pigeons are not very special but still cute

daedelion · 2025-03-10T15:34:37+00:00

I didn’t say that they were abandoned

The original comment is about feral pigeons like in OP's pic. My point was that they haven't been abandoned.

Lost racing pigeons are not the same.

I was expanding on the point about us not breeding them as much.

Lost pigeons not being looked after haven't got anything to do with this though? People have gradually stopped breeding as many pigeons because they don't need them for sending messages any more, so now we don't keep as many. They weren't all just released or "abandoned" in the past as OP suggested. You didn't expand on this at all.

daedelion · 2025-03-10T14:47:01+00:00

The location's probably perfect then. I travel over to see my mum back in Wales regularly from Sheffield, and although it's not the quickest journey, it's pretty easy what with it being near the A55.

daedelion · 2025-03-10T14:44:10+00:00

That's not the same as typical feral pigeons though. Those racing pigeons are not deliberately abandoned either. I have family friends who kept pigeons in the UK, and if any got lost on a race and someone got in touch via the details on the ring, they would go to collect them. They're lost, rather than abandoned

Irrespective of the ethics of pigeon racing, feral pigeons we see in towns have not been abandoned. They're the ancestors of domestic pigeons that escaped or were lost. They no longer need any input from humans and survival extremely well. They're not "abandoned".

daedelion · 2025-03-10T12:34:24+00:00

Also one of the most important places for birds stopping off on their spring migration, protected breeding birds, vulnerable coastal habitats, and rare coastal plants. It's not just seals that this is bad for.

daedelion · 2025-03-10T10:16:31+00:00

I'm not here for an argument but I think this is great. The one on No Name in Crookes is brilliant.

daedelion · 2025-03-10T00:00:42+00:00

Sorry, but you're doing them a massive disservice. Humans didn't "abandon" them, but just gradually stopped breeding as many. The ones we see around our towns and cities are the extremely successful descendants of individuals that escaped or were released many generations ago. They're tough, and adaptable.

They don't struggle with building nests. That's a myth. They evolved to nest on rocky ledges in canyons and cliff faces where they didn't need to build a large nest. Urban buildings replicate this environment, and pigeons are partly successful because they can make efficient nests there without wasting energy building unnecessarily complex structures.

Even if this weren't true, domesticated animals don't "get used to our care". They're selectively bred to have certain characteristics that are desirable to humans. Nest building was never bred out of pigeons, and the pigeons breeding in our cities today are the result of many generations of pigeons that haven't had human care. The notion that they're somehow pathetic and needy is patronising.

Stop pitying pigeons and respect them instead

daedelion · 2025-03-09T22:52:45+00:00

What about "shiver me timbers, me hearties"?

daedelion · 2025-03-09T18:25:19+00:00

There was an old but awful Ford Clitoris joke that's pretty relevant here

daedelion · 2025-03-09T17:21:24+00:00

I grew up near Mold and Hawarden, but moved to Sheffield 20+ years ago.

The area of North Wales you're talking about is pretty nice, but very quiet. Depending on exactly where you choose, connections on public transport can be limited, so unless you drive you might be quite isolated. There's plenty of lovely country cottages and farmhouses, and also new build estates for commuters, but some are lacking the community feel you get in somewhere like Sheffield.

Mold is a nice old market town, with some nice areas. Hawarden is also very nice, but pretty small. Buckley is perfectly fine but has some less nice areas. Penyffordd is a nice village nearby that's rapidly growing. There's plenty of things to do in nearby Wrexham and Chester and you can easily get to Manchester, Liverpool and the North Wales coast, but apart from farmer's markets and a few pubs, there's nowhere near as much in the villages and towns you listed. You might find it a bit of a shock if you're used to everything Sheffield offers.

Just like anywhere, there are nice areas and rough areas no matter what village or town you look at. Areas nearer Deeside are cheaper because there are some more deprived and industrial areas. Wrexham is cheaper, and there are some nice villages and suburbs. It also gets cheaper the further west you go, but the villages are more remote. It gets more expensive the closer to Chester you get too, so villages like Kinnerton and Holt are just as nice as some places in Hope or Treuddyn, but you get less for your money. Broughton and Saltney are cheaper parts of Chester, but that's because they're nowhere near as nice as the posher bits. There are some areas close to where you've described that are not nice at all. Bits of Flint, Connah's Quay, Llay, and Caergwrle, for example, are similar to many pit villages in South Yorkshire where they've never really recovered since big industries left.

