I wonder if the packets were drawn to look like they're watching the people!

I think that depends on how you define 'civilisation'. My inclination is that most people would say civilisation has ended if life is drastically different to how they perceive their life/world they live in. Think 'civilisation as we know it' rather than a dictionary definition.

However, I disagree that it's not an existentisl threat, if only on the basis of possible crop failiures on a massive scale (reduced crop yields are a global issue already). Don't underestimate the impact of food shortages on everything else, we in the west have become accustomed to easy access to food.

The smell is enough for me in the morning!

I drink decaf and it still has the same effect for me.

I recorded a film off the tv channel Sy-Fy a few years backcalled AfterDeath (not the 2023 film that comes up in a search). It's possibly not that obscure, but I believe it was a low budget film so maybe not at all well known. Anyhow, it didn't record all the film for some reason so I have never seen the end (last 15min or so), but despite the clear lack of quality it had an interesting premise (a group of young people who wake up in a beach cabin but apparently in the middle of some quasi-nowhere). I was intrigued as to how the approach to playing out the scenario would end but maybe I enjoyed it more for not having been able to see the ending if it was z bad one!

A couple of posts back on my feed was about nasa sending a video of a cat via a laser beam. Can't help thinking they've been intergallactically rick-rolled!

Every once in a...

Jeff, leave it will you?!

Me too, dammit!

That's one contented puss-cat :) we have a mini Schnauzer called Winter :) he's no baby at 13, though still gets called puppy/puppa as he's small even for a mini, plus still young at heart!

They haven't transferred the money to anyone else. An ethical investment fund just selects businesses that meet certain criteria, e.g. no weapons manufacturers or tabacco companies. They haven't given a penny back to anyone, not even made a donation to e.g. a non-royal family charity or good cause, as far as I'm aware. They've just changed the source of funds for the renovations that this particular income was reported to being used for.

Don't worry, lead isn't that toxic. It takes a lot more exposure than the occasional handling to get heavy metal poisoning from it. But yes, odd to use lead as a weight (or put a weight in, perhaps it's a heat-sink?) it's fairly expensive. It could be a lead alloy which makes it more malleable, though a small peice of pure lead like that I'd expect to be easily bendable, but not compressable like clay.