The News Discussion
Post here news headlines about which you'd like to have relatively short discussions. Please use the following format*:
[Date DD/MM/YYYY][Summary of event][Link][Additional comment]
E.g. (And I'll resist the urge to make the example politically charged).
31/07/2018: Earthquake in China. www.bbc.co.uk/news/earthquake-in-china .
There was a horrific earthquake in China today. Anyone hear about that?
*(If you have any suggestions about changing the format, please PM me rather than post them here.)
[Date DD/MM/YYYY][Summary of event][Link][Additional comment]
E.g. (And I'll resist the urge to make the example politically charged).
31/07/2018: Earthquake in China. www.bbc.co.uk/news/earthquake-in-china .
There was a horrific earthquake in China today. Anyone hear about that?
*(If you have any suggestions about changing the format, please PM me rather than post them here.)
Comments (321)
I'm not seeing any earthquake news, which is very disappointing -- I was hoping for pictures of toppled high rise apartment blocks and distraught peasants looking at their collapsed hovels. Nothing! Fake news.
Ah, yes, it was. Sorry. It was one of those generic example things... :fire:
The projected depletion of Medicare is coming sooner than expected. The underlying reason for the depletion is that the Baby Boomer generation was followed by a bust. There are just more enrollees than workers paying into the fund. Since Medicare pays for so much of American healthcare, the depletion of the fund will make cost cutting a higher priority going forward.
A sane approach would be to look at why American healthcare is out of step with that of other countries. Wiki provides an interesting perspective:
Quoting Wiki
With this in mind, it would appear that undermining Obamacare was a bad idea. Do you agree?
A woman that you do not want to mess around with.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/concealed-carry-mom-training-her-083134826.html
Let's not talk about gun control, I want to know who thinks her reasoning is reasonable.
And before any brings it up yes I know it is not exactly current affairs for most of you, but safety for some is always current. And yes I also know that she is trying to sell stuff.
Crazies in the street.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shocking-paris-video-harasser-slaps-033055885.html
After you have finished with the post above, check out this one. Do you still think the same?
MH370 OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION REPORT: USELESS PIECE OF DOCUMENTATION.
While reading the 495 page Malaysia FINAL REPORT, AD researchers believe they have found their SMOKING GUN or Achilles Heel. On pages 94 and 95 in section 1.6.10 the truth is contradicted:
“1.6.10 Boeing Patent on Remote Control Take-over of Aircraft
There have been speculations that MH370 could have been taken over control remotely in order to foil a hijack attempt. Some of these speculations have mentioned a US patent that Boeing filed for in February 2003 and received (US 7,142,971 B2) in November 2006 for a system that, once activated, would remove all controls from pilots and automatically fly and land the aircraft at a predetermined location. According to the patent, existing preventative measures such as bullet-proof doors and the carriage of air marshals on board may have vulnerabilities. The flight crew could decide to open a lockable bullet-proof cockpit door [refer to Section 1.6.8, para. 4)] and air marshals, if used, might be over-powered. In light of the potential that unauthorised persons might be able to access the flight controls of an aircraft, the inventors conceived of a technique to avoid this risk by removing any form of human decision process that may be influenced by the circumstances of the situation, including threats or violence on-board. The ‘uninterruptible’ autopilot envisioned by the patent could be activated, either by pilots, on-board sensors or remotely via radio or satellite links by the airline or government agencies if there were attempts to forcibly gain control of the cockpit. This system once activated would disallow pilot inputs and prevent anyone on-board from interrupting the automatic take-over. Thus, the personnel on-board could not be forced into carrying out the demands of any unauthorised person(s).”
AND YET:
Saturday 3 March 2007
“Boeing insiders say the new anti-hijack kit could be fitted to airliners all over the world, including those in the UK, within the next three years.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/new-autopilot-will-make-another-911-impossible-7239651.html
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/like-a-little-tornado-this-arizona-mamma-fights-for-medical-cannabis-for-her-autistic-child-10657212
My battles are not over but we are so much closer to ending this ridiculous war.
I could definitely rock out a houseboat for a while.
The US is a picture of massive fiscal irresponsibility. Odd.
Benkei, I have known you for over a decade now and you are still baiting Americans into this "Mom, it's Disneyland clean in the Netherlands! 72*f, sunny and 31 days of 'Holiday' off a year." :flower:
Imagine if we all actually listened to you and came over. :love:
What's your real name and contact info? :up:
Deep sighs~ It's wealth on paper and it translates to time off and isn't that what we are ultimately working towards? Unlimited time with our families and friends while getting paid?
Speaking of fantasies, can I reserve one of those Unicorns that @Baden remembered riding from his childhood?
Let me know what kind of deposit you will need as I am sure @Hanover is getting used to putting down deposits as his children enroll in higher education.
:lol: No idea. Maybe his first instinct was to make sure he did not get hit as well.
Quoting Bitter Crank
I noticed that as well, but I have no idea how people treat each other in the street in Paris. You see videos all the time of people being beaten up, but no one goes to their aid. Might be that they are too busy filming, or that they do not want to get involved with someone they do not know.
If you look at the beginning of the clip, it appears that they crossed paths randomly, each coming from the opposite direction. They did not appear to know each other and she did not make any attempt to avoid walking past him which she would have done if she had known him and did not want to speak to him.
Quoting Bitter Crank
Where I live the conversation would go something like this.
Nice guy "Hey, you can't go around slapping women like that"
Not nice guy "Shut the fuck up or I'm gonna do the same to you"
Nice guy "You can't say that to me, I'm calling the cops!"
Not nice guy "Go ahead and I'll come back for you later"
End of discussion.
But I don't live in Paris.
I think the authorities realized this and decided not to install them.
Lines like that coming from me would normally only work on a 5 year old or an 85 year old. But if one were big, filthy, greazy, and hell's angelish enough to look truly threatening, that might work.
He probably would have said "Tais-toi ou je vais te faire la même chose". I'm not sure that French speakers are able to use "fuck" with the same grammatical flexibility as we clever English speakers can. In English fuck can be a noun, verb, preposition, adjective, adverb, or article, and more. For some people variations on fuck are an entire sentence: Fuck you miutherfucking fuck; I'm gonna fuck you up, fuck." Or just a verbalization, as when one has nothing else to say, one says "fuck". "Shit" operates similarly. The recipient of the energetic face-slap probably said "Merde" as she turned to be on her merry way.
Digging holes can slow global warming.
In search of water in Kenya (Dutch article)
I like the simplicity of the idea even though there's quite a bit of (Dutch) agricultural knowledge behind it. Also, it isn't a prohibition for a change.
Almost. Realize, not realise. Who's been teaching you antiquated (look it up) English?
In fact, -ize is older than -ise.
Quoting Benkei
Fewer words.
I don’t see where your response relates to my post. Would you direct me to where it may relate?
I just happen to speculate the otherwise. No biggie.
:lol: :rofl: :razz: :rofl: @Benkei :rofl: :razz:
Emotions translate with such ease~ For once my emotionally lead life is paying off :heart:
A letter.
Here's the conspiracy theory that it exemplifies...
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/13089/sarah-glynn-labours-anti-semitism-row-blatant-attempt-undermine-corbyns-leadership
Less words, please.
Emoticons in authentic written interaction provide information about how an utterance is supposed to be interpreted. Emoticons function as contextualization cues, which serve to organize interpersonal relations in written interaction. They serve several communicative functions.
In other words, get with the program and become a better communicator. :up:
How with the program was I with this?
https://www.palestinecampaign.org/press-release-london-council-to-debate-banning-those-calling-for-israel-boycott-on-grounds-of-antisemitism/
https://www.patreon.com/posts/kindness-20466812
Sad how misleadingly this has been presented but politics as usual. I presume the smear campaign will backfire.
If this equipment had been installed in every aircraft, don't you think we would have heard about some problem it caused or failed to solve?
Counting that they said it would take a few years to get it into all of the aircraft it would still be a few years ago that they become able to remotely control the planes. It seems sort of strange that the people that pushed to spend all of this money are not rushing to validate their wonderful ideas at every opportunity.
Like wise the ones that opposed the installation would be screaming about the smallest of problems caused by them.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3013858/Why-t-airlines-seize-control-doomed-jets-ground-technology-exists-pilots-companies-refuse-use-it.html
The first one might not be false, there are plenty of petty politicians fighting for some cause or other just to get their name in the papers so that people will recognize them.
The second one I have no idea about.
Well, being a French kid that grew in Montreal and interacted with posh Westmount Anglos, I can confirm that many did not know the existence of the F-word. Its like the Squares from Crybaby were given an entire district to flourish and reproduce in.
They are only slightly less insufferable than the ones that do know it, and use it all the time.
Yeah, but they were Canadian English, not English English. Living near the docks in Manchester and having a seafaring father made my vocabulary a bit better than the other kids, but only a little bit.
I remember in 5th grade a teacher being overhead talking about the fucking headmaster being an idiot. We told him that he should not fucking well use that word in front of the fucking kids. He went scarlet and we got away with swearing in front him, for the rest of the year.
We did abuse the situation though. Nudge, nudge, wink.
