Feddit UK

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21948138

(Not that it requires a justification either way. It's a personal choice.)

Arcade game for Linux, MacOS and Windows pay what you want

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17027060

Businesses, community groups, arts organisations and residents in a thriving town on the Croydon-Surrey border are in uproar because the automatic systems employed to police social media have silenced them on one of the world’s biggest digital platforms – all because Coulsdon has the letters L, S and D in its name.

Residents’ associations and businesses with “Coulsdon” in their titles have found themselves “cancelled”, with posts being removed from Facebook and warnings issued as to their future conduct under a set of rules so vague that any post, however innocent, might fall foul of them.

Just in time for the holidays, we can enjoy Ron Howard and George Lucas' family-friendly fantasy adventure film Willow finally arrives on 4K UHD Blu-ray with deluxe SteelBook packaging.

The George Lucas / Ron Howard team-up Willowmight have been something of a box office misfire at release, but the film has grown into a fan-favorite fantasy adventure classic. Now we can enjoy the exploits of Warwick Davis' Willow and his pal Madmartigan and the beautiful Sorsha in full 2160p with HDR. The press release wasn't specific about HDR grade, remember Disney is punching Dolby Vision onto their 4K discs on a case-by-case basis - so this one might not have made the cut. We'll see if any clarification comes out on that. But we can at least expect HDR10 on the BD66 disc with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. We also don't have a breakdown of extra features yet, but it's a safe bet those will be on the included Blu-ray. Hopefully, if this sells well, maybe we'll get the abandoned series' first season on disc too. 

***Willow - 4K UHD SteelBook ***

*** ***

Here's all of the specs as we know them: 

Cast
**Val Kilmer **as Madmartigan
**Joanne Whalley **as Sorsha
Warwick Davis as Willow
Billy Barty as High Aldwin
Jean Marsh as Queen Bavmorda

Produced by
Nigel Wooll

Executive Producers
George Lucas

Written by
George Lucas
Bob Dolman

Directed by
Ron Howard

Product Specifications
Release Date
Digital: December 10, 2024
Physical: December 10, 2024

Product SKUs
Digital: 4K UHD
Physical: 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Code SteelBook®

Feature Run Time
Approx. 126 minutes

Rating
U.S.: Rated PG

Disc Size
4K UHD Blu-ray: 66GB
Blu-ray: 50GB

Aspect Ratio
Digital: 2.39:1
Physical: 2.39:1

Audio
4K: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA and 2.0 Dolby Digital Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 DTS-HDHR Language Tracks
Blu-ray: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and French 5.1 DTS Digital Surround Language Tracks
Digital: English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital and French 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital

Subtitles
4K: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles
Blu-ray: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles (Specifications Apply To Film Content Only)
Digital: English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles

See also here.

Borough councillors are due to be asked to agree on the wording to refuse planning permission for a KFC drive-through. The application for a drive-through facility at 498 Goldington Road, Bedford...

As part of Bedfordshire Police’s blitz on knife crime, weapons bins have been set up all over the county.

When the mass roll-out started, the decision to use radio signals across northern England and Scotland - rather than the mobile technology further south - was because it was thought the signals would be able to travel far across the hills and mountains, reaching more rural communities more easily.

But Energy UK admits there are problems regarding how the radio signals transmit. “There are issues in the north,” chief executive Dhara Vyas told us.

She said there were “live conversations” within the industry about increasing the network range in the north of England and Scotland.

This technological divide has been experienced by smart meter engineers who have spoken anonymously to Panorama.

One engineer, “Ahmed” told us there were more problems in northern England and Scotland on average, adding that the technology further south was more up to date.

“You can end up going to someone’s house at the bottom of a mountain in the north and the radio frequency can’t get through. But there could be a good 3G signal nearby and that could get through - the customer doesn’t know that,” he said.

Another engineer, “Steve” working for a major energy supplier in Merseyside, who has experience of installing meters in homes on both sides of the regional divide, told us it was “far easier to complete a successful installation” in the south and Midlands where he could use the cellular network.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19859084

A £250m bypass planned to go through a Merseyside country park has been scrapped in the budget.

The proposal for a dual carriageway through Rimrose Valley Country Park in south Sefton was first announced in 2017 to improve access to the Port of Liverpool.

In budget documents released today, the Transport Secretary said the A5036 Princess Way scheme would not progress as it was “unfunded and unaffordable”.

