UKMT September 2021 - Galactic Br(it)ain - The Something Awful Forums

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OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

What is the propellant in normal squirty cream because if that's also nitrous oxide I feel like that presents a problem.

I assume the reason you use nitrous oxide is because carbon dioxide would acidify the cream and curdle it?

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:31

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# ? May 25, 2024 00:28

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

It is. It's also trivial to make (but a lot less trivial to make safely), it's like someone googled the worst parts of prohibition.

Imagine doing polling for taliban approval rates. You're almost around the back of the political hyperloop to Maoist "any violence is justified by the mass line" but from the nth dimension and with more technocrats.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:33

Gonzo McFee: Jun 19, 2010

Also The Taliban didn't take over with violence. They basically rolled in unopposed after making deals with their enemies on the strength of not being the Coalition forces.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:43

Communist Thoughts: Jan 7, 2008; Our war against free speech cannot end until we silence this bronze beast!

No that doesn't sound right, we're the goodies

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:46

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

But they're only polling at 4%, so we need to go back and do more occupation.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:48

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

It genuinely is amazing that because the country has been occupied for 20 years that means that the occupation is the de-facto government and therefore automatically has the consent of the governed.

I'm sure you can apply that brain wormery to a lot of other things about blairite thinking.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:53

mediaphage: Mar 22, 2007; Excuse me, pardon me, sheer perfection coming through

OwlFancier posted:

What is the propellant in normal squirty cream because if that's also nitrous oxide I feel like that presents a problem.

I assume the reason you use nitrous oxide is because carbon dioxide would acidify the cream and curdle it?

it would make it taste acidic but it's mostly that nitrous is much less soluble in water, so it immediately comes out when you release the pressure, thus aerating the cream. carbonated cream would probably pour out into a puddle and fizz

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:55

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

And more soluble in fat, which is also how it works as an anesthetic.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 17:59

happyhippy: Feb 21, 2005; Playing games, watching movies, owning goons. 'sup; Pillbug

OwlFancier posted:

A POLICY!

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1434903037156347911

"Where did you get this one grandpa?"
"Well Johnny, I got this one for shouting at people we called colleagues the week before, and ignoring their cries and pleading to save them from their certain death for helping us."

# ? Sep 6, 2021 18:20

domhal: Dec 30, 2008; 0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself *sad*. It has, however, made him into a very, very smart boy with something like a university degree in Truth. Instead of building Communism, he now builds a precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world.

Boris Johnson enjoys the relatively straightforward positive press coverage of praising and pinning medals on soldiers.

Sir Kier: ‽

# ? Sep 6, 2021 18:25

Bobby Deluxe: May 9, 2004

OwlFancier posted:

It genuinely is amazing that because the country has been occupied for 20 years that means that the occupation is the de-facto government and therefore automatically has the consent of the governed.

right but what about afghanistan

# ? Sep 6, 2021 19:08

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

gently caress tony blair.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 19:26

Lungboy: Aug 23, 2002; NEED SQUAT FORM HELP

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

gently caress tony blair.

Warning: loving Tony Blair may result in Euan Blairs.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 19:43

Azza Bamboo: Apr 7, 2018; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021

Tonty posted:

The context of this speech �originally a reflection on the 20 years since 9/11� has dramatically changed as a result of the events of the past 20 days. I will not repeat what I have said about the fact and manner of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I will focus instead on the policy issues raised by it.

The Taliban are part of the global movement of radical Islam. The movement contains many different groups, but they share the same basic ideology. In simple terms: this holds that there is only one true faith, only one true view of that faith, and that society, politics, and culture, should be governed only by that view. Radical Islam believes not only in islamism �the turning of the religion into a political doctrine� but in the justification of struggle (if necessary, armed struggle) to achieve it.

Other islamists agree with the ends, but eschew violence, but the ideology itself is in inevitable conflict with open, modern, culturally tolerant societies. Nearly everything about 9/11 and its aftermath, particularly now, is mired in controversy. What cannot be seriously disputed, however, is that since 9/11 (though, thankfully, there�s been no further terrorist attack of that scale) radical Islam has not declined in force.

What is disputed is why. Is radical Islam a coherent ideology which represents a first order threat to our security? Or are we facing (despite some common themes) a series of disconnected security challenges �each of which require handling on its own terms based on local circumstances? Is islamism a problem, or only its manifestation in violent extremism? Is it akin �as I say� to revolutionary communism, and must be countered by a combination of security and ideological measures over the long term? Or is that to overstate it, overestimate it, and thus perversely �as some would argue by the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq� to elevate its appeal rather than diminish its appeal. This is a fundamental strategic question, and it needs a clear answer. In my view, islamism �both the ideology and the violence� is a first order security threat, and unchecked it will come to us (even if centered far from us) as 9/11 demonstrated.