Bin Ladens
I just thought it was interesting as far as a human interest story goes.
Not if the technology is kept secret for use in nefarious operations.
That missing plane made Jacob Rothschlid over 16 billion dollars. Yep, the Rothschild group.
Are you aware of the military airport of Diego Garcia? Residents of The Maldives witnessed that plane near that base.
His estranged and psychopathic sister is a military-intelligence commander (SES, Senior Executive Service) who is connected to Hillary Clinton (who’s work as a lawyer involved being a patent lawyer), and who both accessed the patent for the BUP (Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot) which was thereafter produced.
Initially the BUP was trialled for transporting dangerous prisoners from Hawaii to mainland America.
Unless you can provide sum sort of REASONABLE source for this, and the rest of it, I call BS.
Quoting raza
Are you aware of Roswell, the residents witnessed a UFO near there.
Good English would be “fewer words.”
I’m aware the US military conduct testing there. Any UFO is likely to be a result of military tests whether such things as flying objects are the military’s tests of their own actual secretly developed craft or secretly developed holograms. Holigraphic technology is more advanced than you may realize which can be utilised to deceive.
The military complex, just as it is with espionage agents, do play games with citizens involving the creation of enemies that don’t actually exist in real life. ‘Security’ is probably the biggest business there is. The ‘Security business’ doesn’t even have to convince to sell. They just take through taxes.
I only wanted to plant enough for anyone interested enough for themselves to further look into.
There is a lot of evidence for the genuinly interested.
I find it disingenuous when people pose as interested.
Do some reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
None of the technology you talk about was even dreamed about back them.
I was referring to contemporary "sightings".
You should have done so before posting the link.
Quoting raza
You should have posted the other links as well then so the posters could read about the information behind your thoughts. Not many people have the time or the interest to go search for the information.
Quoting raza
And just what are you referring to with this?
I was not.
raza, those who know about that level of technology don't talk about it and those who talk about it likely don't understand the 'reason' behind such an advancement in technology being installed on planes.
Here are a few technological advances that I can back up with kids I know, who earned a full ride to an elite college at $52k a year, to learn drone technology.
Against us
Coyotes
Next generation
Global Security
Advancing the tech at the University level
Suffice it to say that tech advances are rarely believed without evidence of it's use.
It turns out the goats were employees of a goatish temporary agency that rents its employees out to rid areas of noxious weeds which goats like. No conspiracies; no right-wing agenda; no PC terrorism; nothing to upset ecologists... Just peaceful chewing on rose bushes, hostas, petunias, grass... As we temporary employees tend to do, the goats wandered off the assigned worksite...
Do we get a headline with that?
Thugs, protected by state police, are raping schoolgirls and beating schoolboys.
14 million people. Hmm.
Things leak. Smarties join dots.
Rather than a piece of ground with some old bones in it. Quite absurd when you think about it.
Should people be allowed to laugh at religion?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6990648/rowan-atkinson-religious-satire-brendan-oneill-opinion/
I think that we have the right to laugh at anything we want to, what ever makes us laugh.
But should we really make fun, tell jokes about other peoples way of thinking?
Not being religious, I find a lot of religious jokes funny. But why is it that Jews laugh at gentile jokes, christians laugh at muslim jokes and muslim laugh at ................ wait a minute, what do muslims joke about?
If you're a comedian, yes, because it's your job to make jokes. If you're a politician, no, because it's your job to be neutral about religious affiliation except in policy terms. Shouting "haha, look at those idiots, they look like letterboxes" is protected by free speech, yes, but free speech isn't the same as appropriate speech. And banishing moronic politicians like Boris Johnson for being opportunistic twats using inappropriate speech is a protected right of the PM. I hope she does banish him. She won't though.
Yes I guess context has a lot to do with it.
Quoting Baden
Who decides on the appropriateness of these things? Another article about the same topic had a lot of comments from people that agreed with him. Some even mentioned treatment given to them when they visited muslim countries and even muslim run areas of cities. They did not seem worried about insulting other religions.
I know that it is probably only a minority of the people that do these insulting things on both sides, but why chastise one side and not the other?
Quoting Baden
There will always be others to replace him, and some of them will be worse.
Lol what year is it?
You don't have a calendar on your computer? :wink:
None of those are politicians and especially not politicians in power.
Quoting Sir2u
It's mostly common sense isn't it?
But some of them are officials that represent the government. I was once discriminated against for being British. Back in the late 60's I went to Guatemala and they were refusing to let "that fucking English whores son" out of the airport. Apparently they had believed that Belize should be returned to them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belizean%E2%80%93Guatemalan_territorial_dispute
20th century to 1975
Quoting Baden
If that were true then racist comments would not exist. On both sides.
Common sense ain't so common but it's still common sense.
Quoting Sir2u
Yes, and we both agree they shouldn't do that I presume.
Yup.
But I would still like to know why it does happen.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6048759/Riot-police-use-water-cannons-tear-gas-thousands-expat-Romanians-protest-Bucharest.html
Reading just the headline made me wonder. If £4billion were sent home by these people in one year,
do British people have a case for being pissed of at foreigners. Would it not be common sense to be angry about that money leaving.
Is it part of human nature to be racist, sexist, and what ever else you can think of to discriminate against?
Would better education and implementing laws against these acts really do anything to help. They certainly don't seem to have done much so far.
Sure.
People should also be allowed to laugh at science.
Seems to me that if one has a good grasp upon how thought and belief work, including the brute power of one's initial worldview and they couple that with also understanding what it takes to change one's worldview, we'd all be much better off and there would be a lot less making fun and a lot more respect simply because no one makes a mistake on purpose.
How to put this politely... In a nutshell, yes. It is part of human nature to be sexist, racist, nationalist, fascist, capitalist, socialist, democratic, autocratic, plutocratic, didactic, pragmatic, enigmatic, automatic--all sorts of things. Human beings are not, basically, nice. That's because we are not angels. (We're not demons either.) We're primates. Bright primates, true, 100,000,000,000 brain cells and all, but close relatives of pan troglodytes. Part of the animal continuum.
We're nice to the friends we like; we're usually good to our children; we treat our mates reasonably well most of the time. On the other hand, given some incentive (it doesn't seem to require a lot) we will happily gang up on your crowd and just kill you, your friends, your mates, and your children. Bombs away. "Oh dear, a bomb accidentally landed on a school/terrorist hideout. What a pity."
We are not typically, as a rule -- all day long -- fair, reasonable, polite, welcoming, generous, non-discriminating, accepting, cosmopolitan, etc.
We tend to be self-centered, egotistical, protective of our turf.
An extreme view, you say?
Probably. But we are certainly not the antithesis of all that, either. We're not a happy medium, either. We're on the rough side.
Like this:
A farmer had to go to town to get machine parts, so he told his wife to be careful because some reverend or another would probably stop by.
"If it's the Catholic priest, be sure to hide all the liquor, because you know how priests always get drunk. If it's a Lutheran minister, hide the food, because you know how they tend to eat everything. If it's a rabbi, hide the money. Now if the Baptist minister stops by" and here he turns to his young son, "you get up on mommy's lap and you stay there."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45190355
"We believe that the real number - of children whose records were lost or who were afraid ever to come forward - is in the thousands."
:rage:
[/quote]
"Waste of a good millstone." unenlightened.
What do you call it when someone behaves contrary to what the Bible preaches and yet the person acts in the name of religiosity? I don't think hypocrisy nails the issue on the head adequately enough... The very fact that one would behave contrary to what something teaches indicates some lack in understanding of some facet or feature of an ideology or doctrinal truth. What is meant by "contrary" and "understanding" in this context?
Well yes, certainly a line was crossed in this case. It just seems to me that you have a body of work, such as the Bible, with the potential to create inconsistency and misgivings about interpreting it that one never knows when they have the right understanding of it without divine intervention. So, how do you know when you've got it right, so to speak.
With the behaviors of the clergy outlined, it's simply indefensible what they did.
Naw, me thinks you and me have about the same opinion of the human animal. If the universe is lucky, maybe a new improved model will show up in another 100,000 years or so.
Quoting Bitter Crank
That's what I say. They deserve it.
Quoting Bitter Crank
From what I remember of my time in the south and what a lot of the news seems to be confirming, I think you have it backwards. Them ol' southern baptists loved their moonshine behind the Sunday school building, and the priests loved the choir boys behind the alter.
Sanctimoniousness, the quality of being hypocritically devout.
Unctuousness, smug self-serving earnestness
These comes to mind, but I think they still are a long way short of fitting the need.
Quoting Posty McPostface
There is nothing ignorant about these people, a lot of them are highly educated people that know and understand the difference between good and bad as their holy book explains it.
They just think that they are better than the rest of us. How long did it take the church to decide to give mass in the native language of the country and not Latin? Just one of their many merry tricks to show their superiority over the common man.
That was an old joke (heard at least 50 years ago) aligned to 1970s realities and before, and was told in Luther Land. Priests were still well thought of and Baptists were a rarity. Rabbis there were none, but a Jew was needed for the joke. Most of the really good jokes I've heard are 50 years old, because over the last 30 or 40 years, the really funny joke has become impossible.
