Maedhros

Better Call Saul is fantastic. I keep trying to convince my friends to watch it, but they have a spinoff aversion that I share in most cases - but with BCS I'm glad I gave it a chance.

No one wants to remain in dire circumstances. There's always the social inheritance aspect. Someone born to poor, unintelligent or abusive parents will never have the same opportunity as others. Technically, maybe, but not in reality, knowing what we do about the human brain and how early experiences shape us. How society allows for poor (in any meaning of the word) people to break through the chain says a lot about that society. In the US you seem to want to keep the status quo, with expensive education and healthcare that definitely doesn't help poor people be "free". It's good that you see the benefit of donations and tax supported safety nets though.

Memories of Murder and The Wailing are my two favorite South korean films. I also liked Snowpiercer though and didn't feel like I lost any iq points throughout it. It had a silly frenzied charm I enjoyed.

Isometric RPGs are nearly all very boring. Most lauded games are well crafted, but are also dull and a chore to play. Red Dead Redemption 2 comes to mind.

Out of curiosity, why do you have no desire to see it? Not a fan of the director?

Suicide Squad was torture material for me. I don't really agree with the consensus view that Margot Robbie somehow made it watchable. Her character wasn't well done, and suffers from being clearly written to please fans. Arya in Game of Thrones suffered from the same fate after a while. The only good thing that came out of the film was all the Harley Quinn halloween costumes. Apparently Birds of Prey will be a bit better though.

Do we really though? There are many here and elsewhere who want the government to provide cheaper healthcare and education through raised taxes, which is fully possible without abandoning a capitalist system - but I don't see many people who genuinly defend communism? Except the occational oddball every now and then.

Recently got a new job. Now I can walk 15 minutes to my new workplace, as opposed to a one hour drive with the bus. I wish I was asked what my favorite pasta was though. I detest generic job interviews, and feel like they (often) say something about the person interviewing you. I rejected a job offer recently because I got a bad feeling on the boss lady, it felt like she had just googled "job interview questions", and asked the ten first ones she found. She came across as really dull, and in my experience places with dull/bad leaders also have similar work environments.

This is probably only interesting to me, but I found an old map of where descendants of Norwegians are situated in the US. There is a saying here about there being more Norwegians in the US than in Norway, and apparently it's true. It's a bit amusing that so many decided they liked the cold, that they again went for the North. However that's apparently where you could find cheap land at the time. Norway was very poor in those times, had a huge percentage of its population move there. This also lead to Norwegian workers in their homecountry getting reasonable wages again due to now having a smaller work force. My own great-grandfather went to New York, and one of his sons stayed there, whereas my own grandfather returned to Norway. So there's a seperate branch of my family living in New York. I was invited to visit them when I was in New York ten years ago, but I chickened out, being of course Norwegian and thus socially awkward.

So now it looks like Bernie might be winning after all? According to NYtimes' live estimations anyway. What a mess. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/04/us/elections/results-iowa-caucus.html

Re-watching Wolf Hall these days. I still think it's one of the most criminally overlooked shows of the last decade.

The PISA tests are near meaningless. I don't think you'll find many educators who value them. Each country has different practises, and the countries that "teach to the test" will always score better. I know parts of my country even send away the "weak students" to look better when the results come in. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if practises like this are common in other countries as well. http://theconversation.com/pisa-global-education-rankings-are-the-road-to-ruin-heres-why-70291 (Also: I really, really hate multiple choice tests). Smaller classes is the way to go. It's the same in kindergartens. The quality of the days when we are 14-15 kids as opposed to 22 of them is worlds apart. The kids have it better, and so do the teachers. More time to build good relations with your pupils/students, and more time to actually teach, is the key here. You gotta have the guts to throw money at the sector for this to happen though. A county in Norway did an experiment where increased the ratio of grownups to kids by hiring in more people in every kindergarten. Instead of losing money due to increased wage payouts, the county actually saved millions due to the sick leave percentage being halfed, and them not having to call in temporary staff anymore. Sometimes you gotta spend money to save money. I'll never not disagree with someone who thinks cutting costs in the Education sector is a good idea. From buildings, school materials, people....it's something actually worth spending a lot of money on (as long as it isn't thrown blindly which has a tendency to happen).

Isn't Falcon just a normal, trained guy? Won't him throwing the shield basically just be a guy throwing a...shield? Not the most effective weapon? It seems like it has an engine of its own though, based on the trailer.

It spans 154 countries. Small countries in high-income democracies (Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg) are exceptions, but the general trend in the west seems to be a lack of trust to the possibility of good democratic governance. From the conclusion in the study: Of course, the times of today are being compared with the 90s, where the west came out of the Cold War with renewed optimism. Too bad climate change is such a divisive foe! If everyone believed climate change it was real, that's actually something the world could unite behind. Instead, you're gonna have half of the population be mad at the government no matter which path they choose. Conclusion: The world needs a new common foe to focus on. I nominate Sweden!

Dissatisfaction with democracy at record high (since tracking started in 1995). https://www.bbc.com/news/education-51281722

Read the other stories there, that's some insane stuff. Surely it's also a case of really bad decisionmaking, taking loans with companies that are known to be hawks? Or? Over here people take student loans even if they don't need them since it's provided by the government, and guaranteed to always have the lowest possible interest rate (based on the market). You get to delete up to 40% of your debt if you pass all exams. I studied for 6 years, taking a full loan each year, and the downpayment is barely noticeable at around $150 a month.

I have a stupid question @Zoraptor or @ComradeMaster I'm gonna sell my old computer except my graphics card (GTX 970), which I'll keep for a bit longer until I can afford a 2070 or 2070 super. Do I need to retrieve the power cables that goes into the GPU, or do those cables come with every PSU? I can't remember whether they came with the GTX970 or with the PSU itself.

Microsoft aiming to be carbon negative by 2030 https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/01/16/microsoft-will-be-carbon-negative-by-2030/

A guy from Nordland, in the northern parts of Norway, finds roman coin from the time of Marcus Aurelius. It's the northernmost finding of roman coin in Norway. He also found a 1000 year old viking sword. Apparently metal detecting has become a big thing here lately. https://www.nrk.no/nordland/nordligste-funn-av-2000-ar-gammel-romersk-mynt-pa-donna-1.14862482 (google translate needed)

I dislike Tucker Carlson as much as the next guy, and I'll never not enjoy watching that crossfire clip of Jon Stewart and him, but to be fair he seems to be vehemently against his country being involved in foreign wars, so that's very un-nazilike. Progressives, liberalists and the alt-right seem to find common ground in being opposed to US warfare abroad. The new alliance?!

Hypocrisy can be very annoying, and the "houlier-than-thou" attitude can be annoyingly prominent on the left side of the political spectrum. However, in this "internet detective age" I think many need to remember that just because someone's a hypocrite doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong. It's fully possible to be the biggest hypocrite in the room, but at the same time the one with the best ideas. Personally I dislike the politicians who disregard science and research the most. Be it in regards to climate change, education or whatnot. I don't know what I'd call that personality flaw though? Idiocy?

No political candidate will make Bernie Sanders' wealth suffer more than Bernie Sanders (if he wins). Bernie's so called hypocrisy is if anything a stronger argument for higher taxes on the rich.

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2943/study-confirms-climate-models-are-getting-future-warming-projections-right/