The analysis published recently by Dr. El-Badawy from my Institute shows how the roots of islamism stretch back over many decades, grew in strength long before 9/11, and it examines the links between the ideology and the violence. This is supplemented by the excellent analysis of the ulema-state concept by Ahmet Kuru, and by the annual report we publish of jihadist groups, which shows that this is a global challenge, and one that is getting worse.

The ideology, whether Shia (promulgated by the islamic republic of Iran) or Sunni (promoted by groups on a spectrum from the muslim brotherhood, through to al qaeda, isis, boko haram and many others) has been the principal cause of destabilisation, across the middle east and beyond, and today in Africa. Like revolutionary communism, it operates in many different arenas and dimensions, and like it, its defeat will come ultimately through confronting both the violent and the ideology, by a combination of hard and soft power.

Now if �if!� this is a correct analysis, then (especially after the fall of Afghanistan) the leading powers must unite to develop an agreed strategy and, even if initial discussions center around western nations, China and Russia also have an interest in countering this ideology, and our best allies are to be found in the many muslim countries (including in the middle east) desperate to retake their religion from extremism. We need also to assess our vulnerability: Covid-19 has taught us about deadly pathogens. Bio-terror possibilities may seem like the realm of science fiction, but we would be wise now to prepare for their potential use by non-state actors. On the other hand, if this analysis is rejected, the alternative is (in effect) to say this is a second order problem where we are directly threatened, we directly retaliate through counter terrorism measures (drone strikes, surveillance, special forces) but otherwise we leave alone.

But, if this is where policy is heading, we have to understand it to its limitations. We need to work out what we mean by not �remaking� countries from which terrorist threats can arise. I understand it means that we do not do what we tried to do in Afghanistan. Though, one thing should be understood: our remaking didn�t fail because the people didn�t want the country remade. For sure we could have remade better, but Afghans did not choose the Taliban takeover. The last opinion poll in 2019 showed the Taliban with 4% support among the Afghan people. They conquered the country by violence, not persuasion.

The barrier to nation building is usually not the people, but poor institutional capacity and governance (including corruption) over many years, and (most of all) the challenge of trying to build while internal elements combined with external support are trying to destroy. But counter terrorism on its own won�t remove an entrenched threat. We could seek a middle course. For example, in the Sahel we could adopt a strategy of assisting countries with security but also supporting the government�s own attempts to develop their nations, because poverty and underdevelopment undoubtedly facilitate the extremists. In a way, this is what we did in Afghanistan post-2014 when NATO�s mission went to Train, Advise and Assist, but even here this will likely encompass more than conventional counterterrorism: We need some boots on the ground. Naturally, our preference is for the boots to be local, but that will not always be possible. Western societies and their political leaders have become quite understandably deeply averse to casualties amongst our armed forces. This is not a problem for the armed forces themselves, that are brave and extraordinary people, but it is now an overwhelming political constraint to any commitment to western boots on the ground except for special forces. Yet the problem this gives rise to is obvious: if the enemy we�re fighting knows that the more casualties they inflict the more our political will erodes, then the incentive structure is plain.

There is an additional challenge for Europe and NATO. It is clear now, if it wasn�t before, that America has decided that (for the foreseeable future) it has a very limited appetite for military engagement. After Kosovo I initiated European defence with France. I did this precisely because I realised that, without the United States� (and, indeed, president Clinton�s) commitment, we could never have resolved the crisis. And today the Balkans, relative to its history, can aspire to a peaceful future, hopefully within Europe. Yet the crisis was on Europe�s doorstep, not America�s. It�s Europe that faces the immediate challenge from the destabilisation of the Sahel. Europe is already facing the fallout from Libya, Syria and elsewhere in the middle east. And, for these purposes, Britain is part of Europe, like it or not.

