Gorth

Yes, they do cherry pick a bit, no fun watching the 99 other people who just show their passport and walk on through without any raised eyebrows But the cases shown are real indeed. The worst airport "incident" I watched up close and personal myself, was in Wellington Airport (returning home to Wellington after a trip back to Denmark). A group of (very young) South African boy scouts, can't have been more than 11-12 years old, got pulled over, called out, put on display in the middle of the hall and publicly humiliated, because one of them had a bag of jellybeans he hadn't declared on the form (all food items and items made of materials like wood, leather etc. has to be declared). I did feel a bit sorry for the kids, who probably didn't think of jellybeans as "food" Edit: Yeah, Kiwi customs can be brutal too... Edit2: You sort of have to envision it, a group of tiny, intimidated looking school boys surrounded by a ring of big burly (and frankly scary looking) customs agents, looking like the the local rugby team about to kick butt

It’s very hard to completely avoid, because it was apparently the second most important event in the world (after the war in Ukraine). More important than what the Taliban is doing to women or starvation again becoming a thing in Ethiopia. Ironically I remember the couple from Australian headlines some years ago (2015 iirc) them being the couple of self entitled, unmitigated **** trying to smuggle their flea bags through customs, because bio security laws only applied to normal humans, not us. We’re celebrities after all. Since then, I’ve wished a pox upon both of them. No sympathy for whatever misery befalls either of them

You might be surprised how much hatred can unite people. Often faster and tighter than the love of anything. In the actual case, the Ukrainians are doing the dying, but it's not just Ukraine fighting against Russia. The US, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, are all *active* participants in the war. Claiming otherwise would be dishonest. What I'm trying to say is, it's not a nation against a nation, but an autocrat and his tools against several groups of people who either volunteer or gather and provide resources for those fighting at the front lines. The two words nobody has mentioned yet is 'social contract' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract "In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social contract arguments typically are that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority (of the ruler, or to the decision of a majority) in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order" This is for me a much more powerful thing than people telling me I have to go fight for some colours on a piece of cloth or a nation state (which for me is something akin to the pinnacle of human idiocy). If you feel your ruler or the 'majority' you identify with is worth putting your life on the line for, then by all means do so. Question is, can you force other people to do the same? I served my time back in Denmark after getting drafted and I didn't mind. As it turned out, I ended up in the Civil Defense rather than the military, but that was the RNG involved in picking a ballot out of the bowl to see where you end up (which is way past the point of no return), so I was never conscientious objector or draft dodger myself.

Kill them with extreme prejudice of course... Not blaming Ukrainians for defending their home. Blaming people for starting wars for "their country". Defending your home and your family isn't quite the same (I think). Edit: I.e. I would wage war against Russia because of my hatred of what Putin is doing to other people, not because of some flag I'm supposed to feel somehow represents me. I.e. tangible reasons over symbolic reasons.

That time I got reincarnated as a slime (I think I might just stick with its shorter nickname Tensura Nikki) episode 22 & 23 (a "dual episode") Rimuru and his class of doomed kids travel to the "Dwelling of Spirits". Turns out the dwelling is more of a labyrinth than any obvious dwelling. They get met by a pink (yes, pink!) golem, which wants to fight them. After a hard fight, they dismantle the golem and gets introduced to Ramiris... aka Ramiris of the Labyrinth, one of the ten Demon Lords and former Queen of Spirits (from the background lore, I found out she was killed many times over and reincarnated in order to prevent Guy and Millim from blowing up the world when the two of them had a fight, which lasted seven days. Ramiris kept absorbing the enormous quantities of magic released, died and came back, over and over. Her current physical form is that of a diminutive looking fairy) Luckily she can be bribed with cookies She is however still feeling somewhat peevish because Rimuru destroyed her golem. It took a lot of effort and energy to build! Ramiris shares a bit of background info too about herself (how she was once the Queen of Spirits, who fell from grace and became a Demon Lord) and a fellow Demon Lord, 'Leon' (who was once a hero also fell from grace). Another subtle poke at Rimuru, pointing out humans can become Demon Lords, like Milim mentioned previously, asking him why he didn't want to be one. Leon was the Demon Lord that summoned Shizu to this world iirc. She does feel sympathy for the plight of the children and agrees to help, doing the summoning. The children will have to do the convincing of the spirits to merge with them until their bodies mature themselves however. Each of the kids ends up merging with a spirit of various aspects, fire, wind, space etc. Except Chloe... she ends up with a mysterious spirit from the future before anyone can stop it. Rimuru ends up somewhat red faced when Chloe says she loves him... wishing she would say that in eight... no, make that ten years time, instead Everybody is saved for now and Rimuru makes his way back to his captital, leaving the education of the kids to the school for now, knowing they are not going to explode from excess magical energy any moment. After a moment of reflection with the mask of Shizu in his hands, knowing the kids will be alright, the end credits start (in the middle of episode 23!) and a new story arch starts in the second half of the episode.... I'll take that together with episode 24 in a follow up post. Edit: This was also the first time Rimuru revealed to the kids (because he needed to show Ramiris) that he is not a human, but a slime

Nationalism brought us WWI... nationalism brought us WWII... nationalism brought us the Russian invasion of Ukraine... nationalism is overrated. Why was it again you wanted to take up arms and kill your neighbor because some politician said so?

