Gorth

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59880166 Russian-led military troops will be deployed to help "stabilise" Kazakhstan amid anti-government demonstrations. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as nationwide unrest escalates. The protests were first sparked by rising fuel prices, but have broadened to include other political grievances. ... President Tokayev is only the second person to lead Kazakhstan since it declared independence in 1991. His election, in 2019, was condemned by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as showing scant respect for democratic standards. Much of the anger on the streets, however, seems to have been aimed at his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has held a powerful national security role since stepping down. On Wednesday, he was fired in a bid to subdue the growing unrest. Not really much of an opinion on that one to be honest, except possibly, that chaos is something that should be avoided in everyone's best interest. Too many opportunities for extremist groups (ISIS, AQ etc.) to find a new home in inaccessible parts of the world, if Kazakhstan disintegrates.

Should I stay or should I go now... (insert Clash tune) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59889522 "Tennis star Novak Djokovic has had his visa to enter Australia dramatically revoked on his arrival in Melbourne. The world number one was held in the city's airport for several hours before border forces announced he had not met entry rules and would be deported. He has reportedly now been taken to a government detention hotel pending his departure on an outbound flight." Who would have thought a federal government could be useful when state authorities fails badly?... Such a rare sight, that's worth it alone to mark a red circle around the date 2022 in the calendar. Edit: He somehow managed to convince the Australian Open organizers it would be worth it to let him flaunt the rules and **** over the average Australian, because he's someone "special", but immigration (and visas) is run by the federal government, and he didn't meet the visa requirements, even if eligible to play. Edit2: I suspect it has something to do with massive public outrage and the federal elections coming up this year. The government was already under heavy fire for selling out to the rich and famous the past two years, where Hollywood and sports stars could come and go as they please (with the federal governments blessing), whereas ordinary Australians couldn't even say last goodbyes to dying kids living just across a state border and tens of thousands of Australians stranded abroad who couldn't return home.

My brothers and my dad are... not quite bald, but very, very thin haired by now. I seem to have inherited all the hair in the family 🤔 Leaving it uncut for 3 months makes me look like a 70's hippie with "microphone hair" (it's also very curly) 😖

More TV and Streaming in the sequel:

Cutting off episodes from previous thread to sell at new, improved (and inflated) prices in a new thread! Old thread:

Death Parade 12... just goes to show, that death is not the end (bad pun). Now where is my season 2??? The dark haired woman (whose name I looked up on a wiki: Chiyuki) is given a special treat by Decim (the bartender). Taken down into the off limits basement and shown how her mother is heart broken by her death and the pain she is causing others. Because the supervisor arbitor, Nona, tampered with Decim when he was created, he's able to feel Chiyuki's pain and emotions. Rather than a logical sentence, she gets an emotional sentence instead and gets sent to the elevator with reincarnation as destination. A bit of disagreement between Nona and her own boss, Occulus (which is some kind of big boss arbiter) about the folly of adding emotions to arbiters and influencing their sentencing. Mieruko-chan was a "non-ending". Now checking if there are going to be a second season. The manga continues for quite a bit after where the 12th anime episode ends, so I suppose there is a possibility. Looks like the temp teacher wasn't the psychopath cat killer, brutally eviscerating the cats in the neighbourhood. In fact, he catches the cat killer and gives him a taste of his own medicine. Come to think of it, maybe he is a psychopath killer, just not of cats ☺️ Miko starts thinking about how to seek help against the visions and Godmother is flexing her muscles, getting out of retirement, in order to help Miko (although the latter doesn't know that yet) Edit:... which leaves me to consider what to watch next. The Promised Neverland was suggested, I'll see what it's about.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59848160 I guess Covid is now just as widespread as Metallica, having performed on all seven continents. Since 14 December, at least 16 of the 25 workers at the Princess Elisabeth Polar Station have caught the virus. Officials say cases remain mild so far. "The situation isn't dramatic," Joseph Cheek, a project manager for the International Polar Foundation, told the BBC.

There dammit! THERE !!! Stop the violence against the Aussie language 😖

Happy New Year everyone. At this point in time, 2022 is already old down here and I'm sober again 😢

A blast from the past... was 1994 really that long ago? 😢

From Gorth's young years... she was hot and she had *that* voice 🥰

Speaking of overseas... this is what Burger King looks like in Australia: The name was already taken when Burger King knocked on the door and the owner refused to sell the name. So BK had to change their brand name here.

It's been a while since I posted something here. In the meantime, I finished Mieruko-chan 12 and Death Parade 10,11 & 12 Death Parade 10 is part more exposition about arbiters, Nona the supervisor and the afterlife plus a game of cards between a nice old lady and our dark haired woman (who now has a name, that I can't remember because it's so long since i watched it). Yes, the junior arbiter is up for judgement as it is not allowed for humans to stay in any of the bars in the tower. They slowly decay and turn into dead mannequins if dragging it out too long. The episode ends with the old lady winning and getting reincarnated. The dark haired woman regaining some of her memories from before she died. Episode 11 is about the dark haired women regaining more of her memories. Decim asks her to put on a skating outfit and do some figure skating. She remembers she used to be a professional ice skater until a knee injury ended her career at a young age. She managed to hide her following depression from her closest family and eventually slit her wrists one day (which is why she's now where she is). More stuff happening to the side characters, but this is sort of the main plot atm. (to be continued in a follow up post)

