Yawn explained.... the tedium of daily media panics - not you for exposing them. I thought Schro..dinger - put the dots where you like, I thought he was a character in Peanuts Cartoon? But with a cat? Surely not in Garfield? Am swimming out of my depth here... ah, the U bends of My Life.... even larger yawn. I await snow, the fall of the Kingdom - and just now a warm jam doughnut would be really nice.

That's all very well, Marcus, but you didn't have petrol back in your day. 

Our new UK motto is: "Keep calm and carry on panicking."

I'd have two jammy doughnuts if I were you.

Priscilla,
There's much I don't know of Schrödinger and his cat - in fact nothing. But one of the heroes of my youth was Schröder of the Peanuts. 
When my parents discovered this they - very sensibly - put a moratorium on my thoughts of having a piano ...
What I  hope soon to see fall, is my temperature as I have been more or less bedridden this week. Boring, not even a good port tasted good.

Edit because of crossed posts with Temperance, my excuses.

Ah, yes, Per, the pianner one of Peanuts - thanks for clarification... claret would have been even better.
Sorry to hear of symptoms - hope it is not the dreaded one. I cooked up a really good fish curry this week - I mean good - only be told that his sense of taste was all wrong. I wonder what it made of the baked beans I dished up next day? And all of that without fever; blame the booster jab then. Seriously, all the best. P.

The final word - the best moggy picture ever. I don't care if this is the wrong thread:

No lovely cat picture from me today, sorry.  Has anyone heard about a Tik-Tokker called something like Mom Millenial? She claims to have an anthropology degree.  She is saying that ancient Rome doesn't exist.  I'm not going to link to her because I don't want to give her views.  (She's really rude to people who disagree with her). Here a PhD classics student debunking her (the debunking video is long).  https://youtu.be/2UXvI5aopXA   Of course it's possible the Tik-Tokker is deliberately being contentious to draw attention to herself.  You probably know that Tik-Tok is a video hosting platform aimed mainly at young people.  Of course people with a clue will know Mom wotzername is full of hot air but I do hope folk who are less knowledgeable don't fall down her rabbit hole...hence my rant.

Temperance wrote:

That's all very well, Marcus, but you didn't have petrol back in your day. 

Our new UK motto is: "Keep calm and carry on panicking.".

Neither did Aurelius have the internet. I'm currently trying to get hold of English-language transcripts of the 2 speeches made by Vladimir Putin this week. The first was given on Monday 21st and the second on Thursday 24th. As I prefer to go to the primary source of any historical documents rather than a secondary source (and whatever one's opinion is on the current tragedy, those speeches certainly qualify as historic) then I tried to view the Kremlin website only to find that my access was blocked. I feel pretty sure, however, that it's not the Russians who are doing the blocking. I hope that's just an indication of misplaced panic on my behalf and I am trying to keep calm. Marcus was spot-on though - it is something which is outside of one's control.

Vizzer, this is the Bloomberg translation for the 24th.

24th February 2022

2nd EDIT:

link to C-span video which comes with voice translation of speech.

21st February 2022

Thanks for that Trike.

The Spectator website also provides a transcript of the speech from the 24th. The speech from the 21st is more elusive. A transcript can be found on the unlikely-sounding MandyNews website which specialises in African stories (particularly from Ghana and Nigeria) although their server pings from Brno in Moravia. That transcript, however, doesn’t seem to be complete and seemingly ends prematurely. The Australian-based website ePrimeFeed also promises the ‘full text’ of the speech but that script ends even earlier than the MandyNews one and says ‘to be continue’ (sic).
 
By contrast, transcripts of speeches made by Joe Biden on the 22nd and the 24th can be read on the Whitehouse website here:

President Biden remarks 22 February 2022

President Biden remarks 24 February 2022

In that second speech Biden even says "For months, we have been working closely with our private — with the private sector to harden their cyber defenses, sharpen our ability to respond to Russian cyberattacks as well." The word ‘cyber’ and the concept of cyberattacks, however, don’t appear anywhere in the available transcripts of Putin’s speeches. Meanwhile the Kremlin website (which search engines point to as having English-language transcripts of the speeches) remains down. Some news outlets are claiming that it has been hacked but are careful not to say by who exactly.

Furthermore, today the international news channel Russia Today has been taken off freeview in the EU and the UK. The UK culture secretary said that this is because she didn’t want RT ‘streamed into British homes’. This is slightly odd because only the other day the BBC correspondent in Moscow (in a critique of censorship there) was saying that for the Russian government, television equals power. The implication of this was that people of Russia were not trusted by their government to make up their own minds from a plurality of news sources offering varying points of view. One wonders if the member for Mid-Bedfordshire similarly thinks that we also don’t have the faculty to make up our own minds regarding varying news sources but instead she needs to take those decisions for us.

Not of international or national importance but looks like Micky's and Minnie's English cousins have made themselves uninvited visitors to LiR Towers.  This happened some years ago. I contacted Pest Control at the local council then and the problem was "sorted".  I'll probably have to contact the Council again.  It hasn't happened at a very good time because costs have shot up so much after the pandemic.  Not that there's ever a good time to have Mus drop in.  My cat CAN catch mice even though she has feline arthritis.  If there's a positive it's that I've started playing catch-up on the housework which has mounted up this last year since my back's been painful. If I do the chores in manageable chunks of time it helps - and I rest if back pain kicks in.