Gorth

Speaking of old stuff, I remember as a kid/young man watching a cartoon on German public tv. This was before satellite was a thing. I *think* it was called Macross. This was many decades ago and I remember very little of it. Something Sci-fi like with a giant spaceship

After all that cheerfulness, now for something more depressing... https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59199484 There are more delegates at COP26 associated with the fossil fuel industry than from any single country, analysis shared with the BBC shows. "Their influence is one of the biggest reasons why 25 years of UN climate talks have not led to real cuts in global emissions." ... Overall, they identified 503 people employed by or associated with these interests at the summit. They also found that: Fossil fuel lobbyists are members of two country delegations, Canada and Russia The fossil fuel lobby at COP is larger than the combined total of the eight delegations from the countries worst affected by climate change in the past 20 years More than 100 fossil fuel companies are represented at COP, with 30 trade associations and membership organisations also present Fossil fuel lobbyists dwarf the UNFCCC's official indigenous constituency by about two to one One of the biggest groups they identified was the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) with 103 delegates in attendance, including three people from the oil and gas company BP. According to Global Witness, IETA is backed by many major oil companies who promote offsetting and carbon trading as a way of allowing them to continue extracting oil and gas. "This is an association that has an enormous number of fossil fuel company as its members. Its agenda is driven by fossil fuel companies and serves the interests of fossil fuel companies," Mr Worthy said. "What we seeing is the putting forward of false solutions that appear to be climate action but actually preserve the status quo, and prevent us from taking the clear, simple actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground that we know are the real solutions to climate crisis." Well, not really *my* future (I'm too old, I'll be dead and gone before Earth Hell freezes), but I think the world could do with a few more young people worrying about the(ir) future. It probably won't serve any nationalist interests and it wont necessarily give any 'Like' clicks on social media, but hey, you never know... Alexander was in his early 20's when he changed the world.

Your link is wrong... the US is not a constitutional democracy I'm sure someone like Gromnir can explain in better than I, but last time I checked it was a constitutional republic. Which is why the one with the most votes doesn't necessarily win an election. The "constitution" part trumps (pun unintended) everything else. Well, at least according the US government. You can agree or disagree with them as you chose https://ar.usembassy.gov/education-culture/irc/u-s-government/ I know, that is nitpicking on terminology, but you did mention once the importance of agreeing on the terms used in a discussion.

The crossed out items are not inherently part of "Constitutional Democracy". In theory, maybe. In reality, only sometimes. When not too inconvenient. But dictionary definitions don't really matter in your day to day life. Only the reality does. Free media? Nice theory. Italy under Berlusconi, Australia under Murdoch's News Corp are two examples of "free media" gone wrong, because the media are owned 90% and 80% respectively by one person. Which means, you wont get a fair and free debate on an equal footing about political issues. Free speech... doesn't apply in Australia. Not sure what the situation is in other countries. The Morrison Government have been busy raiding the one non-Murdoch controlled broadcaster when the truth becomes inconvenient. Internet Youtubers (The Friendly Jordies have been released now) seized by anti terror police and removed, because their satire of the governments corruption and lies got too many views. Basically any reveal of outright lies and corruption is met with immediate libel cases. The last one was hilarious. They actually won the case... but the minister had to resign because he could NOT disclose who paid his legal fees. Yes, that's how bad it is. Ability to criticize your government?.... hahahaha. See above. Transparent courts? Like when the Vatican paid $2m the get their pedophile cardinal (George Pell) out of jail and put on a plane to Rome... as the only passenger and in the middle of a total lock down, with borders closed. As said, some things looks better on paper than in reality.

Don't ruin a good rant by adding facts to the conversation. It muddles everything. Some people appreciate the power of simplicity. No choices, no decisions, no options, no thinking required, no accountability other than to your superior, just do as you're told. A surprising number of people appreciate that kind of life. Others might find it stifling. You asked about what is wrong with Europe? My take on it, is it has become stagnant. And with stagnation, Entropy is not far away. Eventually the circle jerking and mutual back patting will tick off people in various corners of the continent, because yeah, Entropy has that effect. The feeling of being small, worthless gears in a big machinery causes a sense of disenfranchisement (shame on me for using such pompous words). Too big, too unwieldy, too removed from people. Nobody loves a system they feel alienated from. The biggest crime (imho) is the complete lack of initiatives that could give people a purpose, unite them or just make them appreciate what they got. But, hearts are rarely won by committees (or politburos). The Balkans know what the difference between war and peace feels like. Most of Northern and Western Europe live in their own little bubbles of self containment and self indulgence. Sadly the anarchist party is currently not accepting other members. More than one makes the decision making a hassle

Yeah, Europe is a mess. At least they mostly seems to mind their own business these days. Navalny is not somebody you want in power. He's an ultra nationalist that makes Putin pale in comparison and used to campaign on stuff like Russia for Russians and all muslims should be summarily executed without further ado (up until recently you could still find his campaign videos on Youtube, showing him in military fatigues branding a gun at a drawing of a stereotypical muslim). His pro-western tune is very new and probably only to garner support for his failed ultra nationalist campaign (although he now calls it anti corruption rather than kill all non Russians) CCP has no end to their problems. Energy crunch. Worlds highest pollution rate in it's cities. A collapsing property sector (literal and economically). A firm commitment made by Xi to start a war if necessary (he did make a solemn wow in that regard, Taiwan will become occupied, by force if necessary). Some day, the occupied country of Tibet might decide that guerilla warfare is preferable to cultural genocide. Speaking of which, they have another large ethnic group that was conquered in recent centuries, which don't feel comfortable living under Beijing.

