Gorth

Saw that one on the BBC, Greed and stupidity just seems to go hand in hand There should be a first law of the internet, nothing there is to be taken at face value and second law that says if an offer sounds too good to be true, you're getting ripped off big time.

The UK had Monty Python, Denmark has regular newspaper satire featuring both Queen and government, Australia has Juice Media and their "Honest Government ads". You need to be really scared when regimes becomes totalitarian in nature and don't allow critical voices. 1933 says hello. (the Australian right wing government tried and raided the offices ABC News when they didn't like their reporting, but I think they learned that negative PR is not better than no PR)

Mate, stop with the logic, yes? This is the internet... some people are immune to logic (if not to covid19). Yes, the whole "you're from country x therefore you are not entitled to contribute to a subject" is... yeah. Insert your own thoughts here, welcome to the internet

Hong Kong might "feel" like they got invaded too (even if it was more of a political than a military job)... and I know from Taiwanese friends that they don't necessarily sleep easily at night.

Most of the prisoners were massacred after Agincourt. Henry V taking notes from Richard I ("Lionheart")? Better make sure they stay dead.

I used to be a coffee addict when I was younger. A typical 20 hour work day would involve 14-15 large Bavarian beer stein sized mugs of coffee. On the odd day off it would be replaced by copious quantities of Irish Coffee (and rum and vodka and whisky and gin and tequila and... you get the picture). Probably why, when I did my first real medical checkup (besides the one I did for my permanent residency) a bit more than a year ago, the doctor just burst out "why are you even alive???" and wouldn't let me leave her office before I had swallowed some tablets and had my blood pressure measured once more. Hypertension is there to stay unfortunately, but I consider myself blessed not having to worry about stuff like cholesterol figures or diabetes (the blood tests showed I had the health of a fine young 30 year old otherwise)

About the cynical part, I think most people are in some way the sum of their life experiences. We all have some input in developing our personality, but there is only so much you can do with what you're given (in general, I know, exceptions always exists). For me, it was the experience of most of my friends and family throughout my teenage years and early twenties just kept dying on me. Freak accidents (motor cycle etc.), heroin overdose, stabbed to death in drug deals gone bad, freak medical conditions (one brain aneurysm, one heart attack at friggin 20 something) and so on. Eventually you just give up making friends, because, whats the point? Apparently people just don't hang around and you get tired of burials. I probably did develop a cynical streak over the years. I also spend a lot more time listening than talking. It seems to make people feel uncomfortable in your presence Politically I'm an anarchist. Political philosophy that is, not the comic book villain anarchists throwing old cannon ball shaped bombs with lit fuses around, thank you. As for the world... I don't think it's headed for anything better at the moment. Mostly because nothing has really changed where it matters. Old social structures are intact, people in power are mostly still in the same positions. The expendable ones are the vulnerable ones. Nothing has really changed the last few centuries there either. Only difference is the degree of hardship. It will take something much more significant than just a pandemic to change things. Although it's still a theoretical option, total nuclear war seems to have been mothballed for a while, despite many peoples expectations of a such in the 1960 to 1980's. Social unrest creates just that, social unrest. It rarely brings any significant improvement that isn't just improvement in name only, because old structures are often still around. So, short of a giant meteor impact or Yellowstone erupting catastrophically, I don't see the world changing overnight for anything, good or bad. Just gradually oscillating between getting better and worse for the majority of the common man/woman. As for the sources of much of the worlds problems, I believe the way humans seems to shy away from individual responsibility and prefer to have other people do their thinking and decision making. We're selfish bastards as a race. I know from professional experience how draining man management can be when you are responsible for decision making for a bunch of people. You almost get the feeling that people prefer someone they can empower to make their decisions for them so they can blame them for when things don't work out Overpopulation is the second big issue I see as a threat to a "better world" (my vision of a better world, the rest of the worlds mileage may vary). The increasing strain on resources and environment keeps edging towards a point of no return in sustainability. Which is also why pandemics do now and will in the future even more do so, hit us hard, because the sheer number of people living in proximity to each other has exploded. A cornucopia of bodies for an entrepreneurial little virus to explore. One of those things (among many things) I often asked myself, where is it going to end? I work in a line of business that is, when I really think about it, about putting other people out of work by automating processes and work flows. I see many businesses (our customers) who seems to focus on cost cutting when they don't sell enough. Cost cutting is often synonymous with reducing the payroll figures. So, everyone is happy, staff numbers are down, cost are down, we can now sell stuff cheaper... or pay dividends to the shareholders or whatever. Guess what, lots of other companies had the same idea. Lets reduce staff numbers. People without job security are less likely to spend money. I don't have the big data, so that was just a thought, maybe something could get into a self reinforcing downward spiral there, with humans as the obsolete part in the end. As for Australia and if the virus spreads... well, there is a big outback out there. I'm not @Guard Dog , so I don't feel like putting on some banana tree leaves and untanned hides and grab a boomerang and go hunting for roos and grubs the rest of my days. With a bit of luck, we (humans) may develop a bit more herd immunity. It won't save individuals, but it may save the many. Not sure if those were any of the answers you were looking for, but I'm happy to elaborate. Edit: I.e. I would have to ask you to ask more specific questions

Yesterday I found out that one of my old favourite Commodore 64 games (Psi 5 Trading Company) came out in two versions. The later version has 4 missions. Now they (generic 'they') tell me.... Like 35 years after the fact. I feel robbed

I'll have to save this one for tomorrow... but then I'll do my best to answer.

