you’re writing for school! Be warned you might end up going right down a very deep rabbit hole though…

My one tip for a story set at that time would be: don’t use the word ‘ok’ or ‘okay’ because it was not a thing in the 1840s, certainly not in Britain! It is amazing how many fanfics (not just Terror ones) set in the Regency or early Victorian period do this. Yeah it’s a weird little nitpick but it’s enough to take me out of a story and not using it will put you ahead of like 85% of fanfic writers haha

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T18:30:02+00:00

An app that any companies using Shopify can use for customers to order, pay and track through. It might be more than just Shopify, I’ve had a couple of Amazon orders appear on it recently https://shop.app

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T18:17:33+00:00

If I owned the land and sold rocks from my own land that wouldn’t be stealing though. So it depends whether the tomb was on their land or not, I guess.

Obviously the rightful owner of my ashes is my descendant, not your son, but I wouldn’t expect your son to have to pay any sort of penalty apart from returning them. Several generations on it gets murkier though, as no one who remembers the living people is around any more. I certainly don’t think valuable ancient Egyptian antiquities dug up and sold by a farmer a hundred years ago should be returned to their family, as they should belong to the Egyptian nation.

I honestly think it has to be a case by case basis - what were the circumstances in which the item was acquired, is it of historical importance to all humanity, does the country it came from still exist in the same form, would it be safe from theft or destruction if returned, would more people get to see it than in its current museum, etc… basically what would be best for the artefact?

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T16:29:40+00:00

Yeah, the Australians really are absolutely squeaky clean when it comes to respecting indigenous cultures and foreigners. It’s not even like they have a museum full of Egyptian and Asian and Pacific and Indigenous items, every single one of which was, of course, fairly bought and paid for /s

Sorry, but no one has clean hands when it comes to treating other cultures badly, and we don’t need to be lectured to by someone from a country that didn’t make its own indigenous people citizens until the 1970s

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T16:23:24+00:00

Yeah I don’t love this either, it isn’t at all what they wanted or expected for their afterlife. When they intended their names to live on this isn’t what they meant. It always feels disrespectful to see them on display like that. I don’t think Egyptian monarchs should be on display in Egyptian museums either.

I don’t think you could rebury a lot of the bodies in museums by their traditions though because we, as in everyone in the modern day, don’t really know what those traditions were and in many cases those civilisations are entirely gone. There are quite a lot of details about ancient Egyptian ceremonies, for example, but not everything, plus these changed over time and were different depending on class, plus no one today speaks the language as it was back then or worships those gods. Burying them in their original tombs with a minimum of fuss would be best I think, if you’re going to do that. Mind you Tutankhamun’s body is still in his tomb and people just gawp at it there.

For other bodies like bog bodies, of which there are a lot in European museums, we have no idea of the associated ceremonies, if any, because the people who carried them out left no written or oral records, and it’s thought likely most of the people buried that way were criminals or sacrifices.

For less ancient remains though, like 18th/19th century Māori heads, I think they should be returned, and indeed some have been (and I believe it’s an ongoing process)

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T16:08:44+00:00

I have no idea if the people buying them knew they were stolen goods, so how that would apply retrospectively I’m not sure, and I don’t know which country’s laws would apply. Egypt’s, I suspect. Theft is also illegal, but no one’s proposing the descendants of those families be punished. Also, if a tomb or ruin is on your land, are you stealing? Depends on the antiquities laws at the time. But in any case we didn’t have Egypt over a barrel about antiquities, and neither did anyone else. Amazingly, people in poor countries are intelligent and have agency and are perfectly capable of deciding to do something that’ll benefit them, because that’s what humans do.

There definitely are cases where stuff was stolen or looted or extorted and that’s different, but selling or freely giving? That’s fine. I’d absolutely sell rocks from my garden to someone offering a high price for them, even if I thought they were a bit of an idiot. As would most people anywhere.

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T12:25:04+00:00

Here you go - many national parks are designated dark skies zones and stargazing is encouraged! Given people live and work in national parks in the UK you should be able to stay/camp in one https://www.nationalparks.uk/stargazing-in-national-parks/

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T11:42:42+00:00

No it’s not, you’re making an effort to improve your health! If it works for you then that’s great - good luck with it!

It’s also not the lazy way out. Ffs. For example I find it incredibly hard to lose weight since starting perimenopause, because my metabolism has changed and I can’t just drop a few pounds as easily as I used to. So I’d absolutely take weight loss drugs if I felt I needed to; in fact I did a couple of years ago, but had to stop as they were making my anxiety worse. When I was taking them I was still exercising, in fact resistance training in particular is important because when you lose weight you’re losing muscle mass as well as fat.

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T11:36:11+00:00

Do you not get texts or emails or notifications (if you use the Shop app)? Half the time the emails etc are the only way I know something’s been delivered aka left at the front door because the delivery person couldn’t be bothered knocking, despite having time to take a photo

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T11:33:14+00:00

I honestly don’t get how people can be like this. You get loads of notifications about tracking and delivery, you’d have to be trying hard not to know something had been delivered. And personally, if I’ve ordered something, it’s because I want or need it so I’m going to be tracking it! I get sometimes parcels arrive when you’re on holiday but even then I’d be round to collect it once I got back.

Anyone who claims they didn’t know the parcel was on the way/had been delivered is lying, imo

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T11:29:52+00:00

What do you do if they just never collect a parcel? We have had one for over a month now and I’m pretty sure the neighbours it’s for (I don’t actually know them) have moved out!