Of course, the priests were romping over the choirboys back then--even doing their mothers, occasionally. 1970 priests are the material in the current scandals. The several gay priests I knew back in the1970s may or may not have had the occasional choirboy, I don't know. most were sexually active but decent guys.
LOL, that was a darkly funny comment. Kind of James Gunn-like there.
Indeed. He can't have his cake and eat it. He should choose between being a politician from the Conservative Party, with what that entails, or an uninhibited columnist for a rightwing paper.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/15/elizabeth-warren-accountable-capitalism-act-richest-companies?CMP=fb_gu
Everything ever thought, believed, spoken, and/or written...
What good is a philosophical position if it isn't applicable in everyday life?
:razz:
Her and Sanders...
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/17/middleeast/us-saudi-yemen-bus-strike-intl/index.html
It might even work, (not really) except that this government cannot even agree amongst itself.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/22/dominic-raab-uk-wont-trigger-no-deal-battle-with-brussels?CMP=fb_gu
Madness gone stupid. I think a unilateral deal is where you agree to eat your own shit.
I am not really understanding the 'sides' of this upheaval.
Germany reels as far-right 'mobs' go on a rampage
"Of course history is not repeating itself, but that a far-right mob is on a rampage in the middle of Germany and the authorities are overwhelmed, is reminiscent of the situation during the Weimar Republic," noted Spiegel Online.
The Weimar years were marked by the formation of paramilitary groups, such as the Sturmabteilung or SA, which eventually helped the Nazis to power.
[b]Josef Schuster, who chairs the Central Council of Jews in Germany, also voiced his alarm, saying it is "now the responsibility of citizens to counter the far-right mob".
"It must never be accepted in Germany again for people to be attacked because of their appearances or their backgrounds."[/b]
Anetta Kahane of the anti-racism Amadeu Antonio Foundation told rolling news channel NTV that people have the right to demonstrate.
But he added: "What happened in Chemnitz went beyond that -- it was incitement to hatred and the propagation of pogrom sentiment."
Noting that chatter among far-right sympathisers online is "extremely brutal, as calls are made blatantly for murder and killings", Kahane said authorities need to crack down.
What is meant saying it is "now the responsibility of citizens to counter the far-right mob"?
Is that a call to the streets or to the voting booths?
All Germans are not Jews and even though they have a torrid past, it appears that they have formed a new alliance? I mean I know there was a time when the Jews were less than welcome in Germany but they seemed to get over it, come together, live side by side. Is any of what I am saying a layman's interpretation as to how it is as it stands today?
Is that what is happening when they say: "Misgivings run deep in the state against the arrival since 2015 of more than a million asylum seekers, many from war-torn Syria and Iraq.
Railing against the newcomers, the far-right AfD party has made significant gains in the state and is poised to become the second biggest party in Saxony's regional elections next year."
Have the Germans and the 'German Jews' (a German Jew is a person that is a citizen of Germany and is Jewish) become one group, standing in opposition of the criminal actions of foreigners?
"The state can never allow our streets to be overrun by far-right mobs," said Bild daily, adding that at the same time, Berlin needs to promptly deport criminal foreigners.
"For too long, nothing has been done. That's why confidence in the state is buckling. That's why racists like in Chemnitz think they can do what they want. Nothing can be more dangerous for our country."
https://youtu.be/a_7dw8bXRpk
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45330161
The Germans suffer from a complex because of their past. Partly it's self flagellation and the inability to get over their ugly past. If some German would say nazism is a past issue and today we are living in a different world, he would be basically crucified as his view could be intrepreted in a very bad way. Hence the Germans have a habit of depicting problems of today as resemblances of the past, as nazism is somehow coming back etc.
It's a bit like the problematic issue that Americans have with slavery and Jim Crow: even if it's past history, the issue still comes up in current debates.
Anyway, a huge influx of immigrants in a short time will create a heated debate in every country however permissive or non-permissive the country is.
Not Booker. Too inexperienced, and doesn't seem to have a moral compass beyond civil rights he's interested in.
@ssu Thank you for your response. I am grateful for your thoughts on how to understand the subject better.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fears-church-england-apos-future-230100282.html
The catholics must be having an even harder time of it because I would suppose that the same thing is affecting their ranks and all of the abuse and corruption problems they are having.
Oh no, the end of the world is nigh! :scream:
Nicely done.
Nah. We have South America, we're good and comfy while you guys go extinct.
The article you cited says "Our experience is that people – of all ages - haven’t stopped searching for meaning and answers in their life."
That may be, but the question is: are they finding answers in the church?
Mostly not, at least at the present time. A lot of what people are getting is the unsatisfying hog swill of popular commercial culture. If the churches want to become the font again, they will have to again undergo a serious reformation of their spirit.
Yu Hua (post immediately above this) asked a Taoist priest in China why the Buddhist temples are very busy and the Taoist ones are not? The priest said "because the Buddhists have money." Yu Hua is quite concerned about the spiritual future of people in China, too, where money seems to be the be-all and end-all of life.
:smirk:
Well where I live in Central America things are going downhill for them too.
What, they are not getting answers? How could that be with so many churches nowadays offering prepaid prayers for your problems, confessional, and acceptance of donations directly from your cellphone.
Or is that the problem. Maybe they are trying too hard to get into peoples lives that the people are starting to look at them as just another service being provide, but without the fun and and no visible return from it.
Quoting Bitter Crank
Ain't that the truth. Doubt it will happen with a bunch of conservative bishops getting ready to pull a coup.
I expect Jove will have to hurl lightning bolts from Mt. Olympus to so much as get their attention. Then turn them from anxious Anglicans to mild mice which will be set upon by Catholic cats which will be set upon by Lutheran lions and finally be annihilated by Zoroastrianism zealots.
So now he's a porn addict as well? Come back back Bonking Bill, all is forgiven!
As long as he doesn't bring HER back with him! :up:
Nah, Monica can come. :rofl:
:rofl: I couldn't bring myself to use the other spelling but knew that some witty thinkers would catch it anyway! :love:
You forgot the Amazonian shamans and their poison darts.
I saw a few minutes of a soccer game the missus was watching, American soccer league, and there was a big banner in the background advertising some church. How low they have fallen.
I warned you, I told you that they end of the world was coming. And here is the proof.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/bible-prophecy-realised-first-red-13213028
Proof that the end of the world is not bullshit,
it is cow shit. :lol:
Well, its all downhill for every religions as far as I know, none are actually growing once you compare to population growth. Catholics are probably amongst the safest christians for now just because Italy and south of France will always remains theirs, and how well the south-american demographic is at maintaining its size. I assume the Orthodox Church also is doing relatively better than most other religious groups in christianity.
But that red cow means I have to go get my bug-out bag ready. Hope I get to so you all in real after the Rapture. :halo:
Mine is under my bed.
Quoting Akanthinos
You wont get to see me, I am going to fucking hell. And the emphasis, I hope, will be on the fucking. :cool: :naughty: :fire:
* Finland joined NATO.
* Donald Trump is being arraigned in New York city.
* Wisconsin's Supreme Court is up for grabs (will have a major impact on abortion, gerrymandering, and elections in a swing state).
* Chicago is electing a new mayor (also has ramifications far beyond the borders of the city).
This is for posterity. Will be interesting to look back in a few years and see how consequential (or not) each of these events were.
Events around the arraignment will be broadcast live. It's scheduled for 2:15. There will be a live press conference by the prosecutor at 3:30.
Is someone practicing for April fools day?
Jolly greetings to all Canadians! :lol:
I have never heard or read that word. I decided to search around Google and - on an anime web page - it says the following about futaphobic:
The paragraph above is an answer to this:
I am terribly lost...
BTW, the link to the whole thread is here: https://www.anime-sharing.com/threads/illusion-honey%E2%99%A5select-%E3%83%8F%E3%83%8B%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BB%E3%83%AC%E3%82%AF%E3%83%88-mod-request-thread.546759/page-13
I am glad, I actually made it up. If you want to guess what it means, click here https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=futanari , but I recommend that you don't.
Yet I had to find images because it was difficult to put an image of a futanari in my mind.
I recommend you to search for futanari inflation. Interesting. Even more, if you are weeaboo like me.
I know exactly what this refers to, so I will not. But speaking of anime, I learned of a very good website to watch it for free, lemonparty dot org
I guess futanari should be included in the hentai section.
Quoting Deleted user
1. We're switching to La Nina now, so the weather will be cooler than last year.
2. The US economy isn't showing any signs of slowing, so no rate cuts and many frustrated investors. This is good for Main St and bad for Wall St., in other words the Antichrist has risen and we're all going to die.
That explains it. Goddamn it.
We're switching now. This excludes you, where the weather will be similar to a sauna most of the time.
Glad to know another user who uses Celsius like me!
When I read posts with Fahrenheit references... hmm... it is very obnoxious to me.
Whisper words of wisdom: let it be.
Sí :up:
I thought that was standard. If someone tells me something is X many feet long, I assume the worst about the contents of his computer folders and walk away.
Immigrant gang shoots in the head Swedish man, 39, father of a 12 year old.