Wow... IQ is really through the floor in some places Edit: He would make a good Trump voter Melbourne... what are we going to do with you? Things have just gone south... so to speak. Everyone else can have fun, just not the poor Victorians. From the BBC: "Victoria has detected 288 new infections in the past 24 hours - the highest daily tally for an Australian state since the pandemic began. New South Wales had previously seen the greatest number with 211 in March, when travellers returning from overseas were Australia's biggest concern. The current outbreak, centred in Melbourne, has worsened dramatically due to local transmissions in the past three weeks. "I know and understand there will be concern across the community to see that number," Premier Daniel Andrews has just told Victorians. "It was always going to get worse before it got better. We are doing more testing than has ever been done - not by a small margin - but by a massive margin." More than 37,000 tests were carried out yesterday, he added. Melbourne's five million residents were ordered back into lockdown yesterday amid fears the city's outbreak could spread elsewhere. Other states have seen relatively few recent infections. Australia has recorded about 9,000 cases and 106 deaths."

Most likely. I just wouldn't put it past Trump to not give a damn about Stone and commute the sentence because he knows it riles up people. After all, chaos is his element. It could also be a bit of both. After all, It doesn't cost him anything to do so (he can't really lose any credibility that he doesn't have)

Sorry, can't tell you much there (about the figures), as I don't know. But they never barred citizens from returning to Australia. Just about everybody else. Edit: Just speculating, but it's a possibility that a returning citizen from overseas brought more than just some camera snapshots with them. But at the moment, nobody knows (and claims to the opposite is just guess work at the time of writing)

I don't live there anymore, so I only have Discord and Whatsapp chats with friends down there to go by, but it looks grim. Despite military deployment (to enforce quarantines) and reintroduction of the most severe lockdown measures, it's exploding in numbers. The other states have now completely closed their borders to Victoria. As for numbers, comparing my own home state (Queensland) with Victoria:: QLD https://www.covid19.qld.gov.au/ VIC https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus The reasons or of course never simple, but it looks like the flare ups began in social housing areas where people flaunted the social distancing rules and a college named Al-Taqwa College (I know little to nothing about the latter other than the numbers) Edit: A bit of info about the Al-Taqwa outbreak: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-09/al-taqwa-college-coronavirus-covid19-cluster-melbourne-truganina/12437584

A bit late... but it looks like someone still thinks old treaties and promises should be kept: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53358330 "US Supreme Court rules half of Oklahoma is Native American land"

I don't know about horses mate.... they are more deadly than all the spiders and snakes combined! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38592390 Edit: "Horses killed more people in Australia in recent years than all venomous animals combined, research has shown."

When will the Amish party run?...

A bit more Rammstein. Sort of rock, sort of metal, all industrial. Touchy subject too (pun unintended) about the rampant sexual abuse of children in the church. Song is close to 20 years old and they (the church) still have to get their **** together and do some internal reckoning. Lyrics translated: He is pious and very sensitive A picture of the Lord on his wall He wipes the stains from the bible He likes to distribute the sacrament He loves the choir boys They keep their souls clean But the tenor worries him That is why he must be closest to him Quiet and silent on his bedside table A picture of the lord He turns it over slowly When the tower clock strikes twice Hallelujah He folds his hands in prayer Hallelujah He lived without a woman Hallelujah So he has to love his next one (literal translation, I think the bible says love thy neighbour) Hallelujah The young man can stay with him Sin nests over my legs He is happy to help drive them out With music and candlelight When the tower clock strikes twice Hallelujah He folds his hands in prayer Hallelujah He lived without a woman Hallelujah So he has to love his next one Hallelujah When the tower clock strikes twice Hallelujah He takes the boy into prayer Hallelujah He is the real Christian Hallelujah And knows what charity is Hallelujah Turn around slowly turn around

How the heck does he do that guitar playing without his fingers bleeding...

Some very old Rammstein... "Heirate Mich" (Marry me)

Hmm.... one for the science thread. Is the killer a real cop or not. Does observing the killing change the status from a cop in name only to a real cop. Shroedingers Cop!

Only of you fancy working from 8:30 to 2am during crunch times (which can be weeks)

RIP Ennio Morricone. My favourite movie music maker

Melbourne... once part of Australia http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53303317

Some of us grew up in countries where AC is something you look up in a dictionary

Google translate agrees