Bootle’s Labour MP Peter Dowd, whose constituency includes the port, said: "Rimrose Valley is a green lung for my constituents and the last thing we wanted was a road to be built through it."

He added: "We now have to ensure that the work to develop a long term, environmentally sustainable alternative continues."

The last collection for each area will be either the week starting Monday, 18 November or Monday, 25 November. Residents should check which week applies to their area. Other waste collections will continue as usual during this time.

Residents can sign up for email alerts to receive updates about when collections restart and other changes, including future subscription renewals. Find out more about garden waste and collection dates.

During the break, residents can still recycle garden waste at any of our 4 household waste recycling centres. These are open daily from 9am to 5pm, including bank holidays. Read more about our tidy tips, including Christmas and New Year opening hours.

If you have space, you could consider home composting. We offer subsidised eco-friendly composting and water butt products for Central Bedfordshire residents, helping you reduce waste, save money, and conserve resources.

Stay up to date on waste collections over the Christmas period by following us on social media.

A £250m bypass planned to go through a Merseyside country park has been scrapped in the budget.

The proposal for a dual carriageway through Rimrose Valley Country Park in south Sefton was first announced in 2017 to improve access to the Port of Liverpool.

In budget documents released today, the Transport Secretary said the A5036 Princess Way scheme would not progress as it was “unfunded and unaffordable”.

Bootle’s Labour MP Peter Dowd, whose constituency includes the port, said: "Rimrose Valley is a green lung for my constituents and the last thing we wanted was a road to be built through it."

He added: "We now have to ensure that the work to develop a long term, environmentally sustainable alternative continues."

A former director at the tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) was handed a role on an influential expert committee advising the UK government on cancer risks, the Observer can reveal.

Ruth Dempsey, the ex-director of scientific and regulatory affairs, spent 28 years at PMI before being appointed to the UK Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (CoC).

The committee’s role is to provide ministers with independent advice. Yet since taking up the position in February 2020, Dempsey has continued to be paid by PMI for work including authoring a sponsored paper about regulatory strategies for heated tobacco products.

She also owns shares in the tobacco giant – whose products include Marlboro cigarettes and IQOS heated tobacco sticks – and receives a PMI pension. On social media she continues to engage with senior staff at the company, including liking LinkedIn posts for the chief communications officer and the vice-president of public affairs.

There is no suggestion that Dempsey has acted improperly or failed to declare her interests, which are listed in committee documents. She said she had always complied with the rules and that her contributions to the CoC were based on her scientific training and “decades of experience in the field”. She also said she was “no longer a representative of the tobacco industry” given she had retired and had disclosed details of her career and financial interests during the application process.
[…]
Prior to Dempsey’s appointment, the CoC was involved in reviews of both e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, two of PMI’s product lines.

Dempsey is believed to have been appointed to the committee following an evaluation and interview conducted by a three-person panel, including a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) official, after stepping down from her full-time role with PMI to establish her own toxicology consultancy in the summer of 2019.
[…]
Dempsey said she was “very sorry if anyone feels that my presence on the committee is inappropriate”.

When she joined she did not have any active consultancy agreements with PMI but said the two she has had since had been properly declared. She also declared potential conflicts of interest when topics arose “that could be related to work I was doing as a consultant to any company”.

“In the five years that I have been a member there has been no topic related to tobacco products. If there had been, I certainly would declare my conflict of interest and would always follow the guidance of the committee chair regarding participation,” she said. She added that she had “never passed confidential or privileged information to PMI, and would certainly never do so”.

Indie puzzle for Windows, free on Epic Games for Amazon Prime subscribers until 11th December

What is the longest possible length a bird can be? Obviously a question only all the fruit in the world can answer! But where could all this fruit be hiding? Follow Redbird, Greenbird, and Bluebird on a quest for an amount of fruit beyond any bird's wildest dreams.

Snakebird is a very simple but deceptively challenging puzzle game about assuming the right shapes for the task at hand, be it pushing, lifting, teleporting, or just defying the laws of physics.

The Dormant Assets Scheme is expected to release £350 million for England over 2024 and 2028. The government intends to allocate this money equally between the four causes:

• £87.5 million for the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people
• £87.5 million for the development of individuals’ ability to manage their finances or the improvement of access to personal financial services
• £87.5 million for social investment wholesalers (£12.5 million will reach organisations that support improved youth outcomes)
• £87.5 million for community wealth funds