+1 for Ventoy. For anyone who hasn’t heard of it, the Ventoy utility sets up a USB key with a small bootable partition, then fills the rest with an exFAT partition where you can drop your ISOs. Booting from the stick just gives you a list of bootable images to choose from.

I remember it was once described as “a show about smart people for stupid people”. Arrested Development being it’s antithesis in that regard, I guess.

Cheese - particularly sharp cheeses - can work so well with sweet deserts. In my part of the world it’s tradition to serve Christmas cake - thick, dense, sweet and well-fed - with a slither of Stilton or Wensleydale. So many people turn their nose up at it but it’s such an amazing combination.

Beat meat to it

How weird is it that I was just thinking about this particular Penny Arcade comic:

In the notes:

In case you are wondering, cats apparently need regular maintenance, like cars. And, like an oil change, this juicing process can be done (I’m told) at home, preferably with the curtains drawn and a couple inches of sawdust laid down. That’s right: you can wring out your own cat’s asshole. This is the kind of helpful information you can expect when you visit Penny Arcade. Don’t everybody run home at once.

I make sure my keys are clipped to my belt securely. Wouldn’t want them to fall off as I squeeeeeeeeeeze past, would I?

I don’t think this is true

Actually, I think the links you provide back my points up pretty well. In fact, the Wikipedia articles you linked mentions that the Sovereign Grant is “15% to 25%” of the profits of the Royal Estate, not 25% to 35% as I thought. That’s means the Government keeps 75% to 85% of their income, which is the “effective tax rate of at least 60%” I was talking about.

they own private residences… self sustaining not for profit…

Aristocrats gonna aristocrat. There isn’t a stately home in the country that doesn’t generate income from just existing. The National Trust owns a lot of them and is a charity that is broadly laudable, but most of the rest don’t burden themselves with the notion of being “non-profit”.

since 1993 the Monarch’s personal income has been taxable as for any other taxpayer

And as you mentioned, the rest of their income is taxed as if they were normal humans rather than aristocrats. It may be on a “voluntary” and incredibly malleable basis, but that’s probably because they know they’d get crucified if they didn’t and, regardless, the income from non-Crown Estate concerns is basically negligible.

I feel the same as I do about all the other landed gentry who were also in there.

I’m from the UK and I’m a Monarchist in so much as I want to keep the Royal Family. I certainly don’t like the idea of Kings and Queens broadly speaking and “respect” is a strong word, but here in the UK we’ve got a lot of institutions that have vile histories but wouldn’t serve to benefit anyone if we were to scrap them today.

The Mountbatten-Windsor family also happen to be the Royal Family. These days they’re basically powerless and have less influence and sway than pundits on GB News, the Murdoch media and Facebook, who also aren’t elected. But they’re still an aristocratic family, which means they have access to extraordinary wealth and control of a vast business empire… except they don’t. All their estates, land, businesses, interests, etc are held in reserve as the Crown Estate which is operated on their behalf by a Government-appointed manager. The income from the Crown Estate goes straight to the Government and the Government pays the Royal Family a salary - the Sovereign Grant - which is typically between 25% and 35% of the Crown Estate’s profits. So for all those people who say “ThEy’Re TaX dOdGiNg PaRaSiTeS”: they pay an effective tax rate of at least 60%, which is about 60% more than anyone else with that income. Anyone who moans about the couple of quid a year the Royal Family “costs” them must be ecstatic beyond words to learn about the few extra quid they actually make in profit.

Having a Royal Family is amazing for tourism. Yes, the French have palaces too, but they attract nothing like the numbers as the actual real, functioning palaces and castles actually used by a real, breathing monarchs. The Palace of Versailles makes Buckingham Palace look like a shanty but can you guess which one nets more visitors? Windsor Castle, same deal. Moreover, they’re an amazing soft political power. What would your response be if you found out the Prime Minister of the UK was visiting your country? For most people it’d probably be “oh, who is it this week?”. But what about a visit from the Actual King of England? There would be grand receptions, concerts, speeches, unveilings, all because the Actual King of Actual England is coming. Add demagogues like Trump to the equation and the Royal’s value is amplified further.

Then there’s the scrutiny. We all know the Andrew Formally Known As Prince being a nasty little pervert and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s far more to it. And yet, no-one talks about the Dysons, or the Cavendish-es, or the Rothschilds, or the Montagus, and so on, all of whom are richer and more powerful than the Mountbatten-Windsors and far, far, far more sinister and vile, but they’re not the Royal Family so they’re unknowns. They make the Royals look like cherubs, but they’re well-connected enough to avoid scrutiny and smart enough to remain basically anonymous. Personally, if I was the King I’d tell the UK to fuck off. I’d make the UK a Republic, take my estates and wealth and power back, thankyou very much, and tell everyone to go suck their Mum’s dicks. I don’t know why or how they continue being the Royal Family, but if we “got rid” of them tomorrow we’d lose a tremendous political power and gain yet another unaccountable group of unjustifiably powerful aristocrats.

I’m going to go with the original brick joke.

Eyyyy there are dozens of us! I used to manage IT for a school trust - about 2000 endpoints - and I actually pushed it out to every single one of them. They’re more pleasing to my eye, they scale perfectly and are easier to track. I got compliments from art teachers and SEND workers which is about as high a praise as you can imagine.

I’ve got one! It’s shit. For anything more viscous than, say, hot chocolate it’s just vibrates in place.

Poop tourism.

The climate is colder in North America

Compared to where, exactly? Mogadishu? Hammerfest? Because North America can be hotter and colder than both of those. Also not sure how it affects pooping.

Star Twerks

There’s also the fact they started showing adverts on the screen when it wasn’t in use, and the adverts were usually for sex phone services - often showing nudity and with a quick-access button for the premium rate number, no less - right there in your hallway where everyone saw it.

Other versions from BoJack Horseman:

“Fool me once, shame on you, but teach a man to fool me, and I’ll be fooled for the rest of my life.”

“Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, fiddle-le-dee.”

“Fool me once. Fool me twice. Fool me chicken soup and rice.”

Generally build quality and repairability. Any IT department will favour devices that can have common failure points (battery, SSD, screen) replaced with a single screwdriver, and with that comes the need for stronger chassis and modular designs because you can’t rely on glueing everything in. Also, with the exception of Apple fanbois, IT techs are quick to condemn manufacturers who let pro grade kit standards slip, which could mean a few years of lost sales.

Not too sure about it being a favourite, but there was this absolute fever dream of a cartoon called Fat Dog Mendoza that only aired occasionally at like 2am on Cartoon Network UK, usually after the Adult Swim block.

Oh, also, Ned’s Newt. Loved that show.

Oh, also, also, I fucking hated The Cramp Twins.