Gorth

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?...

Reindeer?... Try the Moose!

This is based on memory from 30 years back, so take with a grain of salt, but I remember Denmark having a "property tax" (to discourage all homes ending up in the hands of a few investors) and also a capital gains tax on stocks/shares/bonds etc... IF (big if) you sold them again within a certain time frame of buying them. You buy them and keep them long term, fine. You buy them to speculate in rate changes for the purpose of selling them a week later? Pay up taxes of the gains. As said, was a long time ago and I had neither property nor shares in Denmark.

Started watching something called 'Claymore'. Not bad so far, but only finished watching the first episode. With a total of26 episodes, plenty of time for me to change my mind. But off to a good start at least.

Your own fault for hanging on to CHOAM stock for too long. Should have sold them while they were still worth a fortune