Muslim terrorist stabs Assyrian bishop in Sydney, the bishop was sent to the hospital and survived the injuries.
https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/american-heart-association-was-paid-procter-gamble-heart-disease-saturated-fat-seed-oils-sugar
Cambridge Philosophy faculty member is being fired for having views. Rational views.
Quoting Deleted user
Rings a bell?
NZ is so small its almost a joke, and doesn't really matter.
Luckily, one of my courses next semester (ours run Feb-June and July-Nov) has this disclaimer on the course guide page (that I, naturally, cannot locate to quote**) which basically says if you take this course, you're agreeing to hear people's views you don't like, and its up to you to deal with that. I quite like that the Phil department at UoA at least isn't particularly far down this avenue yet. Hopefully, it remains so.
** Found it:
"This course will treat you as adults. We will discuss a wide range of themes which may well challenge some of your beliefs, and we expect you to be civil and reasonable when engaging with this material."; and
"Trigger Warnings
The University doesn't support a blanket policy of trigger warnings. Trigger warnings may be appropriate for in-depth or graphic depictions of events. In this course, we will refer to a wide range of horrors, atrocities, and distasteful events as examples. We don't believe passing mention of controversial issues generally requires trigger warnings. They may include:
Murder, sexual assault, child abuse, maiming, suicide, torturing people and animals, war crimes, massacres, oppression of individuals and cultures, sexism, racism, terrorism, cancers, abortion, euthanasia, religion, political events, sports, magic, alternative medicines, autism, mental health, disabilities, natural disasters, and anything else that may occur to the lecturer, tutor, or other students.
We will also encourage you to question taboo topics. However, because almost all subjects can be discussed, we expect higher standards of understanding, empathy, and tolerance between people on sensitive topics."
[tweet]https://twitter.com/AFpost/status/1715883444994298036[/tweet]
https://www.whio.com/news/local/alleged-armed-carjacker-shoots-killed-by-ohio-amazon-delivery-driver/HLD7ROJHWBE2ZOQBDIHLMTPLTM/
Thoughts? :chin:
That could only happen in the USA...
???
A lot of politicians could learn something from him. Even with human rights groups screaming foul he appears to be getting the job done. The only problem is that a bunch of the bastards he missed are now causing problems here.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/28054493/douglas-murray-iran-president-ebrahim-raisi/
But Murray rarely misses, despite being a bit of a dick.
But I do think he has it about right. I cannot imagine anyone asking for a moments silence for a mass murderer never mind an asshole like that guy.
Ummm. Maybe that word is to nice for him, after all assholes are useful thing. But anyway I would love to been able to see him shitting himself while the helicopter crashed.
And this is why my former English teacher was right again in his philosophy of "never discussing religion or politics with anyone" no matter how hard I pressed him on the two. :rofl:
I was an English teacher for many years. I used to avoid any discussion about religion, Being the only atheist in a roman catholic school sorts of puts you off things like that.
I wish I had you as an English teacher in my school. You seem to be a very dedicated person and the passion for teaching flourished when I had some debates with you about English irregular verbs and philosophy of language last year. Honduran folks were lucky to have you. I didn't have a 'native' English teacher until I started university. Bloody moocow...
We are expecting the same from Christine Lagarde here in Europe. I think she may start to lower the interests as well and try to control the price of money in a more balanced way. When the interest rate went up, it was unbearable for most families to face the paying of mortgages and this sense of anxiety is stressful. In countries with low incomes, like mine's, shrinking interests could be a 'lifesaver' for thousands of families.
Let's see what the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank will do this summer...
Spain fines Ryanair, easyJet, Vueling and Volotea 150 million euros for hand luggage charges
First the President of Argentina, now Ryanair.
ECB dropped it's rate by 25 basis points. In the US, unemployment is rising, so we might be next.
Leftists will still fall for this, being tricked by the same playbook over and over.
It's the conservative right who fear Reform. The better Reform do, the better for Labour*, because it's largely conservative votes they're taking. That's clear based on any understanding of the first past the post system, which tends to offer disproportionate benefits to the most popular party.
*Although, calling Labour "leftists" is a bit of a joke.
Anyhow, if someone is making this up, it'll be Conservative headquarters who are quaking in their boots right now.
It's disgusting, but what can I expect from an issue that has existed since the 1960s? As well as Ireland had ‘The Troubles’ we have a big issue with ETA and his political lobby: EH Bildu.
https://www.elmundo.es/pais-vasco/2024/07/15/669506c6e9cf4a963f8b4581.html?cid=SIN26101&utm_source=marca.com&utm_medium=interno_bt&utm_campaign=SIN26101&_ga=2.37133860.509677226.1720796434-798002902.1719681135
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/its-too-many-people-in-too-small-an-area-row-brewing-over-plans-to-house-280-migrants-in-tipperary-village-of-165-people/a953110517.html
Canada, yes!
This is a good thing.
It's not clear to me that this is a good thing. As water heats up its capacity to absorb CO2 decreases. So given that the temperature of the oceans is increasing, it suggests we will have more rapid increase
in future atmospheric CO2 levels than would be suggested by models which attributed less CO2 absorption to the oceans.
IOW, it could be an indicator that things are worse than previously thought.
New 4th generation nuclear power plant goes into construction in Tennessee
3 years into this divorce as of November. 30 years married as of October.
I'm back in school obtaining my bachelor's degree in Social work. Spring, Summer and now Fall. My anticipated graduation date is Spring 2026.
Mom asked me to move back into my childhood home with her since we lost Dad. As a student, I can live as a student, and she appreciates the company...
The armor is heavy but necessary. I look forward to the day I can be so armor free that the girls are out in the sun and a virgin daiquiri in my hand. Please and thank you
A lofty goal, indeed. I wish you success in BTP (back to parents) living arrangement.
When I was in school, I thought that Amnesty International was one of those NGOs made up of teenagers who do nothing at all managed by parents, like UN diplomatic simulations. Was I wrong?
Them doing something about / commenting on an issue you consider trivial (transgender rights) is not evidence that they do nothing about things almost everyone would consider important.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/
Your childish smear though is evidence of your lack of intellectual seriousness, something which, oddly, you don't realize you are putting on full display with posts like this. Maybe focus on that.
It is not even about the topic, it is about the fact that they are using the picture of a female model while the cross-dresser in question is this person:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/australias-legal-battle-to-define-a-woman-is-not-over-yet/
You would have realised it had you even opened the link and scrolled down a single page.
Quoting Baden
Of course mate, I am the one who is intellectually unserious LOL not the tens of people on this website paddling pseudoscience. Maybe focus on that.
I did see that. It's a cock up on one tweet. So what?
Quoting Deleted user
OK, name just five of these "tens of people" and I'll go deal with them.
I think that's just the target audience. That's who they can rile up the most. That said, think its pretty damn clear Amnesty is a pretty blithering organisation largely just virtue signalling. But, they do get some stuff done that wouldn't other be done like clemency for blasphemy death sentences in the middle east and what not
Éamon de Valera’s long but fruitless search for his mysterious Spanish father.
I wish we could help to locate some evidence. It is wonderful how our countries collaborated in such a lovely case. :heart:
Ah, yes. There's quite a lot of Spanish blood around Cork where I'm from, actually. I guess the Armada dropped by for a pint?
Noticed the US Fed Res has cut the interest rate by 50 points. You were both close enough in your 4mths ago forecast of around Sept. And now how Wall St took a fall blaming it on the cut.
Baden,
Or some Don Juans could swim. Don't the Cornish blame the Phonecian tin trade for their swarthiness. Nothing to do with historical isolation and parochial marriages, of course.
dry smile
Don't undersell your input. It took you two together to land that fish.
To be precise, frank wrote " I think at least by Sept, the Fed will lower rates".
It occurred in Sept.
But allowing for regional variation in language, still accurate enough to prevent a global financial cry sis....lol.
I'm the janitor.
So you get to read all the crackpot ideas that get binned? Lucky you.
Cheeky smile
I never was a fan of One Direction, but I remember how these mates were very famous among the girls of my classroom. I thought they were 'sloppy' but never had anything against them.
Well, one of the old members passed away from a supposed suicide aged 31 years old. It is an absolute disgrace when this happens. I got mad for reading 'troll' comments on the Internet regarding his death. Social media is a sick place.
Hello, ssu.
This sad and tough poster has been around in most Madrid metro and train stations recently.
It says: Mum, I want to be Finnish. Children diagnosed with leukaemia have more chances of surviving in Finland than in Spain.
We have an old and backwards ass protocol to provide help and support to those children and their families, and our state doesn't give a [s]shite[/s] (mean word, sorry) on this, and it is unfair how a child with leukaemia has more chances of getting better in one country than another. The national health care system in my country is now in the deepest part of the pit. It is not private but public. When I see this, I think: Where do my taxes go?
Yep, even the Finnish media noticed this. But we can agree that there's countries with even worse public health sectors. But it's the general malaise in Europe, the debt-lead economic system will have huge problems with low growth, demands for the health care sector increasing and government incomes decreasing.
The fact that both in Spain and Finland there will be far more less children in the future doesn't make me more hopeful that things will get better. Even with the health care of children.