My memories are a bit fuzzy, as I would have been around 8 years old at the time... I for one sure didn't worry about much other than the ever present danger of nukes raining down on us without warning. Parents have a knack of hiding concerns from their kids, so if my parents were worried, they didn't show it. The adults in the neighbourhood was split between celebrating the lack of cars and the freedom to not constantly worry about traffic or having to go visit some distant relative on a Sunday to the grumpy ones who felt mortally insulted by having to actually walk or use a bicycle to go somewhere. Especially those who had bought comparatively expensive cars. The kids had other worries. Europe was still separated by borders, so international travel wasn't really a thing anyway and the airline industry was in its infancy (compared to today), so nobody paid much attention to whether flight prices jumped up or down anyway. (Party) politics didn't interest me much at the time. I remember hearing about how the Vietnam war was drawing to a close and eventually ended, with dramatic footage of the staff evacuation form the Embassy on the TV news as well as the latest blah blah about OPEC. Not really comprehending the nature of OPEC at the time though, other than they were trying to do some kind of blackmail to get oil prices up. At least, that's how it was presented, I wasn't a critical viewer of news back then, as the state run TV (DR - Danmarks Radio) only had one TV channel with one news segment around 7PM or so. All in glorious black and white. Nobody really worried about electricity, as Denmark was relying exclusively on coal power (imported from southern Africa). Speculation on my part: I guess nobody really made the connection that the bulk carriers who sailed the coal up there needed diesel to run Bear in mind, that's the point of view of someone who wasn't even a teenager yet. The cold war sort of overshadowed most other concerns. Edit: The informational stuff about what to do in case of nuclear war was repeated daily on TV, seek the nearest bomb shelter (always note where the nearest to your current location is at all times), if not viable, seek shelter behind walls, away from windows, which should be covered by white cloth as should yourself if possible. Have iodine tablets in your medical supplies and how to treat burn injuries. When I got older, i realized how silly that all was, as a nuclear war wouldn't be survivable anyway. Edit2: The riots and demonstrations in Copenhagen against the Vietnam War was the second main event of the time, together with the Cold War mentioned above, sort of overshadowing the oil crisis a bit at times when it came to media attention. Edit3: Another thing I remember from the news at the time was a lot of debates about upgrading nukes. Nato was discussing upgrading something called Pershing something to Pershing something else in West Germany (which was a country back then) as a counter to some Soviet SS something... Yeah, not big on the specific tech details at the time. I just knew it wasn't going to increase my chance of survival 😁

Bruce, I'm old enough to remember "car free Sundays" when that happened 😂 It was actually quite nice though. No cars around, going for nice walks to the local park with my parents. Throwing old, dried bread chunks at the ducks. The world could use a bit more of that.

I always wondered if the Address that volourn once posted on the forums was his actual address (calling people out to come and get him) 😂 On a more serious note... wondering where this is heading. I guess Putin got at least one thing out of it. Direct communication. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59818978 Tangential to Ukraine, but still somewhat related: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59306223 Germany trapped between a rock and a hard place. Gas prices becoming a destabilizing factor in society, yet caving in to US and Ukrainian demands to not remove Ukraine from having the finger on the valves (and lots of free gas, which gets stolen by tonne). What will the new German chancellor do? Make his own people happy or the Ukrainian government (I somehow doubt the stolen gas and the billions of dollars of "transit fees" in any way benefits the common man in Ukraine)

I used to have a number of really annoying individuals on my ignore list before picking up the moderator hat. Luckily they all seem to have drifted away over the years. It is/was a good feature even if very poorly implemented in the board software. I wish it was as effective as say, the block/ignore feature in some mmo games. In guild wars 2 it only stops short of not rendering the characters of blocked accounts in game 😝 no, blocking people is not a good idea when you that extra little bit of responsibility here

Plundering my wallet on a monthly basis is reserved for the local Red Cross (https://www.redcross.org.au/) and Foodbank QLD (https://www.foodbank.org.au/QLD/the-foodbank-queensland-team/?state=qld), both of which needs all the help they can get up to the Christmas Holidays

I’m really trying… but I don’t remember watching a single movie released in 2021 😔 edit: nor 2020 for that matter. Mostly stuff bought on dvd. Deadpool and Valerian being the last two I bought. A bit behind the times 🤔

The chip manufacturers are lagging behind. New chips shortage in Japan... https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59750613 Supply chain issues and a world wide shortage of lorry/truck drivers to blame.

It could also imply that time isn't a linear thing?

Credit cards says Hello! No, not serious. It made perfect sense during electronics classes in Uni. The only way you could really design filters and work with frequencies. I still balk at Fourier Transformations. I effin hated that last bit.

As the titles says... if someone doesn't like Christmas, just skip this thread, it's not for you. I'm not religious, but I do like the celebratory mood and spending time with friends, drinks and good food. After a few years of lock downs, social distancing and face masks, we could all need a bit of quality time with family and friends I think. So, enjoy the social get together if nothing else. Remember 2022 is pronounced twenty twenty too 😁

It also keeps a log of editing history, so all versions of a post can be viewed for audit purposes, even if trying to blank out the post after submitting 😇 edit: I.e. the internet never forgets nor forgives 😝

They may be an acquired taste. But my two favourites so far (out of a very limited selection) are probably Made in Abyss and Death Parade