Gorth

"The hypocrisy is strong with this one" Edit: For me personally, he'll always be living proof that if you throw enough money at something, you can get away with murder

A general comment on work hours.. Maybe I'm not "most people", but as someone who spent 30 years of his life working 60+ hour work weeks, I think I'm qualified to reflect a bit on whether it was worth it or not. With the benefit of hindsight, I doubt it. Sure, it ended up paying well, gave some truly unique and interesting experiences (traveling around the world, twice, in the literal sense of the word, winning Microsoft best of world wide awards, getting invited to private Oscar parties, all memorable stuff), but was it worth paying 30 years of my life for? No social life, no time for friends etc.? Nah. If I could chose over, I might have chosen differently. 40 hours is a good compromise between overworking yourself and not working at all. edit: the last 5 years, I've worked "reduced time" (40 hours) and for the first time in living memory actually started enjoying life, getting home int he evenings and having weekends off to do stuff of my own choosing.

It might work better if Trump send in the military against the police... but that's unlikely to happen Edit: Or better yet, saved a bit on his discretionary spending on walls and maybe tackled the root causes, like widespread poverty and discrimination.

Watch this space if Twitter closes his account for being an internet troll... (no, got no idea if they have anything like that in their ToS, the thought was amusing though) Edit: from @Raithe's link: As he headed into Memorial Day weekend, Donald Trump complained that he was COVID-19’s biggest victim. “He was just in a ****ing rage,” said a person who spoke with Trump late last week. “He was saying, ‘This is so unfair to me! Everything was going great. We were cruising to reelection!” Even as the death toll neared 100,000 and unemployment ranks swelled to over 38 million, Trump couldn’t see the pandemic as anything other than something that had happened to him. “The problem is he has no empathy,” the adviser said. Trump complained that he should have been warned about the virus sooner. “The intelligence community let me down!” Could be Trump in 2020, could be Nero in 68

Not metal per se, but... it's Rammstein!

Hmm, yeah. I noticed that there are no receptionists around anymore, they all got replaced by client liaisons. Still doing the same job though Edit: Same thing with Stewardess and Flight Attendant come to think of it. Rebranding of old roles. Edit2: Completely unrelated to Corona virus (me going out on a tangent here), the subject of gender typical roles sounds more like something for the politics thread.

Kebab (from a restaurant) and some home made dessert after a South African recipe (one of the girls is a very good cook). Something soft and delicious with a distinct peppermint flavour and a bit of a cheesecake like consistency. No idea what it was called. As for drinks, no wine. Just whisky (I know, we're such plebs! ). Was a nice evening. Hadn't planned on doing anything for my birthday, so I got taken a bit by surprise with no time to really prepare anything.

Decided that social distancing is overrated and had two friends over for dinner last night. My first "socializing" in like 2 and a half months. Sort of like, oh yeah, homo sapiens, that's what they really look like when not seeing them on tv or the internet

I have an Asian friend who had stocked up on face masks a few months before the corona virus struck... the she's now using them for that, but she originally got them very much for the purpose you mention (and she got quality ones too that might help protect somewhat against tear gas, which she expected at the events she had planned on joining)

Never forget

For starters, you really need to separate the two. The government form is not tied that firmly to the economic system as you suggest. "Free" market economy exacerbates inequality even worse than communism. Sure, someone gets a lot richer, but just to take Australia as an example (stopping at 2019 where everything went to hell anyway), the GDP went up. Wealth maximizing had never been greater. Yet for the majority of the populating, their disposable income had never been lower. As Trump likes to put it, cut some red tape and get rid of regulation. Because, the GFC was such a great success right? I'm sure Fox News is still waiting for a way to pin that one on Obama. Tl;dr; anyone really believe an unregulated market economy doesn't lead to monopolies? If so, I have a very distinct looking, classy tower in Paris I want to sell. In short, a reintroduction of serfdom. As for democracy, a system that depends on majority votes is completely at the mercy of whoever controls popular opinion. In short, whoever controls mass media and social media. Russia picked up on that very fast, trying to sway popular opinions, sometimes overt, sometimes covert. I mentioned the example with Berlusconi in Itale previously. Trump is another good example of the least qualified getting the job because the media loves it. Especially the Murdoch press (who owns among other things Fox) How will you prevent corporate interests from influencing elections so politicians can get elected on their own merits and not as a tool for wealthy "special interest" groups taking lobbying to the next level? Edit: The above question is for me the key. No, I don't have an answer, I wish I did, because, you know, criticizing is easy, coming with suggestions is a lot harder. But identifying problems is usually (at least in computer science) a good start for working on solutions. A witty take on it. The difference between wealth and income probably applies to other countries too I think

Sorry, in that case, the world has less true democracies than true communist regimes.