Well put, ssu. :up:
I wish I was aware about the Tulips origin back in my college life. I guess I could have had more chances with the Turkish girls in my class. I gave candies as a Christmas gift to one of them.—and she liked the detail, actually—
Imagine if the present would have been a nice box of tulips!
Is anyone here prepared to claim Elon Musk made a Nazi salute?
These new incel-type billionaires and celebrities do whatever it takes to frame themselves as masculine hard men, but they're like those insecure kids in school who tried too hard to be cool and tough but when cornered they could lash out in pathetic ways, while sometimes truly dangerous ways. In the US I'd argue it's those personalities who are more often than not the school shooting types.
Elon Musk seems to be such a person. He's not smart, but he spends a lot of money on trying to show the world that he is. He's radicalized into other people's ideologies because he's not smart enough to spot his own biases. He pays people to play his video games so that he can show his progress being that of the best players in the world.
It's all a show to fill that craving for attention. And up on that stage he doesn't know what to do. He dances around like an awkward drunk and he tries to interact with the audience in this euphoria of power, and in that moment he strikes a greeting that he doesn't understand looks like something else.
I don't think he did made that salute intentionally. I think it's being used by everyone online and in media to craft this narrative.
But I'm not sure this other explanation is any better. It just shows he's an insecure, emotionally unstable and stupid man who is easily drawn into ideologies with whoever gives him power and attention of a crowd.
A nazi we can deal with and fight, but a stupid man with too much power can be more dangerous. That's what no one seems to get in all this. Stop putting people in boxes and realize the actual issues, otherwise it's impossible to fight the real dangers.
If you fight him with the pretense that he is a nazi, then you will probably fail as he probably isn't and all the offense you used up with that pretense ends up being a weakness in the critique.
The public, on all sides, are so ill-equiped to deal with stuff like this today, everyone jumps deep into any polarized depth at the first glance of anything that can enforce their ideas.
I don't think he is smart enough to be that fluent in such symbolic gesturing. My guess is that he was going for hand on heart sincerity and this, and missing by a country mile. What an enormous cockwomble though!
It rather plays to the general distraction though to have missed the far more significant alignment of all the American tech and media oligarchs behind the inauguration, and the immediate announcement of the "Stargate" project.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, here are a couple of grownups talking about international affairs and stuff.
Almost entirely agree with you both, fwiw. Thanks for your responses :)
I think part of me is of the view that a Nazi will not deny it. That's part of the identity. I think if you're hiding that you're a Nazi, you can't have much faith in the tenets of Nazism.
That makes no sense. But what makes some sense is the connection drawn between ex nazis in various organisations that Musk has associated himself with and blatant sympathisers he has openly supported. If it quacks like a nazi, and nests with nazis, and twaddles like a nazi, maybe it's a nazi.
FWIW: I live in a country which is plagued by gangs. One of which is called the Mongeral Mob constituted almost entirely of Maori and Pasifika criminal elements. Their salute.. .is the literal[i][/i] Nazi salute. Seig Heil and all. Hard to think they're Nazis.
I don't think it is actually. Not that I know anything about them but a violent criminal gang that uses Heil Hitler, passes my test with flying colours. Surely they don't have to be white?
But folks get called 'communist' without having joined the party; anyway, I'll stick with "cockwomble" myself and recognise an enemy of society, whatever the currently politically correct label.
I think trying to label people as some definite type usually backfires. Just because something is greyish doesn't mean it's not bad. Musk probably isn't a Nazi, but he's a naive moron who buys into ideological stuff that suits his personal beliefs. So when a far-right party in some other nation says something he agrees with, it's not that they're composed of former or present nazis, it's because they align in their current policies with what he agrees with.
He's supporting these people because of that and doesn't get the broader picture. Though he's been radicalized into a trans hater so that aligns well with far-right extremists.
Bottom line, if he continues down this path, he will become a full blown nazi. Maybe he should stop with the heavy drugs before it melts his brain completely.
Amen to that, and it's probably not worth arguing the exact definition of our insults as if there is a precise and important distinction between far-right, fascist, and nazi.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/23/israeli-military-gaza-war-microsoft
I use Microsoft. Can anyone recommend other options?
No one can be moral like this in these times. All companies fracture tentacles out into all kinds of directions. You can use Linux, but I'd bet some robots used to kill innocent people somewhere use Linux as its code base for its system.
Basically, trying to avoid giving money to companies who are into shady stuff only works so far as to them being directly responsible for the shady shit. Like, people who buy from Shein when it's so blatantly obvious what they're doing, is bad. But Microsoft is so intertwined into everything today. You might even find your fridge have some component that when you bought that, part of it went to Microsoft. Or most equipment used in hospitals to save lives. There's an irony in how tech exists everywhere. There could be Microsoft tech involved in killing civilians, and then there's Microsoft tech in the equipment helping to heal the wounds of that same attack.
At some point, one has to realize that we're so deeply intertwined in the capitalist machinery that it's impossible to try and steer it morally, outside the directly obvious ones.
Trying to be part of controlling the flow of money in these sectors is like trying to steer the flow of an entire river using the palm of your hands.
Also, it depends on what Microsoft stuff you use. If you're on a PC you're only options are Windows or Linux, but Linux is limited. If you're going over to Apple, then that might help, but who knows what they're up to behind the curtains. If it's a cloud service you have lots of other options. Though Google is shady as well, so Google... *ahem* use Duck Duck Go to search for other cloud services to subscribe to instead. But then again, who knows what those companies are involved with as well.
Basically, it's either to live in this capitalism or live outside the grid. What helps is to use political power to pressure these tech companies, but since the US voted for a lunatic that will just build a techno-feudal empire, that won't happen anytime soon.
To choose anything within this system might be seen as morally wrong, and if we are all dependent on this system, then we have to live in this system while trying to change it at the same time.
Yes. Quite so. Trying to find me some serenity in a world gone mad! Thank you. :sparkle:
Grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
That certainly seems apt. I guess I just don't heap a load of.. idk.. vitriol? On it. I recognize stupidity/awkwardness/autism and find it hard to 'charge' someone with their behaviour in that regard. That said, his position is.... making that very difficult.
Quoting Christoffer
I think that, however, is utterly ridiculous. The comment on him being a 'trans hater' does make clear where we might diverge, interpreting things though so no issues with it as a position in light of that. Its just ridiculous to me.
Robert Reich (someone who i think rarely says anything sensible) has penned a very good piece about Musk's issues here . I think, wildly, I agree with everything here.
He's pretty smart. He founded PayPal, started Tesla, acquired Twitter, and took a seat on the cabinet just by dancing around on a stage with Trump. He has a reputation for being unstoppable.
For the record: he did not found Paypal. He wasn’t even the CEO of the crappy company he, and several others, founded — “x.com” — at the time of the merger. Guess Peter Thiel is the real genius?
He did not found Tesla either— he was an early investor. It’s true he acquired Twitter and turned it into a bigger cesspool than it already was, worth less now than when he bought it — hardly something to put on a genius resume. And generally he’s a simpleton who’s proven himself too stupid to even notice he’s a social media addict.
Maybe once he was a coder or something. But otherwise a guy in the right spot at the right time. I give him credit for investing his money in Tesla — how brave and inspiring.
So... you've met the guy before? At least seen him with your own eyes in front of you at some point to know he even exists or ... I mean, where is this so-called information coming from? :chin:
Is this a joke?
You can Google it— the history of these companies isn’t obscure.
He's as unstoppable as a cult leader.
He's good at optimizing production efficiency, like playing a strategy game in which a certain type of optimization is the focus of the game. But he's as smart as such a gamer who mastered such a game, but who still knows little to nothing beyond it, never actually read and understood a book.
His self-radicalization is very telling of the person he is. And since even Heidegger became a Nazi, being "smart" in one aspect doesn't mean you are in all. And Musk isn't even close to Heidegger's intelligence. Being good at optimizing production does not mean he's good at philosophy. Involving himself in a lot of areas really starts to show how stupid he really is.
At the same time, being good at optimizing production is a pretty low ability. The reason why so many companies fail at this is because they form company structures out of the tradition of how companies look and the people at the top are usually just corporate suits with next to no understanding of what their employees do and how their own production works.
So Musk's success is mostly down to him being something other than the usual suit. If other companies want Musks success, they need to put someone at the top of optimization who's in the same ballpark of "strategy-game nerdery". A form of holistic view of production with an understanding of each part and how all interconnects. Then make drastic and unconventional decisions to optimize beyond tradition.
The same person doing that does not mean they're experts in philosophy, politics, psychology, biology, sociology etc. Areas that Musk constantly interferes in with his moronic tweets and outbursts.
There is no Elon Musk cult. I don't think Americans particularly like him. He's just the richest guy in the world and now he's apparently in charge of the US government, sort of. Whether you like him or not, he's in charge.
"...as a cult leader"
If you look at the way people follow him, it's the same kind of cult behavior as with MAGA. The psychology is the same as with any cult leader. Uncritical following and worship of his ideas.
Some who liked what he did years ago have woken up, but there are hundreds of thousands following everything he does like zealots.
Nationality doesn't matter today, you gain power by the totality of how much traction you have online. It's the attention economy at work.
