Gorth

Funny thing is... she was a bit undecided on that one, because she hated Novaks guts (did I mention she's very angry?)

Tell that to my Serbian friend in Melbourne at your own peril. I'm 100% she's waiting for Dan Andrews (the PM) to die, so she can dance on his grave and vandalize his tombstone (for ordering lock downs and social distancing, which made her feel like a caged animal). Mind you, she *is* perpetually angry unless you are in her friend circle (which i consider myself lucky enough to be, so I don't need to watch my back) Edit: I.e. uncompromising and unforgiving towards those who "wrong" her and undying loyalty and commitment to those she consider friends (which are people you can count on a single hand)

I suspect this whole conversation is threatening to become a covid thread... Just to not stay on topic, down here it was bad in both Melbourne and Sydney, with groups of people creating picket lines blocking access to vaccination locations and physically attacking people on the street and in public transport, tearing off their face masks because they were the visible symbol of systemic oppression and collectively aiding the Illuminati or whatever. Also, making sure they met up thousands at a time to ensure maximum spread of the virus while violently denying people their right to keep themselves safe from the spread. Sadly way too many of those "anti-vaxxers" survived the epidemic (ironically thanks to everybody else but their own effort) and can now possibly pass on their genes

Entirely anecdotal, but it sort of matches my observations of people around me in this side of the world too... You forgot QAnon believer btw

Not just a tiny balloon to force down…. 200feet tall and carrying equipment the size and mass of an airliner https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64548140 Edit rather than double post: Just a personal suspicion, since it was fully operational and could navigate and move under its own power, i suspect the CCP wanted to try two things at once. Test the US response to the intrusion (to see how far they can push the envelope) and as an added bonus, take some nice, slo-mo shots of US military installations in the northwestern part of the country (as they are going to be first responders to an invasion of Taiwan) I'm sure Kim in North Korea, suddenly feeling inspired, is drooling over pictures like these (having wet dreams about giant balloons, approaching a US cities, potentially loaded with "dirty bombs")

Now I feel tempted to dig out my old Commodore 64 reference manual from 1984 and take a picture of it \ Edit: Found some old Commodore books, but not the one i was looking for. I hope I still got it in a box somewhere (this is the one I'm missing from my photo https://archive.org/details/c64-programmer-ref) Edit2: Much of my early Commodore literature is in German, as the only place well stocked was a large store in Flensburg, on the other side of the border (this was when there were still physical borders)

If you need a customized soundtrack for it... https://www.medievalists.net/2022/02/flagellant-songs-middle-ages/

I don't recognize the name, but I am familiar with the idea of money being good up to a point. It sounds like a variation of Maslow's Hierarchy, which I was taught in school, 45 years ago. Money goes some way to alleviate a lot of basic needs (and problems), allowing you to focus on more "spiritual" needs

That's a question open for interpretation Are they being taught or are they responsible The concept of historical responsibility is a tricky one. Should you hold a nation accountable of atrocities? If so, for how long? Does it have an expiry date, so if you avoid being held accountable, you (the country) goes free? I know artwork, stolen from European Jews by the Nazi's is still being recovered and handed back to the descendants of the previous Jewish owners. Is that right to do so? If so, is then wrong to point out, that a lot of the benefits of your current life came at the expense of exploitation of another ethnic group? Even if you as an individual did no wrong, your privilege and another persons misery may be a result of past injustice that never got corrected. Is the idea of correcting old wrongs right or wrong? Is it all about the timing? Or should justice be enacted only when it's convenient for society's purposes? No, I don't have the answers. Doesn't mean I don't scratch my head at times and think about it (without ever getting closer to an answer)

The number that really matters is how is the median household income doing compared to living expenses. That's what gives you a stable society and avoids social unrest (and also a good metric for measuring a country's poverty levels). The top 1% getting richer just inflates the GDP without improving the quality of life of anyone (and I mean literally anyone as they wont get any improvement of quality of life out of it). That being said, I haven't read the link yet, so not sure if it covers the subject.