I'm not too worried about AI being able to copy patterns... I'm more worried when it gets creative and nobody sees what's coming before it's too late.

Meh, the only really dangerous animal down here with a beak is the platypus (it's venom is lethal) At least it can't fly Edit: I was wrong, not about the flying part, but only the male platypus has venomous spurs on its hind legs. Looks harmless, right? and I had forgotten another animal that it's recommended not to get to close to: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2019/4/why-the-cassowary-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-bird-568931/

I don't think there is anything wrong with spin-off games. I wouldn't mind some third person game set in the POE setting. Could even be a different time period, like exploring past events.

How old is this song exactly? I could've sworn I used to listen to it before leaving Europe almost two decades ago

You just described Xi's long term strategy for moving jobs to China

German TV (living in the border region, I had more German language than Danish tv channels to choose from) was quite open minded about things in the 70's. What's not to love about gratuitous nudity and violence (not being mutually exclusive either)

It sort of gives my age away... I loved Zardoz (when it finally aired on TV)

It was a slow start. I didn't remember that JA2 1.13 had all those complicated inventory mechanisms, where even the effin hats have pockets Just liberated Drassen, waiting for the inevitable counter attack. Trying to train a few more militia men, as they do make the fights a bit easier once you get a foothold. I have Steroid in my team, but as funny as I find his Arnold Schwartzenegger schtick, he is not worth it at the moment. Sticking with Barry, Grunty, Ivan, Fox and myself. Wolf is busy or he would have been my next acquisition. Also, choosing weapons at Bobby Rays seems a bit more overwhelming than I remembered it being (even for 1.13) edit: I know they are "simplistic" by todays standards, but I love the little interludes between Elliot and Deidranna (Elliot, you idiot... slap, slap!) edit2: Poor Igor is in ICU. Survived the retaking of the mine with about a pixels worth of health bar left. Fox used her last medpack to prevent him from bleeding to death. I need to get Ivan, his big brother, to look after him. Still trying to decide whether i should execute Pablo or not (the corrupt airport shipping guy), I seem to remember there being some benefit later on if you let him live (and steal from your shipments)

The problem with that is, he's selective in what media he directs his ire towards (generally those who calls him out on his lies). I pity the US if they wake up some day and Fox News (or any of the the Murdoch Press owned garbage) is the only mainstream news channel, constantly parroting his words as if they had some kind of truth in them. Not going to invoke Godwins Law here, but use Italy as an example of how bad things can go when a rotten to the core populist is in bed with 90% of the media. As for injecting bleach and using hydroxychloroquine against Covid19.... I mean, if people are stupid enough to believe him, by all means, give those brave souls a Darwin Award. I only have one beef with it. The latter is a known treatment for other diseases and a rush on the stocks of something of no value to them whatsoever, could kill a lot of other people who legitimately need it, in the process. The stockpiling of toilet paper shows how intelligent the masses are sometimes.

The Dunning-Kruger effect. If I had my way, people should pass a written exam in this before being allowed to post on social media https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08d53s8/the-importance-of-knowing-you-might-be-wrong

Sounds like morning sickness Seriously reply... get tested for virus? Could also be food poisoning Edit: I know from a salmonella survivor, that it supposedly feels like someone is cutting up your intestines with a white hot knife.

I think we can quickly agree, Nato is a relic of the past. Like all obsolete things, it's struggling with it's own identity crisis. Europe would be better off with their own military superstructure. Would also mean getting Turkey out of the club. Edit: Since Australia is already part of the Eurovision Song Contest, I can't see why they couldn't join a European military alliance too

Those are not necessarily mutually exclusive Getting bored. Like, boooored. Really, really, BOOORED! Dammit Good thing i managed to move interstate just in time for everything to close down, depriving of some of those things I had been looking forward to do Ah well, Australia Zoo will open again some day. Hopefully the animals are thriving with a gawking audience in the meantime. If you're not from here and you ever get to visit Queensland, I can recommend it. The animals actually have lots of space and room to live. Edit: I used to have an annual pass to the place. Might get that again. Also on the todo list, a membership of the 24/7 gym next door to my place once they reopen https://www.australiazoo.com.au/