If I should describe US politics after the last (half) dozen posts here, it sounds like the Democrats are the conservative option and the Republicans the regressive option

I remember how i tried swimming the first time... my dad had been giving me basic instructions for a while and we had practiced every now and then at the beach in the summer. The North Sea is considerably colder than anything most people outside Scandinavia associate with "the beach" Anyway, on this particular day, my dad was keeping me afloat at the surface, holding both his hands underneath me (being a lot bigger than me, he could stand on his feet) and I was making some approximation of swimming moves when he let go and told me, there you go, now swim! And I swam... like a rock! After much sputtering and splashing (and panicking), I eventually got the hang of it and made it to the surface, keeping myself afloat. I must have been around 6 or 7 years old at the time. I got a lot better at it since. I remember feeling a bit proud the first time I did a 1000m in an indoor swimming pool. Can't really live in Denmark without learning to swim I suppose. Nowhere in the country is more than 50km away from the sea.

Please explain again, *how* exactly did you go about acquiring that property???

The old Dr. Who... Anyone here seen Blakes 7? Best micro budget scifi series I ever saw.

So... I finished Claymore. Sort of a mixed bag of feelings about it. The story was interesting, but the characters?... just no. The only character in the series I felt any connection to and sympathy with was Theresa (of the faint smile). And she was dead after a few episodes. Too overly dramatic and ridiculously stylized. Not talking about the art style, but the character personalities. I'm fine with demons who eats entrails, I'm fine with shady organisations, I'm fine with orphans looking for something to connect to in life. But the "fighters"? Jeebus, what a bunch of failures as human beings in like 95% of the cases. Shakespeare would have pissed himself laughing if he was writing some of that dialogue while drunk Maybe something got lost in translation, but it feels like someone tried to squeeze a bunch of kids into doing the work of adults.

Hey, that belongs in the philosophy thread!

A happy outcome indeed, but... I'm sure there is stuff still to be worked out around what was behind her disappearance

I can't really claim to know a lot of the movies on that top ten... mostly familiar with what public tv (Danish and German) as well as Danish cinemas showed. Some nostalgia though when checking the top 30. No idea what Porkys is and I don't remember hearing anything bad about best little whorehouse as far as musicals go, but movies like Blade Runner, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back are movies my teenage self remembers as "good entertainment" at the time. It probably took an older me to appreciate a number of the other titles, including Chariots of Fire. Edit: Not sure if/how much something like Wrath of Khan even showed in the cinemas locally or only became available a decade or two later on public tv Edit2: Nvm me... just rambling a bit, straining my memory trying to remember what life was like in 1982 (it was *not* entertainment that was a priority at the time)

Just an interesting take on the current entertainment industry (movies/tv). I don't remember giving it much conscious thought, why I don't watch movies or tv these days or if I for some reason do end up starting watching something (mostly by accident), I switch off/lose interest really quickly. While not necessarily 100% correct, I think this guy hit at least a handful of nails on their heads as far as I'm concerned...

As for who the biggest offenders are... (being pre-brexit numbers, the UK is included in the EU figures) While Australia doesn't produce enough atmospheric garbage to figure on a top 5 of overall emissions, I do seem to remember the per capita figure is obscenely high... Oh yeah, and a federal right wing government that is trying to kill off the renewable energy sector, get rid of electric vehicles and hands out permits for drilling and digging for coal and gas like there was no tomorrow. Ironically, some day there might not be a tomorrow exactly because of that I'm too old to care. Survived the cold war. Need some global warming to stay warm these days...

From the days of yore, when Gorth was but a school boy and the radio the only source of music...

A good example of the educational benefits of reading Playboy

I did notice a noticeable (pun unintended) emphasis on names at the end of sentences.... like every second sentence goes something like blah blah blah... (short pause) GORTH! I'm sure there is some kind of language thing that I don't know about as the underlying reason for this way of constructing sentences.

You know the saying, out of sight, out of mind. Australia could just as well have been located in Proxima Centauri

Sounds a bit like the most scary thing I've seen up close and personal (i.e. not war torn ruins and rubble), when visiting Hong Kong and staying there for a short while. I swear those housing units looked like giant ant hills with a tremendous amount of itty bitty holes where some places inside probably got a bit of daylight. Still, those units can't have been more than few square meters each (exaggeration on my part) Edit: Even the old Soviet legacy buildings in Berlin looked like they would have been sheer luxury by comparison when they were built... (and I lived in one of those old former East German residential areas a few hundred meters south of the old Berlin wall)

Noobs like me sometimes need the power of the internet to decode what people are saying... https://geekandsundry.com/your-anime-vocabulary-starter-guide/

About 1/3 (episode 10 iirc) into Claymore. Still liking it. Interesting back and forth a bit on the timeline to give some background info. Of course the shady organisation has to be shady, like real shady. With friends like these... who needs enemies anyway?

Back to basics... Rammstein!

Supporting evidence?...