I did. To be fair, getting to his position in the environment he's in, it's not unreasonable to assume a modicum of cunning and intelligence. Not a whataboutif, but a similar example of the principle, Saddam Hussein. Ruthless, uncharming, universally hated, but he stayed in power until he got bombed out of his palace and even then, it took months to finally dispose of him. You don't cling that hard to power and life itself without some degree of cognitive abilities, no matter how twisted they may be. Libya's Gadaffi? Same thing etc. @a few others who brought up the subject Not sure who anyone sees supporting the Russian attack here (too many posts to trawl through and see if I can find any to be honest). Not spending all your time condemning Russia is not the same as agreeing. Echo chambers never did anyone any favours and bringing to anyones attention, that "The West" is corrupt, rotten to the core and would do the same thing without batting an eyelid (if it resulted in a net positive on the geopolitical balance sheet) isn't the same as saying Russia did anything morally defensible, it's just saying that the soap box it's proclaimed from may be a bit rickety and frayed at the corners. It sometimes feel’s harder to constantly say the other guy sucks when your own is no paragon of virtue in geopolitics. Introspection and self criticism isn't always a bad thing. In fact, you can have cake and eat it too in this situation.

While in Melbourne, I stayed at a place that had Amazon prime. Watched a number of episodes of something called Vox Machina. Wasn't bad. Was actually quite nice at times. Too much profanity and too little nudity though (I would say, obviously more for a US than a Japanese audience )

England

My own recording from Friday night... yes, sucky phone quality. But I don't think there was any pro-shot from Friday night to be found anywhere. No, I did not even try to record anything from Phantom of The Opera on the Saturday night, but I'm sure I can find clips on youtube from official sources for that one. Got back to Brisbane a few hours ago. Edit: that last visit she mentions... my friend and I were there too at that concert and expected to them to back soon

Saltwater freezes too. Ever tried running around on top of frozen sea water at the beach? Did that as a kid sometimes. It’s weirdly elastic to walk on compared to fresh water ice. tl;dr; salt only lowers the freezing point by seven degrees Celsius or so

I grew up with dd/mm/yy because year 2000 was a myth and years were double digits For data purposes yyyy/mm/de makes sense because of lexicographical sorting of the fields is more efficient

Yeah, the proverbial needle in the haystack They do risk a fine of up to $1000 for careless handling of highly radioactive Caesium 13something. Even littering can incur harsher penalties

Australian morning TV... not always for kids

Not so much done today as going to do the next few days. Flying to Melbourne Thursday morning to meet up with my friend and hang out for a few days. Meeting an old colleague Thursday evening for some movies and Chinese food (he's Taiwanese and knows all the good places). Watching Halestorm concert Friday night, watching Phantom of the Opera on Saturday night and hopefully getting time for a bit of shopping in between. As well as a lunch at some point in something called 'The Danish House'. No idea what it is, but curiosity got the better of me. We saw Halestorm in 2019. It was great. Had to wait for Covid to settle down and the concert scene to pick up down under though. Her suggestion... none of us have seen Phantom of the Opera before, but we were both keen to see it.

ME is weird... ME1 had the most fun combat, ME2 the most fun companions and ME3 the most fun DLC (I had a blast joining the party on the Citadel)

Heh, Project "Sweet Potato" No idea what these guys normally do/did, but those trailers looked like a fun game (I liked the humour)

I don't get 80% of those references and I'm sure the remaining 20% doesn't apply. I suck at being Gen X

Good thing we live in a capitalist world, where employee hard work and initiative is rewarded, so we get a constant supply of cheap, high quality games... /sarcasm

Is there such a thing as a will wallet saving throw?

"Mac Walters, lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and 3 as well as creative director on Mass Effect: Andromeda"... do you *really* want that on your resume (not as bad as having Anthem on it, I know)?