I remember my unit of jump pack equipped ratlings with fondness (that was when playing the original Rogue Trader)

If you mean this guy... Then nah... maybe a bit personality wise, but he has more wrinkles and less hair than I do Only recent picture I have of myself is not really for sharing, besides being half a year old, it's me doing some mock posing in front of the wall sized mirrors in an empty gym. I.e. exactly the kind of silly stuff you'd do when you're completely alone and nobody's looking I have other pictures of myself of course, but they have friends too on them, so not going to share those either.

I can't even get a Cappuccino for that But, as always, it needs to be held up against the average households purchasing power. When I first moved to New Zealand (almost 20 years ago), I used my own 'Beer Index' to compare prices in stores to how many beers it translated into and compared it with similar Danish cost in (Danish) beers for similar products. I only found out years later, that there was a similar, well known McDonald Burger index for price comparison.

A review of the latest expansion for The Universe...

The old English accountant who invented sports analytics after WWI was mocked for his teams playstyle at the beginning. Today, the most successful sports clubs, regardless of whether it's Football or NFL, use it. Don't underestimate the ability to see the patterns of this world... https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61648608.amp Charles Reep: The military accountant who brought data analysis to English game

I spent 30 minutes thinking about it and came up blank. Can't think of a lookalike actor. Can't think of an actor (or even their characters) that would fit the personality. Maybe I have an identity crisis?

I was curious about Denmark, as they are mostly self sufficient with gas and oil (having a bit of both in the North Sea and relying more and more on renewable energy). Turns out they do (or did, old numbers) import some oil from Russia, but not crude oil. No idea what 'Oils Obtained from Bituminous Mineral' is edit: Sounds like something used for asphalt manufacturing...

Hey, what's the rush. Steam engines were old before someone made a working internal combustion engine

Cobra looks like it has a certain appeal... i really need to check it out some day As for Gleipnir, dang, they really left a lot out of the Anime, didn't they? From your post, about 3/4 of the story (and I still liked the anime a lot)

Same mate... same. Assumptions and generalizations are two of humanity's failures. Something about our brains wanting to reduce the workload and stop rethinking things over and over leading to shortcuts based on small sample sizes or some such (too many years since I read up on it). Still, it's such a limitation of the use of human intellect, it's criminal

As if the companies truly cares… the added cost of fines will be passed on to the consumers (or a few thousand employees let go, anything to avoid jeopardising they dividends)

Completely void of any logic (or truth), but funny indeed. He had me when he conflated Ukraine and LGBT rights Good satire of the way people think leftists think.

I do sometimes wonder if “The Great Sage” isn’t somewhat more than just a smug encyclopaedia

That time I got reincarnated as a slime episode 21... The slime overlord turned school teacher manages to earn the respect of the kids... backed in part by a giant intimidating and growling giant dire wolf (leaving no doubt that the kids are close to becoming dog food) and a "test", where the kids all get 10 minutes of one on one fighting and a chance to see if they can take him down. Of course it was never really a contest and he also observes that none of their excess magical energy got "burnt off" in the skirmishes. One kid, Chloe caught his attention for reasons he can't pinpoint. He shows them Shizu's mask (which they all recognize) and tell them she entrusted them to him and he will do anything he can to save them. The kids start acting just a little nicer.... Following up on his hunch, that Shizu survived until adulthood because of her merging with a superior spirit, he asks the Dryad for advice, where to find superior spirits. She points him towards something called The Dwelling of Spirits, ruled over by The Queen of Spirits. Yeah... getting all spiritual now (including a nightly conversation, well monologue, with Shizu's spirit where he repeats his commitment to save the kids) Unfortunately, the Queen of Spirits that the Dryad served, passed away a long time ago and she has no connection to the current ruler. Which means, she can't give him any directions towards an entrance to the place Rimuru spends the next month trying to figure out how to access the place. More teaching, class excursions, lessons and bonding exercises follow. A chance encounter with a human gives him a clue to the places whereabouts, as she claims it was close to the village where she grew up. Off Rimuru, Ranga and the class goes in search of superior spirits...

Way to go! Curiosity reflex triggered... whereabouts???

You should visit Scandinavia some day

That's a bit like saying all conservatives are religious nut cases and vice versa... too much generalization and mixing of ideologies. I was surprised the Mona Lisa thing didn't get attributed to BLM

I refuse to read any of Murdochs outlets, but from a more trust worthy site (Wales Online), it was an environmental activist that smeared the glass in front of the painting with cream... (didn't say if the cream was from free range cow milk) Sorry, your holy crusade against the radical left needs to be postponed a bit. Wouldn't want to waste all that zealotry....

Most famous drinking song ever to come out of London?