I think that Jaws is a good reference point here.
I'd say that if you genuinely prefer Benchley's novel to Spielberg's film then that is a pretty good indicator that you're just going to prefer books no matter what.
It depends how you want to count them. Does self-employed (artist), self-employed (IT consulant) & self-employed (tree surgeon) count ad one or three? Especially since all of those overlapped to some extent. And do promotions count?
However, looking at long-term, full-time roles only, then about 5 - most of which involved at least one internal promotion. Probably closer to 15 if you include all the odds and ends. I'm in my 50s and will probably be staying put now until I retire.
My brothers - quite a bit older than me - had one job (including promotions) in one case and two in the other.
Sounds like you should adopt an Official Birthday in a couple of weeks and get a re-do then.
Anyway, I hope it gets better and happy unofficial birthday such as it is.
I have had a lie in and did a bit of gardening. I'll get out for a walk somewhere or another after lunch and maybe settle in for some reading this evening.
From the article:
“The issue is not where the money is spent,” says Clark, now president of Defenders of Wildlife. “The issue is that there isn’t nearly enough of it.”
That is the most significant part of this.
However, single species conservation work is almost short sighted IMHO. The vast majority of the time the main issue for species that need conservation is loss of habitat.,You need to be conserving that habitat as a whole including the entire flora and fauna community from the ground up.
There have been several. I'll pick Eric Berne's book Games People Play.
I immediately recognised a few that I had played and, having been 'called out' on them by the book, it did lead me to stop and behave more constructively.
Novel - Corey's The Mercy of Gods
Movies - Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Dune, part 2, Mickey 17 (this one particularly since it isn't part of an existing franchise or a remake or whatever).
TV - Severance season 2, Netflix's 3 Body Problem, Strange New Worlds season 3 if it drops in 2024.
Animal species will expand into suitable habitat nearby, certainly. Whether they cease to exist in their original range is usually a question of the habitat there becoming unsuitable for some reason or another - maybe through climate change, or increased predation, or because that species has changed the original habitat itself - which is what you seem to be talking about. That is usually a question of overgrazing or similar, and typically will be a cyclical thing: population boom leads to overgrazing, which leads to migration and/or population crash due to starvation, which then allows the food source to recover and rinse and repeat.
I am struggling to think of a particular animal species which has permanently changed the habitat of an area to the point where they couldn't survive there - other than human. There are plenty of plants and microorganisms though. That is the whole basis of ecological succession.
England: First recorded school c.600AD. First University 1096. Compulsory primary education through a series of acts in the 1870s & 1880s, compulsory secondary education 1918.
There have been studies on this kind of thing. I don't have the links to hand, but the upshot from the ones that I have seen IIRC is that it doesn't generally cause many people to actually change their views from positive to negative or vice versa, but it does keep the issue in the news.
Of course, in the wider perspective, no protests of this kind are ever going to work alone, but then that's not the idea. They are never going to be happening alone either: there are always going to legal challenges, political movements, consumer pressure, boycotts and so on and so on alongside. The question is, which ones drive which others? Which wouldn't happen without the others?
I watched three films last week:
Barbie (2023) - pleasingly intelligent satire.
Colette (2018) - lavish fin de siecle biopic.
Alice in the Cities (1974) - existentialist road movie prefiguring Wenders' later Paris, Texas.
Which was best? Well, the first, US, section of AitC had more intensity to offer than the European conclusion. Wenders was still developing here. Colette looked beautiful and had a story to tell, but did not seem to get to the root of what kept the protagonist with Willy so long. Barbie also looked good, Gerwig knew what she wanted to say and articulated it pretty well and entertainingly, if a little schmaltzy - inevitably - towards the end.
Overall, I would say that Barbie wins.
One of the very few that I had to read at school but enjoyed anyway.
I noticed that a new book taking up the story of Manor Farm as a post-Brexit satire has been published just this week: Beasts of England. Obviously I don't expect it to be in the same league as Orwell, but I am actually intrigued to read this, and will get my hands on a copy soon.
Leaving aside points about driving licence numbers being unique or whatever, it would be the silver pentagram that I made back in the '90s and have worn (or occasionally carry in my wallet etc, when the cord breaks) ever since.