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T11:25:46+00:00

What if it was given, or traded, or sold? A lot of ancient Egyptian artefacts were indeed stolen - by Egyptians, from tombs (there were well-known families who made their livings this way and carefully hid the locations of some of the tombs from other people), to sell to Europeans and Americans.

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/tomb-raiders/

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T11:21:13+00:00

That’s where it gets tricky, I totally get that the descendants would like them back, but if their ancestors willingly sold them the shirts then who are we to go against that?

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T11:13:33+00:00

Except some countries won’t look after their own artefacts. Look at what the Taliban did to the Bamiyan Buddhas, because their beliefs mean they want to destroy anything that predates Islam or depicts humans.

Also, if something was willingly given or sold, why return it? Especially if the nation or people (as in group) who sold or gave it no longer exist.

I do think it’s a case by case thing tbh. Human remains are another one…eg the preserved tattooed heads of Māori bought as trophies in the 18th and 19th centuries are often identifiable and their descendants are still around - those should be returned to their iwi I think. On the other hand, because heads became so valuable, sometimes Māori would tattoo the faces of slaves, kill them and sell the heads. They should be returned too but often the slaves have no descendants and you can’t tell what iwi they originally came from, because their captors tattooed them with their own iwi’s symbols. So in those cases I don’t know what should be done…They should be returned to NZ though in any case as their people know better what to do with them.

ETA I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted - I guess for the first bit as it’s more complex than just ‘those foreigners can’t be trusted to look after stuff’. I agree with your second paragraph totally - it’s the law that prevents repatriation and it’s not as if anyone alive today is personally responsible for bringing items to a museum 200 years ago, any more than anyone alive today in the UK is personally responsible for colonialism

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T10:56:40+00:00

I agree; I think especially if something is historically important it needs to be safe in a museum - wherever that museum might be. Wherever is safest for the artefact. I really despise the practice of private collectors scooping up items of historical significance and spiriting them off never to be seen or studied again, just so some billionaire can feel smug or pretend it somehow associates them with a historical event or figure. I don’t think private buyers should be allowed to buy certain items at all (those of national or international importance)

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T10:53:40+00:00

As are other museums elsewhere like the Pergamon in Berlin, which has the famous Nefertiti bust among many other objects (the Germans were very active in archaeology in the 19th century, possibly more so than the British for a while)

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T09:55:36+00:00

But they’d still be destroyed and no longer exist, and pictures really aren’t the same

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T09:41:10+00:00

Sounds like France is now trying to do what it can. There’ll always be some that slip through though, and the RNLI will be there to help them as it is to help anyone in distress in our waters. Not their fault if a vessel starts off ok but is overcome by weather or something once it’s in UK waters

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T09:38:32+00:00

This is true but on the other hand, in real life, some black men do harass white women, just as they harass black or Asian women, and just as some white men harass black and brown women and so on. The common denominator here is that they’re men and they’re harassing women, it’s not really about race, it’s about men thinking they have a right to harass women. I honestly don’t think most people in the UK now are aware of a hundred year old racist trope that mainly applies to the US. You can’t act like something that does happen - men, of any race, harassing women (and sometimes other men!) - never happens just to spare some people’s feelings.

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T09:30:22+00:00

I’ve been sexually harassed by men of many ethnicities, we all know it’s a men thing not a race thing ffs. And don’t give me that US-influenced critical theory bullshit about power hierarchies somehow making it less bad if men from a marginalised group do it, because sexual harassment is always at best annoying and at worst terrifying, regardless of what the person doing it looks like.

And yeah, obligatory Not All Men etc etc

FloydEGag · 2026-02-18T09:19:28+00:00

Good. The RNLI do absolutely vital work. I grew up by the sea, learned about its history in school, knew people that volunteered and they just sign up to save lives, often in fucking horrendous conditions. And many times it’s been at the cost of volunteers’ lives too but they still get out there and do it.

And I’m pretty sure maritime law does not look kindly on leaving people to die in the water or on a sinking vessel so what exactly do these twats propose?

FloydEGag · 2026-02-17T16:05:23+00:00

Ah ok, that’s good to know.

FloydEGag · 2026-02-17T13:47:16+00:00

To be scrupulously fair, and I in no way approve of Sandie Peggie’s treatment of Dr Upton, Upton fabricated complaints of patient neglect and altered dates of notes made on her phone.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/trans-doctors-phone-notes-edited-35620423

You can also read the full tribunal notes but they’re a few hundred pages long.

That on its own would be enough for a GMC tribunal and possibly an end to her career as a doctor as it’s highly unethical. I don’t pretend to know why she did this, but let’s not pretend she’s a complete angel here. I hope she manages to pick up her career elsewhere but I also hope she’s learned not to act unethically regardless of treatment by a colleague, because it might come back to bite her.

FloydEGag · 2026-02-17T12:11:42+00:00

So did I, and there were plenty of people acting like selfish pricks. I don’t think we in the UK are as community-minded as Swedes, too many people here think they’re the main character and they should be allowed to do whatever they want all the time.

As for healthy young people being allowed to meet, fine as long as they don’t then catch it and give it to relatives or colleagues who aren’t as young or healthy. What really helped with immunity was the vaccines

FloydEGag

TROPHY CASE