I guess I'm out of touch. I don't know anything about that.
Search around for long enough to get the algorithm going and you will be flooded with zealot influencers popping up everywhere. He bought Twitter and it's become his own town square, not the public's. He's shouting in there and getting feedback from his crowd.
I wonder if dictator military marches on town squares work for the symbolic town squares of public online spaces? :chin: It would be an apt visual image to how he's being reviewed at the moment.
Don't... it's like a bottomless maelstrom for ships of rational people to drown in.
I have a friend who tells me it went to shit after Musk bought it.
I don't even know why people are still there. Why it's still used as some official channel for many officials and celebrities. There's been a surge towards BlueSky instead, so hopefully people go there eventually. If people really need it at all.
Alas, spending the suffering of future lives for our present pleasure is the morality we oossians have decided to bathe in.
As long as society promotes and values stupidity over expertise and knowledge, we will have this kind of world.
The internet eventually formed the best way for the stupid to be louder than the wise, and they are constantly loud because they have time for it as they do not engage with knowledge with the time and care that the wise are. So the wise aren't heard, the few who speaks are drowned out by the mass of the stupid people who flock online as its the only place they get the feedback they crave for.
Stupid people have always craved the attention they emotionally feel is unfairly given to the wise, but previously, you had to be wise and know a lot in order to be heard. No one would invite a stupid person into a news studio in order to comment on a serious matter. But the internet didn't have such gate keepers.
And even the most stupid person will find their audience; like emotional gravity clustering together people into bubbles.
My prediction is that there's going to be a collapse in society, but I believe it will be these bubbles that collapse. At some point, the stupidity will become such a singularity that it collapse in on itself and then we will have the remaining stupid people craving for guidance by the wise. Making it a virtue again to be educated, wise and an intellectual.
Especially since the stupid masses drive away these educated people, at some point those stupid masses will only have one of their own guiding themselves. And we're somewhat seeing this with Trump and his political allies. And we see that many of the people who voted for him are now suffering the consequences. -How soon will they crave a wiser person to guide them, to understand they are too stupid to govern themselves?
The fall into deeper and deeper stupidity will not go on forever. The stupid are doomed to shoot themselves in the foot. The question is what world that comes after; what principles and morals.
Will there be an increased intolerance against the stupid? A rejection of equality based on it? A new form of intellectual class division landscape in which society is portioned up by intellectual ability?
While in the light of how the word is today, that sounds much better, it's obvious how such a society easily spirals down into oppression.
Regardless, any historical polarization ends in some form of large conflict that lifts up the intellectuals who tries to form a new paradigm for society. When and how that conflict appears is unknown, but since the internet is borderless... it will be borderless.
Maybe the next world war, is a civil war for the entire planet. No nations, but the gathered polarized masses of the entire world. A non-patriotic war, based on imagined narratives that clustered together through emotional gravity and bias. Until enough people die to wake people up.
I agree. A similar thing happened with the invention of the printing press, which played a major role in a Europe wide witch hunt over the course of the following century or so.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/social-sciences/printing-press-witch-trials/
We seem to have somewhat adapted or learned the pitfalls of printed matter; perhaps we will eventually adapt to the internet. Or is it that the internet is exactly that witchcraft that the ancients were so afraid of? :scream:
The printing press had people of power misuse it and people in power eventually gets overruled by history and the people. Internet has no ruler or power above, so the only way to keep the stupids from continuously spreading misinformation and disinformation is to either regulate what can be expressed online, similar to what can be spread through normal media (press ethics) and what can be uttered in the street (law), and that the consequences of breaking it is as severe as to make the people self-govern their expression.
If that is too much for free speech absolutists, it may be that people get fed up with the trash pile that these stupid people create. The absolute pile of garbage that gets bigger and bigger with each idiot who spews their bs onto it, and the bots perpetuating and exponentially making it bigger. So people will migrate away from any online sphere that cannot regulate this type of behavior, eventually maturing into online spheres that are able to regulate in a similar manner as society outside of internet operates.
The latter is most likely. We're already seeing people trying to find some other existence online than the regular Facebooks, TikToks and X. Bluesky is an example of an attempt at something opposite to X.
But I think that the endgame would be to create actual public service social networks globally. My concept for that would be a UN-funded (by international funding from all democratic nations), social media which incorporates a number of services that operate like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok etc. but doing so through a collaboration against disinformation and misinformation that is more extensive than the billionaires are able to. Since it will operate as a non-profit, it will not drive algorithms for that profit and don't pull people into addictive attention economies that fuel ragebait and hate content.
Such a site would probably function using a sophisticated AI that is used to interpret hate speech, misinformation and disinformation in real-time and if spotted freeze the content for more in-depth analysis. The running of these social medias and the continuous cleanup of bullshit will be the main focus of the non-profit company and funded by all free and normally functioning nations of the world with the aim to battle against services which operate on the previous type of capitalist gaining ideas and political manipulation of elections.
Such a service would essentially create a divide between the free market versions (like the regular Facebook, X and TikTok), and this new non-profit version. As governments will promote these over the older types, it will get into the hands of young people faster and be more of a service to society than operating on profit and the market. It will feature no marketing content.
Governments could then also band traditional market-driven social media, especially for young people and only enable these non-profit social medias to younger people. As they grow older and are given the choice to move over to other more profit-driven services, I believe that the ease of use, the known standards of the non-profit system and the disdain for marketing material being blasted everywhere on the older type social medias, will eventually strangle out the older actors in this field and remove them from society.
A way of dismantling social media and how it looks today without creating a void of no social media at all. It may be that when older generations die, we will see more of this as more technical understanding generations get into more societal power.
But I may be too much of an optimist. However, any crisis of society and civilisation leads to people trying to build something better. When the bad actors swing and hang, there's a responsibility for the survivors to learn from the mistakes made.
But the threat to decency and wisdom is at every level, from UN to government to every social group to each individual. 'Flood the zone' disrupts every agency as can be seen. I don't think it can be resisted until 'stupid' learns the hard way. I know that sounds pessimistic, but that is what I see - that the world has gone mad from top to bottom, and most of us will be dead before it comes to its senses. Like WW1, but worse.
Want to be very clear, that 'trans' isn't relevant to why I think this is wild. But it is somewhat relevant to why I think its unexpected, inb4 'BIGOT'. This IS wild. However you look at it.
Wolff is fantastic.
Imagine if she was aware of the origin of tulips. How likely would you say/guess?
Wonder where the Turks got their original bulbs from? Probably Central Asia where every exotic ( to Europe) vegetable came from via other countries. Only a slight exaggeration.
smile
Surprised? You mustn't have had much to do with old Scots and Irish families. Matriarchs are still their backbone in many families and it is expected and accepted as normal by family members of all sexes. Not saying all S&I families though, there's been dilution with out-marrying and some notable variance within social classes of S&I families, anecdotally speaking.
Just an observation of how we come from diverse backgrounds
smile
That's sorted, I guess :rofl: (yes, I am kidding).
Do women make more doing the same jobs? Or do they just have better jobs?
In this case, it's more than likely that higher unemployment among young men is causing it inter alia. Additional issue is the fact that men are not encouraged to achieve very highly and haven't been for some time (though, this is canvassed in the article.. What can be said for it is up in the air).
Quoting The Guardian - The violent far right
We had a rise in neo-nazis in the 80s and 90s as well. Right now it's being catalyzed by social media, which is a catalyst for everything. I usually look at fiction to see when society begins to wake up. We've had the trend of "down with the billionaire bad guys" for a few years, but now we've seen the Netflix series "Adolescence", which deals with exactly this self-radicalization among young boys that's the foundation for this behavior. This means that the public is starting to take note of what's going on to the point it becomes part of the official discussion through fiction.
I've said it before, I think we're witnessing a culmination of the problems with social media and the right-wing extremes rising. These kinds of trends will start to drop once the public realize the problems have moved into their own homes.
Curious how you look at the Paul Weiss deal and the broader subject of the EEOC letters that have been sent. See for instance this revocable resignation letter from Rachel Cohen, the time period that will lapse tomorrow:
https://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2025/03/Rachel-Cohen-Skadden-Defense-of-the-Legal-Profession-Letter.pdf
So far Skadden hasn't reacted and disabled company wide e-mails, which in itself is an example of pathethically weak leadership if I ever saw it. Even if you disagree with Cohen's position, limiting employees to discuss what apparently a significant group of them finds important and not providing any transparancy on the company position is just asking for having a crappy work environment.
I haven't been here for some time. I forgot (if I ever knew) that I'd be sent an email if I was mentioned. I thought I'd respond in this case. I am responding.
I should say first I don't like large law firms. Skadden is very large. I was once associated with a much smaller "large" firm, with over a hundred lawyers. It was a snake pit. Happily, my experience in opposing large firms has been good. This has been gratifying. Their litigators, at least, are unimpressive in my experience.
Regardless, it must be understood that ultimately, they're devoted to making money, and nothing else. Even their "pro bono" work is done for marketing purposes. They generally have departments devoted to soliciting work from politicians and lobbyists. They're not strangers to the world of politics and its peculiarities.
