Gorth

Since Gromnir brought up the subject of government overreach, the Australian Liberal Party is at it again. Smarting badly after their referendum defeat on same sex marriage, they have been investigating every possible avenue to suppress civil liberties and rights of the Australian LGBT community. Their latest escapade is ironically called the 'Religious Discrimination Act'. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-introduces-contentious-religious-anti-discrimination-legislation-2021-11-25/ I say ironically, because while they market it as being about not discriminating against people because of their (Christian) religion, it's in reality, if you've followed the story the last 4 years, a way to allow people to discriminate freely if they do it in the name of religion, effectively being a blank cheque for religious people to discriminate as they see fit. Especially targeting the LGBT community (as a payback for the "wrong" referendum results).

Janssen: (about Sputnik) "How did HE get here so quickly???" Pfizer: "He took a shortcut" The casting is great too, with the different types representing the vaccines

I wonder what the little sign up in the right corner means... no Vodka or Balalaikas allowed on the premises?

Finished first episode of Death Parade. It's... different (in a good way). A young couple gets killed in a car crash at the start of their honeymoon and ends up in the bar. It takes a while for them to realize that the game (in their case, a game of darts) they have to play is serious and winner goes to heaven and the loser to hell. A few additional catches to the game, like each hit causes excruciating pain the other player. The girl reveals she's pregnant and asks her husband not to aim for any "belly parts" on the dart board. As the game progresses, the true nature of the couple sort of shines through more and more. Won't give spoilers as to what gets revealed, but at the end I was just sitting and thinking they both deserved the lift down...

Which reminds me, it's been a while since I last saw 'Event Horizon' (awesome movie, like an adaptation of the WH40K universe set in the near future)

You mean 'hard' evidence? Makes you wonder if it's the drug or the constant erection that lowers the risk of Alzheimers? Would watching porn all day long have the same effect?

C0cktail bars all over the world rejoice!

Sort of brought back memories of both Talking Heads and B52's, can't quite decide which one it's most reminiscent of (style)

Made my way through those who hunt elves... it was fun, but as mentioned previously, not binge worthy and I don't think I'm going to bother with the second season. Found something else instead, which looked interesting. A lot more serious than ripping the clothes off elf girls for sure... a show called 'Death Parade'. Wikiplot: "Whenever someone dies, they are sent to one of many mysterious bars run by bartenders serving as arbiters inside a tower in the afterlife. There, they must compete in Death Games with their souls on the line, the results of which reveal what secrets led them to their situation and what their fate will be afterwards, with the arbiters judging if their souls will either be sent for reincarnation or banished into the void. The series follows Decim, the lone bartender of the bar where people who died at the same time are sent to, known as the Quindecim bar, and his assistant. "

It's been 30 years since I had a car (back in Denmark), but iirc, the rear window had electrical heater (looked like alufoil strips connected to electric wires) and warm air from the engine for the front windows... Motorcycles are relatively simple by comparison. Take your helmet inside for 5 minutes

Tl;dr; there is no true randomness, just things that are too complex to predict.

Which means, three-quarter of Australians reported feeling NO regret for becoming intoxicated Edit: With a government like ours and shark infested water all around us, there are few escape methods.

it's been quite humid here in Brisbane this week.... actually the last several weeks. Bloody La Ninja makes it hard to plan for BBQ cooking On the bright side, the bush fire risk should be minimal

I still don't know what the heck to call it (my brain would probably explode if I really tried to work it out), but who cares? I've been binge watching Eivor a bit on youtube.

From the Faeroe Islands... (no idea how to "classify" this)

I wonder what their HR department is doing... personal development plans and internal conflict resolution doesn't seem to be on their task list

Sort of a toss up between putting it here or in the science thread... https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59418123 Scientists believe they have found "the trigger" that leads to extremely rare blood clots after the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine. The team - in Cardiff and the US - have shown in exquisite detail how a protein in the blood is attracted to a key component of the vaccine. They think this kicks off a chain reaction, involving the immune system, that can culminate in dangerous clots. ... Some package that code up inside spheres of fat, while the AstraZeneca one used an adenovirus (specifically a common cold virus from chimpanzees) as its microscopic postman. The researchers thought the adenovirus might be linked to the rare clots occurring in some people. So they used a technique called cryo-electron microscopy to take images of the adenovirus in molecular-level detail. Their study, published in the journal Science Advances, reveals the outer surface of the adenovirus attracts the platelet factor four protein to it like a magnet. Prof Alan Parker, one of the researchers at Cardiff University, told BBC News: "The adenovirus has an extremely negative surface, and platelet factor four is extremely positive and the two things fit together quite well." He added: "We've been able to prove the link between the key smoking guns of adenoviruses and platelet factor four. So, I suppose now they just need to work out how to make it not do that?

