Gorth

One thing North America and Australia has in common is the occasional freaky weather.... including a number of clips from where I live (Brisbane, Queensland)

Scooter was there to remind people that the 80's were irrevocably dead, beyond any hope of resurrection Like the proverbial death knell for music...

Japan, South Korea and Australia might disagree with you though... about whether or not leaving an expansionist China alone is a good idea. Edit: Not to mention those people who likes computers, if it happens before anyone else gets to step up chip manufacturing (Taiwan being a major producer) https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/8/4/why-china-is-not-sanctioning-taiwans-crucial-tech-industry Taiwan dominates the global industry for semiconductors, critical components used in everything from smartphones and medical devices to cars and fighter jets.For the most advanced semiconductors, Taiwan accounts for 92 percent of production, according to a report by Boston Consulting.

This is the real world is calling... Bruce, please come back to the information stand, your parents are looking for you https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-46733174 Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the people of Taiwan to accept it "must and will be" reunited with China. In a speech marking 40 years since the start of improving ties, he reiterated Beijing's call for peaceful unification on a one-country-two-systems basis. However, he also warned that China reserved the right to use force. Say what you will about Xi, but losing face is something he will not allow, regardless of the cost (seems to be a cultural thing, your public "face" being more important than life itself)

Are you saying they're over?

Bastard Russians are adding to the global warming!

Padme's crotch can survive more than 14000 newtons of force (force, not "The Force") Some geeky person looked up Natalie Portman's weight (53.5kg, yes this all scientific stuff, hence metric!), calculated the height of the pillar and according to lore, the planets gravity is 90% of Earths... so 8.82 meter per second. Normal human bones gets destroyed when exposed to 4000 Newtons

Pfff.... at 40, you're barely an adult yet

In Grandfather Nurgle's eyes, they are all beautiful

When I moved to New Zealand in 2003, my new workplace had just increased the annual leave from 3 weeks to 4 weeks. Still a "cut" compared to the 5 weeks of annual leave I was used to in Denmark. Of course, since I left my old country, they increased that to 6 weeks (depending on workplace). Never mind that I don't have kids and could get 9 weeks of parental leave (as a guy!). They are also experimenting in some municipalities with 4 day work weeks, increasing the daily hours a bit to meet the 35 hour work week target...

I don't think this forum software is *that* sophisticated. My work around is to paste it into notepad first, then cut and paste it from there into a forum post. Notepad has very little formatting options supported

Your arteries would like to schedule an appointment with you

We may not have the Florida Man down here... but life in Australia can be pretty weird anyway

Felt like flexing my FPS skills a bit last night and dusted off Killing Floor 2. Splattering zombies all over the place just never gets old (as long as you don't binge play it). Also helps they put out new maps (and guns) every once in a while.

Working on my salmon technique... In the past, I would just shove the fish in the oven and bake it (in an oven proof bowl). But it gets much better if seared on a pan first and then stick the fish, with the pan and everything, in the oven. Now I just need to learn that the pan handle is hot when taking the pan out of the oven (like 220C hot)

All the spare HIMARS, NLAWS and tanks have been sent to Ukraine. Nothing left to send to the Albanians in Kosovo... so they better play nice for a while.

That's the equivalent of promising to defend Florida if it gets invaded by the USA

Probably more of interest for those of us who grew up during the cold war...

Me too I mostly remember events from after they meet Nanachi somewhere further down the Abyss

Just in time... the new season 2 is at episode 4 now Saving it (new season) for when I'm going to hang out with a friend in Melbourne next month. She wanted us to watch the new season together (the young lady was the one who introduced me to Made in Abyss) Edit: If you want the tl;dr; version, two compilation movies does an abridged version of season 1 between them. A recent movie Made in Abyss the Movie: Dawn of the Deep Soul bridges the gap between season 1 and the new season 2 Edit2: I don't think nudity etc. is a defining feature of the series, but brutality, cruelty and loss is. Bring paper tissues.

Not that I really like sharing doom and gloom, but it does look worrying... https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62310355 ...But the contraction, at an annual rate of 0.9% in the three months to July, has drawn widespread attention as worries about the economy grow. Prices for groceries, petrol and other basics are rising at the fastest pace since 1981. As the US central bank raises borrowing costs quickly to try to cool the economy and ease price pressures, fears are rising that a recession is coming - if it has not officially started already. as for the possible reasons: "I think everybody is sort of waiting for the pandemic to blow over, for the war in Ukraine to settle down, but that's not going to resolve any of the inherent systemic flaws," he says, citing high housing costs, student debt and speculative bubbles in sectors like crypto. High housing cost is not a surprise. I've been claiming for years, it's going to be a major contributor to damaging social stability in the western world...

I don't read twitter (unless people on these forums post links), but it can't be any worse than when some of us (me) read Murdoch media (Sky News/Fox News, same thing) just to groan at the lies and face palm at the sheer stupidity of comments of those who swallow the tabloid stuff... As painful as the existence of such people is, it helps you get a better view of the world and sometimes, just sometimes, help you understand where humanity goes wrong.

Indeed. In China people get to vote for their leader. In fact, they even get encouraged vigorously to vote for their leader. Also, less confusion when there are no opposition parties. Streamlines the entire process in the name of efficiency

Agreed. Weird dietary habits led to everything from SARS to Covid in recent decades... the lab was just a coincidence, that it happened to be in the same city as the outbreak. Also helped bring the spotlight on some shady research going on, on the side (unrelated to Covid19).