Gorth

Finished Mieruko-chan episode 10 Short rundown. Hana's appetite is not just cringe worthy. It turns out it might actually be supernatural in nature. Yulia (the diminutive wannabe worlds greatest spiritualist) accidentally reveals she can see auras and Hana is glowing like a 100w light bulb in the dark, constantly attracting malicious ghosts, who chew away at her aura so to speak, hence her constant need for fuel. Miko want's to ask Yulia more about what she sees, but she of course still thinks Miko an evil overlord out for world domination and remember how she tried to choke her to death, so she runs off. In the park, a childish looking ghost tricks Miko into revealing that she can see him and comes for her. The shrine guardian from a previous episode intervenes and destroys the ghost, with an ominous warning "2", which Miko suddenly realises means, she's used 2 of the 3 extra lives shrine guardian offered her. She now decides she needs help, just constantly ignoring the ghosts is not a recipe for a long life...

I wonder if Nier: Replicant and Nier: Automata would qualify as watching anime?... they sure as heck feels like watching some very elaborate anime movies (complete with awesome soundtracks).

Watched Death Parade 2 & 3... Episode 2 was episode 1 seen from a different perspective. An (yet) unnamed woman gets let to the bar by a what I assume is a senior arbitrator. She is going to work as Decim's (the bartender) assistant (like an intern/trainee really). It shows how they experience from their perspective, what we, the viewers saw from the other side in the first episode. Episode 3 was a young couple, who had grown estranged since childhood and now suddenly realized, too late, that maybe they were meant to be together. Not exactly a "happy" ending (they are dead after all), but a lot less antagonistic attitudes all around. And now off to get episode 10 of Mieruko-chan which seems to have come out in the meantime

Australia really is a land of contrasts at times... West Australia today: East Australia at the same time:

...and to something a bit further from home... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59582146 A senior Western intelligence official has warned that if Russia decides to invade Ukraine, a conflict could spill over further into Europe. Somewhere at the end, the article eventually gets to the point, what is it really about. It's a reverse Cuba crises. Back then, The US didn't want Soviet forces withing easy striking distance of the US heartland. Now, Russia doesn't want Nato within easy striking distance of the Russian heartland: Russia wants assurances that Ukraine will never be allowed to join Nato; that Nato members will have no permanent forces or infrastructure based in Ukraine; and for a halt to military exercises near Russia's border. Of course, not without a bit of hypocrisy... But the alliance has also made clear that it believes that Ukraine has a right to make its own decisions as a sovereign nation, and it is not willing to give Russia a veto on Ukraine's future. Cuba was never given the same courtesy of course, like being allowed to make it's own sovereign decisions about what happened inside its borders. Whats better than having a standard? Two standards!

No actual examples yet, because the law hasn't been passed yet. It's just the gist of the proposed law (and the background I provided above, what went before and lead to it)

It means you can legally refuse to hire someone who is gay for example, because it offends your religious sensibilities. It would be similar to refusing to hire somebody whose skin has the "wrong" colour being legitimate because it offends whatever values you profess to have.

A bit of background information... it all started with a rugby player who got fired from his club because he went on a hate rant on social media against the LGBT community. He sued his then employer for wrongful determination, because he did nothing wrong according to the bible and his religion (I'm not kidding, that was the basis of his claims) So, the Liberal party saw an opportunity to get back at the LGBT community because of the lost referendum in 2017, which the church handled very badly. Enter stage left, a new law that would allow to discriminate as long as it fits the narrative of your (the Christian) church and give it some fancy name like the Religious Discrimination Act, which is ostensibly about not allowing people to discriminate against religion, but in reality is a carte blanche for religious people to discriminate against minorities not to their liking. Because if something is offensive to the church, it's obviously discriminating against the church, right? So, lets give the church some added protection by allowing it to discriminate at will. They have since then watered down the text a bit, as it now does not allow doctors etc. to refuse to treat minorities, even in life threatening situations (which was possible in the original wording of the law), because if they were part of LGBT community, they were obviously sinners and it would be ok for medical staff to just let them die. That's The Australian Liberal Party and the Australian Church (bunch of hypocrite child rapists that they are) for you.

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?