Taking a break from ripping the clothes off elves, as Mieruko-chan episode 9 got out. A bit of a meh feeling, mostly because it felt like the overall situation didn't change much. Too much is made of Hana's insatiable hunger I think, to the point where it's not just meme worthy, but cringe worthy. This episode feels like filler material i guess the term is? It had some nice touches though. Miko (the all seeing protagonist), Hana (her always hungry friend) and Yulia (the diminutive wannabe worlds greatest spiritualist, who can only see the tiny, harmless ghost) doing some bonding exercises and visiting the local house of horror at some fair. Mostly getting badgered into it by Hana, because there is a 20 free donut reward for going through the house and get a stamp at the end. It does give Miko a rare (and missed) opportunity to finally let lose, scream and yell at ghosts and tell them she can see them. Probably has some kind of therapeutic value

Sort of echoing my own thoughts on the subject. Don't expect the neighbour to open his door for you if you can't keep your own house in order so to speak. Similar to how I feel about "anti-vaxxers" in general. Freedom is not the freedom to do whatever you please at other peoples expense. Where your freedom impinges on other peoples lives and livelihood, you need to either adapt and compromise with your own freedom or get lost. Bye bye Djokovic... I'm sure the Australian Open won't be the same without you (it will be a lot safer for the other people attending it)

That again sounds like a sequel to entangled photon pairs...

It’s strange how differently people reacts to vaccine… my first injection could just as well have been a saline solution for how much I felt it afterwards (ie no side effects whatsoever). After my second shot I felt bone weary tiredness for 24 hours and that was it. Still got 4 months before a booster shot is due. Just saw some of the antivaxxer demonstrators got covid during the demonstrations and now need hospital bed. A frigging outrage, they should not be allowed to take up valuable bed space in case someone more deserving need those hospital beds.

I did a bit of Christmas shopping too. Bought a few presents for myself A set of leather sofas/lounges (3+2+1 seater for total of six seats, most of them with built in recliners), a buffet table/cupboard thing and a 3d printer (resin) + a combined washing/uv curing station for treating the resin models after printing. Edit: It was one of those big sale weekends down here.

Watched the first few episodes of those who hunt elves. It's silly, it's stupid, it's absolutely hilarious and I'm having a blast laughing at it. Not the kind of stuff you want to binge watch though. A group of people gets teleported to a fantasy realm and the spell to send them back to Japan gets botched during it's casting. Somewhere in the world, 5 elves now runs around with a fragment of the spell imprinted on their skin and the protagonists have to constantly find elves and rip their clothes off to see if they can find the missing spell fragments. No explicit nudity btw, all implied. Just so over the top Yes, I'm easily amused sometimes.

And another one from the mid 90's... yes, I actually kept some of the old jokes that circulated around in computer science circles on the internet from 1992-1997 These are two generic jokes: (1) A person belonging to an ethnic group whose members are commonly considered to have certain stereotypical mannerisms met another person belonging to a different ethnic group with a different set of imputed stereotypical mannerisms. The first person acted in a manner consistent with the stereotypes associated with his ethnic group, and proceeded to make a remark which might be considered to establish conclusively his membership in that group, whereupon his companion proceeded to make a remark with a double meaning, the first meaning of which could be interpreted to indicate his agreement with his companion, but the other meaning of which serves to corroborate his membership in his particular ethnic group. The first person took offense at his remark, and reacted in a stereotypical way! (2) Q: How many people belonging to a certain ethnic group does it take to perform a particular menial activity? A: A finite positive integer. One to perform the activity, and the rest to behave in a manner stereotypical of their ethnic group!

For the geek of mind... An engineer, a physicist and a mathematicians have to build a fence arounda flock of sheep, using as little material as possible. The engineer forms the flock into a circular shape and constructs a fence around it. The physicist builds a fence with an infinite diameter and pulls it together until it fits around the flock. The mathematicians thinks for a while, then builds a fence around himself and defines himself as being outside.