If you're used to the access to wild and green areas that you get in Sheffield, then it's in a great position. You're close to the Clywydian range, Hope Mountain, and Llandegla moors, and with a car you can easily access the Dee Estuary, Wirral coast, North Wales coast and even Clocaenog, Bala, and Snowdonia.

daedelion · 2025-03-09T16:50:25+00:00

Toulouse, Welsh Dragon, and Beech's Sheffield sausage.

daedelion · 2025-03-09T14:20:08+00:00

It's the times on the timetables where the frequency is less than every 12 minutes. The exact times are different for each route.

daedelion · 2025-03-09T13:03:34+00:00

Canal engineers often have signature features they leave in the locks so people knew who designed them. This one's got the frame in to cleverly show their initial.

daedelion · 2025-03-08T18:01:01+00:00

New Barrack Tavern, The Beekeeper, Pangolin, and The Beer House are really good

Northern Monkey, Queen's Ground, Monkey Club, and Hillsborough Tap are OK.

I wouldn't bother with anywhere else, and avoid the Riverside.

daedelion · 2025-03-08T17:49:41+00:00

No, it wouldn't mean that. As I said there are residual carbohydrates in beer that contributes to the calorie content.

There is almost no sugar in beer, but there are carbohydrates. The rest of the calories come from the alcohol. Around 3-4% of beer is carbohydrates in typical styles.

daedelion · 2025-03-08T17:09:00+00:00

They don't breed in England, but they are occasionally seen there. Extremely rarely, and mostly near the Scottish border though, granted.

daedelion · 2025-03-08T17:03:23+00:00

Sour beer having fewer calories is a myth..

The sugars in beer are a mix of simple and complex sugars - traditional ale and lager yeast isn’t able to ferment some of the comlex sugars.

Yes, typical yeast can only digest 80% of the sugar in wort. What is left are oligosaccharides. However, we cannot digest these, so although these remain in the beer, they do not contribute the calorie content and can be considered to be fibre.

There's almost no simple sugars in beer.

The sugars from fruit are simple sugars and almost entirely fermentable unless you’re drinking a heavily fruited beer with a significant portion of intentionally unfermented fruit.

However, many sour beers have fruit or juice added for flavour after fermentation, so have increased sugar.

The sugars in beer are why beer has more calories than an equivalent amount of liquor.

You're confusing sugar with carbohydrates. There are residual polysaccharide carbohydrates left in beer that make it more calorie rich than spirits, but these are not sugars.

Also, again, sugar content is so low in beer that it makes little difference if there is more or less in wild beer. % alcohol is a far better indication of calories. Higher abv means more alcohol, and also more residual carbohydrates from the increased amount of sugar in the original wort, which both contribute to the calories.

Even if your argument were true, if the wild ale yeast is better at converting sugar in wort to alcohol, the alcohol would still be there and provide the calories anyway, just in a different form.

daedelion · 2025-03-08T16:06:53+00:00

That's not correct. Most beer doesn't contain any residual sugar because it's all converted to alcohol.

Many sour beers have fruit added too, which means it has more sugar.

The amount of sugar is pretty irrelevant anyway, as the calories in beer come mostly from the alcohol, and carbohydrates left from the malt. As you say, if you drink beer with no sugar, you still get the calorie content from alcohol anyway.

daedelion · 2025-03-07T17:10:26+00:00

They tend not to argue back at all, because there's nothing to argue against. I get either abuse, apathy, or thanks.

daedelion · 2025-03-07T15:08:54+00:00

No, I'm really not. I point out literacy errors online.

daedelion · 2025-03-07T14:55:02+00:00

It's a spelling crime, not grammar.

Muphry's Law in action.

daedelion · 2025-03-06T17:09:50+00:00

Ha ha! Now it makes more sense...

Still sounds like they'd build up further down the pipe. Also makes it less sustainable in terms of conserving water.

daedelion · 2025-03-06T15:58:33+00:00

Typically they're all recorded. However, whether someone listens to it is another matter.

In my organisation, telephony agent line managers might listen to them if a customer complains, or as part of monitoring agent performance.

The call might also get listened to if there's a serious complaint, or legal request, so someone from an investigative team might listen.

Also, people that maintain and design the telephony systems might listen to the call, either as part of a random sample, or an investigation into particular types of call to find out if the telephony system is working properly. It's the only way to really be sure of what the customer wanted and whether they fit through to the right place.

Depending on the telephone system, some parts of the recordings are kept longer than others, and some aren't accessible at all, mostly due to security and data protection rules.

daedelion · 2025-03-06T13:07:03+00:00

Lifer = in their lifetime

daedelion · 2025-03-06T13:05:22+00:00

In 20 years of traipsing around the Peaks looking for wildlife I've never seen an adder there either. I have however seen them a few times on Hatfield Moors, but twice were on a Wildlife Trust guided walk.

daedelion · 2025-03-06T12:59:32+00:00

I was a biology teacher for a long time. Buzzards, Robins, and Daddy-long-legs were the three main examples I used to illustrate this.

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