Gorth

I would ask the opposite question... why are you religious? It makes no sense to me. I don't believe things just because tell me so. I know the world is not flat, because I've physically traveled around the globe twice for example (literally), so nobody is going to sell me the flat earth idea. But not knowing the facts also means not eliminating the possibility of one or more divine beings have a laugh at our expense. Declaring no such beings can exist is for me just as preposterous as claiming there is a god (or other beings of a metaphysical nature). The only time I feel like interfering in religious peoples lives however, is when they infringe on other peoples freedoms. I don't go knocking on church doors, trying to sell atheism to the priests or members of the congregation. But when religious leaders decides to restrict the rights of their members or worse, try to impose their limitations on me! I do speak up. Whether it's medieval dress codes, abortion issues, the right rape your daughters or telling me I can't drink wine with my dinner.

Not yet. Doesn't mean it wont. That stuff usually first goes through a theoretical physicist face and then a practical test to try out theories. Science isn't instantaneous, but a long and often iterative process to get closer and closer to "the truth" (hard facts)

Isn't John Riccitiello the old EA boss? I'm sure the name sounds familiar. In which case, I'm not surprised.

Wait for LHC II and they will tell you As a thought experiment, think about a ruler. You know, good old ruler you used in the class room to measure distances and drawing straight lines on a piece of paper. The distance between the 1st and the 2nd centimeter can in theory be divided into an infinite amount of subdivisions. I.e. divide it in half, in quarters, eights, etc. Continue until you get an infinite number of subdivisions. That means, the distance between those two points on the ruler is infinitely long. But, the universe didn't end because an infinitely long ruler suddenly stuck its ends through the barriers of the known world. We just look at it from a distance, gloss over the details and decide that, the distance between the two points is probably somewhere around a single centimeter. Give or take an infinite number Humans tend to do a bit of abstraction when it comes to comprehend things we can't comprehend. It also makes it easier to draw straight lines on a piece of paper without our heads exploding.

Agnostic

I hear the former president of Sri Lanka is looking for a new home

Before the war, Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries in the world (also a reason why they were not really welcome in the EU at the time). With 1 being the best, Ukraine ranked 122 out of 180 countries https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/ukraine This mentality is unlikely the have changed completely in a 12 month period, even when at war. "Entrepreneurs" will still try to make money in whichever way. HIMARS are a bit more tricky to stuff in the back of a van and sell on street corners

The Soviet Union banned god from the classrooms. No problem.

A bit of film music... an adaptation from The Fifth Element (depending on the day, it's either that or Galaxy Quest that takes the place as my favourite space comedy)

This Gen X is not getting it...

A brief training course is indeed no substitute for a combination of theory (how it's supposed to work) and practical exercises in the field (how it really works). Just thinking back to my own civil defense training. The theory was all nice and well, but getting chased out at 4am, sent into the dark and rescue 80kg dummies, that had to be carried out (tied to stretchers) from subterranean sewer tunnels with no light can not be explained in a class room by an instructor. Although I only ever got to use the fire fighting training and first aid training a few times in "real life" in the following decades. It was still nice to have done extensive hands on training. Edit: I'm sure the instructors had a blast, literally, on those training sessions, lobbing generous quantities of flash bang and smoke grenades everywhere to improve the immersion (it was supposed to be war after all) Edit2: Which is my anecdotal way of saying the amount and the nature of training matters.

Maybe that's why 95% of the worlds countries have designated Hamas a terrorist organisation?

The yield curve sort of corroborates my claim from a few years ago, that the global economy was headed towards the abyss in 2020 with the speed of the GFC from 2008. Covid masking both the cause and the effect, because everybody were busy pointing fingers at lock downs and blaming that for the tumbling economies. Now the world has to face it, the economic systems in their current form just doesn't work... blaming the war in Ukraine as a cause for prolonging the downturn is just insulting peoples intelligence.

Watched the first 4 episodes of Slime Diaries (the "side stories" with things happening in parallel to Tensura Nikki season 1 and first part of season 2, not to be confused with the OAD's). Nice change of pace, as it's mostly about fleshing out the setting. "Innocent" stuff like planning the farming work, characters getting fleshed out and nothing so far that interferes with the main plot, just adding a bit more depth to the setting so to speak. Since I liked season 1 a lot, I figured maybe I should give other Animes in the "Isekai" genre a go and tried 4 different ones (those ridiculous long and convoluted names that nobody remember in their next life), watching episode 1 of each. Argh.... it was bad I guess I just got lucky in the first try, finding one that hooked me completely.

Drachinifels... my favourite youtube channel (although his many hour long DryDock Q&A videos does take a bit of stamina to watch in a single day )

The good old VW Bug

Nothing new there. As absurd as the urban legend that is 'trickle down economics'

Continued from old thread...

More war this way...

I probably wouldn't ban it, but like other things, I would restrict access to it. You don't sell porn magazines and uzi's to 12 year olds for a reason. Doesn't mean those things don't have a place, but but it is intended for audiences who knows how to handle it.

Book burnings… popular since 1933

My life is a bit simpler Submitted my tax return form (took five minutes) and should get $1500 (Aussie dollars) back within a fortnight. Not quite as good as the Danish tax system though, where besides always being spot on with the tax amount, you also don’t have to submit tax returns (unless you have complicated investments or bankruptcies to deal with)

More details... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62089486 Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has collapsed after he was shot at an event in the city of Nara. Mr Abe was shot at twice while he was giving a speech, causing him to fall to the ground. His attacker has been arrested. Ex-Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe said in a tweet that the 67-year-old Mr Abe was in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest.

Why would you think that?

Game over… https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-politics-62072419 edit: It's a rolling ticker tape kind of news page... headlines keeps getting added or pushed out. Cut and pasting a few paragraph titles (Boris resigned as conservative leader, but wants to hang on to the PM perks until Autumn as "caretaker PM"): The moment news of Johnson's planned resignation broke Pound trading marginally higher Palace declines to say if Queen has spoken to PM this morning PM should apologise to Queen, says former minister Campaign to replace Johnson has already begun Evict Johnson today or he'll cause carnage, Cummings warns Johnson has appointed full replacement cabinet Raab should become caretaker PM, 1922 Committee vice-chair says