That said, I feel as Cohen does. I suspect Paul Weiss made a decision it thought was best based on monetary considerations. I suspect Skadden will as well. If they conclude defying the contemptable conduct of this regime won't significantly effect their profits and book of business, they may do so. If not, they'll comply, possibly hoping they'll outlast the regime and have the opportunity to do what's right in the future.
The DEI thing had gotten out of hand and this backlash was predictable. At my office, we were trying to get work from a large corporation and they sent us their diversity form. It was a spreadsheet we were supposed to fill out that asked we provide the number of blacks, whites, hispanics, gays, transsexuals, and every category you could think of that worked at our firm, were in management, and had equity. I wasn't going to go around the office and ask each person how they identified, who they liked to fuck, and ask Mr. Hernandez how much hispanic blood he still had in his veins.
My office is diverse, largely because the county I live in is very diverse, so it just reflects the labor market. I don't know what those in Maine or New Hampshire do. Maybe they import diversity from other regions.
I get being fair, and growing up in the south, I know first hand the troubles of racism, but seeing major pushback to these initiatives isn't something I'm bothered by terribly. It had lost it's way. Things aren't ok when you're making a hiring decision and someone points out it's time we hire a lesbian because we're low in that category. And like how am I supposed to know who is who and what is what without falling back on stereotypes?
As to whether it was weak leadership to block the emails, that likely has nothing to do with trying to control gossip. Everyone has cell phones with text, personal email accounts, whatsapp, and whatever else. Keeping it off the company accounts sounds like they're just trying to be sure there is no official company challenge within the firm that might be discovered one day.
Reviewing how your work-force looks like (age, gender, religion, cultural background etc.) can result in an indication of bias and could be reason to look at hiring practises or training within the organisation. At the same time, we're in essence a software developer and women are still underrepresented. But that starts in bloody university so there's only so much that you can do.
I do agree that if you find yourself in a community that is 30% African American and you business is 100% white, then maybe you need to look within.
There are interesting stats about gender, particularly in the trades. Plumbers, for example, I saw were over 95% male. There are instances where women just don't want the jobs. As to software, perhaps it is bias at the universities, but we shouldn't be so politically correct to just assume there isn't a genetic component to aptitude. Maybe men would feel inadequte or strange as a kindergarten teacher, for example, and that explains why there are so few, or it could be that sort of thing doesn't appeal to most men for reasons beyond environmental.
I know this is a whole different conversation, but I have reservations about the whole men and women are the same but for a few anatomical differences argument.
Who in their right mind would want to be a plumber?
They make really good money and according to some videos I saw online, women really enjoy when they come over, but something seemed off about it.
that was pornography
You saw it too?
Yep, I think I did.
Good.
Why oh why does the left do this to itself. Dysregulated children should not be fronting any type of social movement.
Should be front page headlines for the next 20 years.
Nothing has shown me how stupid people truly are until I get their views on an overwhelmingly supported aspect of science that conflicts with their identifies (whether religious or political). When I was younger, it was the denial of evolution by many Christians. Today it’s the denial of a rapidly warming planet.
The latter denial is far deadlier.
Now that the Christian right has merged with the MAGA cult, an area of agreement has been the burning of fossil fuels. It intersects with hypermasculinity and savage capitalism. (Really it’s just the donors are largely fossil fuel companies, who happen to own the media as well. The Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch can be thanked for a lot of this.)
For some reason, once Trump picked up on the climate denial piece, he ran with it. In the same way he did with tax cuts. Contrary to any evidence whatsoever, they’ll now go on believing that man did not evolve, tax cuts jump start the economy, and climate change is a hoax. It’s now locked in — dyed in the wool.
The bad guys have won. And unlike the movies, no matter if there’s a comeback or a swing in power, it’s already too late. The time to act was decades ago, and the time to mitigate the absolute worst effects were these last 10 years. And the one and only piece of legislation that addressed the issue is now dead.
This is not a political party— it’s a death cult. Literally.
Just cements the concept the US is just another religious fundamentalist nation, like Islam fundamentalist nations in the Middle East. One step from installing laws based in religious texts rather than moral philosophy.
And ignoring climate change will just lead to a world in which the rural Americans die off in heat waves and other extreme weather. So let the death cult kill themselves, I really don’t fucking care anymore about people who constantly flood the world with absolute bullshit and shoot themselves in the foot.
But it will also ignite violence from those who feel like victims of these politics. We will probably see rebel groups starting to kill oil industry figures and politicians who keep perpetuate anti-climate politics.
Add to that all nations of the world that might end up in conditions that are unlivable. Becoming globally homeless and in turn start organizing themselves as military forces to fight for other places where they can live.
These people might even ignite sympathy from many in the world finally realizing how catastrophic the climate change problems truly are and when such forces start invading nations like the US, many might even just cheer on while they push forward.
And these people won’t be some little rebel group, they might end up being millions of people with nothing to lose as they have no where to go. It will either end with a mass slaughter of millions of people because nations have no other choice when getting invaded, or these people will win and force themselves into taking over large regions of other nations.
Nations who try to mitigate climate change might use that fact as a way to argue against these groups invading them and direct them towards nations who can be blamed for the situation the world has ended up in.
At some point, the world needs to outlaw oil. The world can debate oil for decades more, but at some point the problems are going to become actual reality and the oil industry will not have the power to fight back at people literally firing at them.
It’s like all the arguments against mitigating climate change are economical, but at some point the economy will crash so hard due to climate change that we’re just postponing everything. Politicians who need to fool the masses in order to keep their power are the ones responsible. No politician want to be blamed for economic crashes due to extreme decisions to fight climate change, but they will some day need to do it, so all politicians just hope they’re not the ones having to do it.
It’s pathetic really. Everyone is pathetic. Everyone deserves what’s coming.
At this point, what else is left to do? I think Malm was right — although he doesn’t advocate killing anyone, he does suggest destroying property and fossil fuel infrastructure in his book “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” I think this approach was catching on in 2021, but then at least the IRA passed. Now there’s nothing. Perhaps it’s time.
It will start to happen the more politicians keep doing nothing and the oil industry getting more support by politicians. And if such actions as described in that book doesn’t work, then it will move on to more extreme levels.
For some in the world, climate change is indeed an existential battle. It’s probably going to be a walk in the park for someone like me living far north, but there are so many regions of the world that may become akin to an alien planet when degrees start to creep up to 60-70 degrees C. Add to that the humidity problem in which bubbles of humidity makes 19 degrees C feel like 31 degrees, the result could be absolutely catastrophic for some.
We are talking about millions if not billions of people in some cases. What happens if they are forced to move because of the basic necessity of avoiding to die in the heatwaves or general heat in their home nation?
They’re not going to be some small rebel group doing terrorist attacks out of desperation, we could be seeing millions of people taking what they own to make or buy weapons and start demanding residence in other nations. And people who face extinction will fight until they are extinct. That level of commitment to a cause cannot be fought with high tech military.
So the next large conflicts of the world due to climate change might be huge and I don’t think people realize that this will be the single largest consequence of climate change… people believe things will get a little warmer and that people up north can start to grow wine in their yards. Like, people are fucking stupid.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/03/congress/conservatives-trump-megabill-energy-credits-crackdown-00438357
Like I said: a death cult.
“Destroying the little hope we have left for a less nightmarish future isn’t good enough! We want more assurances that we’ll go RIGHT off the cliff!”
Or they'll demand cheap fossil-fuel based energy to run AC and heaters.
First, ACs won’t be enough in some places. Second, if any breaks, they die, so the risk is too high or it’s impossible to leave and transport goods between AC powered buildings, so the society collapses anyway. Third, continued use would just make the problem worse until the plastic outside of their units melt or material catch fire and they die anyway.
Bottom line, they can’t escape it by burying their heads in the sand. Prevent it in time, die in the heat, or flee to some other place that cannot fit millions of people. It’s a disaster however things go...
I've been looking at what the Middle East will be like in 2100. It occurred to me that living underground might be an option, so burying heads in the sand might work. Or maybe become nocturnal. But above ground, the inland areas won't just be uncomfortable, they'll be incompatible with human life.
I guess I need to also add that the bolded should be read as insinuating a situation where you have clear knowledge, and have had to face the reality that say, with Trump, his term ends, and the economy is better off, less wars etc... (this is a hypothetical, to be sure) and everything is, in the round, either fine or better than under Biden at least.
I think we’ve seen enough failed predictions about Trump to see how the people you speak of react. Most of what they say now they said about his first term.
The response was to double down, to proclaim the same things louder. Maybe they are right this time I don’t know, but I do know how they reacted to their first Trumpacalypse, and it didnt involve admitting error. It involved amping it all up again.
I asked a specific question only answerable by those who hold the views I outlined. While I don't expect a good-faith response for the reasons you put forward, I want one.
Fair enough.
But climate change could be an existential threat. I don't know if it is or not, but I can certainly see how its possible we could muck around with the climate and trigger some feedback loop that accelerates warming to something the biosphere can't tolerate. Do you think that that's really farfetched?
As to the question: I don't know. I am an 'act as if' type person for things that risky, so I don't particularly care about whether its 'true'. I think taking care of the planet is a good idea. It sounds like perhaps you're on a similar track.
A society built on falsehood must inevitably collapse. This is a fundamental asymmetry; any system (particularly any living system) that relies on communication, relies on truth predominating over falsehood. As soon as falsehood predominates that equates to the end of communication and fragmentation has happened. I stop listening to the bullshit, and go my own way.
He was a great musician, but we will remember him most for the bat incident.
RIP mate.
All the hysteria and grandiose claims being made about Kirk’s death, how everything will change and how the “Movement” will thrive now etc etc., is so blatantly stupid and shortsighted as to be embarrassing. People simply cannot think long term or outside of their current emotions.
What will happen? Nothing. People will flail, and that’s it. It’ll make the year-end news summaries as a blip. The media will talk about it for a bit, until the next shiny object appears. I give it two weeks, if that. Then it becomes a secondary story. Information about the shooter and his trial will make news, but not front page, and by year’s end all of these world-is-ending tweets will finally be seen for what they are: the usual irrational, short term hysterics that are typical of the snowflake Right.
This is not a very happy video. But Ukraine is losing more slowly than Russia. Not very consoling, really.
I’m always wondering how long it takes for a revolution to happen these days. Have the world gone so apathetic that no one is turning the guns back towards the top of a nation that has turned their backs on them?
With so much suffering and oppression in Russia, why isn’t there any sign of resistance? Either the population is entirely indoctrinated into Putinism or Putins people have such a violent grip on the people that it is impossible.
But I wonder how this can be true? Wouldn’t there be any people with military background that would organize an underground resistance? Aren’t there any hackers who feel the need to sabotage the government?
With all of this going on in Russia, why is it only that Ukrainian special forces do operations deep in Russia and not more bombings by the people of Russia fed up with Putin?
Nazi Germany had tons of sabotages and underground resistance movements. But it seems Russians are too depressed and drunk that they have no ability to fight the power.
We’ve heard like nothing about any resistance, which is very odd. If Russia is so incompetent on the battlefield, wouldn’t their corruption and incompetence spill over into intelligence as well? Making it more likely to actually be able to organize an underground resistance
I guess the corruption and incompetence soaks in to the underground too. Or to put it a bit more sociologically, nazi Germany had another culture, and was close to going socialist/communist instead of to the nazis at that time. Russia has never really had the luxury of a bilateral culture in 'peaceful conflict' aka a democratic culture. The path in Russia is from incompetent dictator to collapse to anarchic struggles to competent dictator to incompetent dictator to collapse ....
Weird that there's barely any mention of the most high-profile political assassination (though, i understand that's a weak phrase given he was not a politician) on a website which would normally have a lot to say about it.
I wonder if this is because association with the left's response is undesirable. At any rate, it is undesirable.
Now comment's on Mikie's post:
Quoting Mikie
It's already the case that the response has gone beyond this. Whether that is kept up remains to be seen (but i also posit the "nothing" you anticipate is the same 'nothing' we get from any other major political event... it can be applied to everything throughout the Lounge which is vaguely on topic).
Quoting Mikie
It seems to me perhaps Twitter has gotten the better of you on this? The majority of responses have not been on Twitter, but even had they been (im not on it - i imagine it is rife) they are not 'the world is ending' tweets at all.
This seems to me a very similar bloviation as those who charge Kirk with what they do...racism, homophobia etc.. I didn't agree with Kirk on much but his approach - I have still yet to see anyone present anything (that isn't clipped in bad faith) that might be held up to prove his sins. Which is weird, because I can always find plenty to critique in those clips, even the good faith ones.
We're worse off without him, particularly on the right given literally no one on the left is willing to do the same. Many have taken up the job on the right. The left continues to simply pretend political violence is both inevitable and justifiable (perhaps only in this case, but that's all the most insane).
Ironic, considering a right-winger was shot to death and celebrated by the left. Even more ironic given the response to fucking Sydney Sweeney in a jeans ad was far more 'irrational' and had all hte hallmarks of 'short term hysterics' to the point that it could easily be argued that that response is exactly the type of ridiculous, divorced-from-reality thinking and posting that lead someone to think killing Kirk was justified. The ignorance continues to know no bounds..
I also note no denunciation of the murder. Just a pedastal from which you can bloviate. But, that is relatively expect. The penchant for political violence on the left is ... lets say peaking.
May 21 - Capital Jewish Museum
July 4 - Alvarado ICE facility
Sept 10 - Charlie Kirk
Sept 21 - ABC building
Sept 24 - Dallas ICE Facility
We don't even need to mention the LA bollocks or the numerous plans and plots foiled by law enforcement.
Hortmann I wont list, because its murky. Appearance is right wing, but further investigation indicates they were upset Hortmann voted against a left-wing measure. So, who knows.
Given that, Josh Shapiro's home is the only right-wing political violence we can name for the year conclusively. There's a big problem with these sorts of things though: right wing violence tends to result in more deaths. Left wing violence tends to be (quite a bit) more frequent and accetpable by more on that end of the spectrum. I suppose this concords with being more revolutionary, or whatever. But In a democratic republic, I know who I feel safer talking to.
This is also not to mention the (for practical purposes) endless social media which shows that leftists protesting or simply 'upset' will resort to violence, theft and property destruction at the drop of a hate. Toddler behaviour. Not hard to predict. But sad, nonetheless.
There’s 11 pages worth of it, in fact. Try paying attention.
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/16164/the-ballot-or/p1
Quoting AmadeusD
They are. Not being on it, it’s ridiculous to assert otherwise (for anyone wanting to be taken seriously, so this excludes you of course). There’s talk about revolution, about civil war, about things being “forever changed” after this, etc etc. (Let me guess: that doesn’t count because it’s not literally talking about the end of the world.)
Quoting AmadeusD
What a shocker.
Quoting AmadeusD
No one is saying that. No one serious. Try getting out more.
Quoting AmadeusD
No one serious is celebrating his death, despite what the conservative narrative would have you believe. Try getting out more.
Quoting AmadeusD
Then, as usual, you aren’t paying attention. In fact, it was strongly condemned immediately by political leaders, business leaders, celebrities, and the vast majority of Americans. Takes real effort not to notice this and then embarrassingly claim there was “no denunciation.” What dream world are you living in exactly?
I’ll skip the rest. I assume it’s more of the same. Go back to pretending to be a free thinker while inadvertently repeating Brietbart talking points verbatim. :up:
Max (app) (— Wikipedia) :eyes:
NSA, Mossad, and others can probably do something a bit similar, except on demand, not pre-installed.
On that note, smartphone companies got a good deal, must be lucrative.
These days, a personal smartphone is just about required for various purposes (e.g. authentication), including for other business (e.g. bank) and government, who don't pay for your phone.
Not having a smartphone is becoming like a handicap/disability if not a hindrance.
Thanks for that - if you had paid attention, you'd have known I wasn't here for quite some time. Try not to be so combative and childish constantly.
Quoting Mikie
They aren't, though. I can look through Twitter without having my own. Tweets get re-posted all over the internet. This charge is utterly asinine - and you know it.
Quoting Mikie
From some very small number of people, sure. The vast, vast vast majority of responses are about keeping calm, honouring Charlie and (I understand this ruffles your feathers, but its not what you're claiming either..) continuing 'his work'. Feel free to disagree, but if you're looking for what you've outlined (you are, obviously) you'll find it. I personally don't care. Both sides are idiots when it gets into line-towing.
Quoting Mikie
It is, given the ubiquity of the claims. There hasn't been a single (non-chopped, context-inclusive) piece of evidence presented anywhere. Feel free to have a go, if you want to. I am completely open - I wasn't a fan of his and I disagree with plenty of what he had to say given it was largely Christianity-driven. But claims require evidence, yknow?
Quoting Mikie
No one, or no one serious? This is the pipeline "No, its not happening". "Its happening, but no one important". "Ok, important people, but who cares?". I suppose the rash of people being terminated for celebrating/justifying it just doesn't exist? Kimmel, Dowd, Ilhan Omar, AOC plus several further attempts or attacks (ABC building, Fox News van, TPUSA event i think two days ago in Utah among others). It is quite hard to think you're paying much attention (particularly on Twitter) if you've not seen this - but this comes to another point: You're in an echo chamber. I don't think that's controversial at all, and it evidenced by your entirely one-sided approach to all political issues. You're allowed. I'm just pointing it out.
Quoting Mikie
It is possible your reading comprehension has taken a hit in my time away. This was aimed at you,
So more backpedaling and face-saving. You’re bad even at sophomoric equivocation. :yawn:
Next time, skip commenting on things you don’t understand.
Your comprehension has definitely taken a hit.
See above.
As it stands, you've simply resiled. That's fine. I did expect it.
:rofl: Good one, “risible” guy.
There is only so much garbage I can tolerate on the forum, and I'm not going to spend my time deleting posts one by one. So please up your game or be banned.
“For his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”
László Krasznahorkai.
:up:
I'll be delving into his work soon.
I wonder if this is also related to the way nurses find veins to start IVs.
Well it’s been exactly two months. Prediction was accurate. The news cycle has long moved on, and nothing has changed.
Quoting Chomsky 2011