So, how do Europe and NATO develop the capability to act when America is unwilling? Answering these questions �at least, confronting them� would also reinvigorate western policymakers' capacity to think strategically. For me, one of the most alarming developments of recent times has been that the sense that the west has lost its capacity to formulate strategy: that its short term political imperatives have simply squeezed the space for long term thinking. It is this sense more than anything else, in my judgment, which gives our allies anxiety, and our opponents a belief that our time is over. Finally, one of the most depressing things I�ve heard regularly articulated over the past weeks, is the idea that we are foolish in believing that western notions of liberal democracy and freedom are exportable, or will ever take root in the somewhat decadent terrain of western society. Now, maybe my generation of leaders were naive in thinking countries could be remade, or maybe remaking needed to last longer, but we should never forget �as we see the women of Afghanistan in the media, culture and civic society now flee in fear of their lives� that our values are still those which free people choose. Recovering confidence in those values, and in their universal application, is a necessary part of ensuring we stand up for them and are prepared to defend them.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 19:47

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of islamism, and I say tontyfication now, tontyfication tomorrow, tontyfication forever.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 20:02

fuctifino: Jun 11, 2001

https://twitter.com/IamHappyToast/status/1434955657162248195

# ? Sep 6, 2021 20:20

JoylessJester: Sep 13, 2012

Tonty posted:

Sunni (promoted by groups on a spectrum from the muslim brotherhood, through to al qaeda, isis, boko haram and many others)

Just a flat out refusal to talk about our friends the Saudis i.e 9/11

# ? Sep 6, 2021 21:06

Communist Thoughts: Jan 7, 2008; Our war against free speech cannot end until we silence this bronze beast!

won't somebody please mountbatten tonty

# ? Sep 6, 2021 22:21

Lobster God: Nov 5, 2008

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1434814678476197889?s=19

I really don't have words for this. How the gently caress are you going to use a pacer as a classroom?

Looking forward to 2035 where half the north is living in doss houses constructed from Pacers.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 22:27

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

# ? Sep 6, 2021 22:38

BalloonFish: Jun 30, 2013; Fun Shoe

Lobster God posted:

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1434814678476197889?s=19

I really don't have words for this. How the gently caress are you going to use a pacer as a classroom?

Looking forward to 2035 where half the north is living in doss houses constructed from Pacers.

It really is beyond parody - rightly or wrongly the Pacers are widely known as a symbol of the North being denied proper funding and infrastructure and being fobbed off with a load of cheap old poo poo that are woefully inadequate for and wouldn't for a moment be considered for the Home Counties...and the 'Blue Wall' populist Tories' promise to Level Up turns out to be to retire those infamous symbols and repurpose them as other forms of cheap fobbed-off stopgap services that are woefully inadequate.

Seriously, if that was proposed as the punchline of a satirical sketch ("Retire the Pacers...and use them as schools!") it would be too on the nose.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:04

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

I mean I do hope they keep some where people can walk around them and marvel at the horror but you don't need to make children live in the loving things.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:10

Bobby Deluxe: May 9, 2004

*pointing at train* hospital

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:14

Failed Imagineer: Sep 22, 2018

Welcome to Tiny ~~Train~~ School World

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:20

DaWolfey: Oct 25, 2003; College Slice

Thank you sir, thank you *bows* *doffs cap* *pulls chain on whippet*

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:31

Chatrapati: Nov 6, 2012

I'm not trying to excuse Tories trying to fob cheap stuff as replacements for necessary facilities, but I had many classes in old caravans as a kid, and I don't think it diminished those classes.

But I am from Tyne & Wear, so maybe I missed out on the spaceships or whatever Southerners used.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:35

happyhippy: Feb 21, 2005; Playing games, watching movies, owning goons. 'sup; Pillbug

Lobster God posted:

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1434814678476197889?s=19

I really don't have words for this. How the gently caress are you going to use a pacer as a classroom?

Looking forward to 2035 where half the north is living in doss houses constructed from Pacers.

This smells like a PFI or some contract dodging scam.
They have to rent the carriages for the next X years, but cant use them on actual railways.
So lets flog them to the other PFI's in other industries!

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:42

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

Chatrapati posted:

I'm not trying to excuse Tories trying to fob cheap stuff as replacements for necessary facilities, but I had many classes in old caravans as a kid, and I don't think it diminished those classes.

But I am from Tyne & Wear, so maybe I missed out on the spaceships or whatever Southerners used.

I did spend one joyous day throwing all of the chairs on top of the mobile classroom. But you can't do that with a pacer the seats are bolted down.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:47

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Chatrapati posted:

I'm not trying to excuse Tories trying to fob cheap stuff as replacements for necessary facilities, but I had many classes in old caravans as a kid, and I don't think it diminished those classes.

But I am from Tyne & Wear, so maybe I missed out on the spaceships or whatever Southerners used.

Call me crazy, but perhaps a classroom would have been better

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:48

therattle: Jul 24, 2007; Soiled Meat

Gort posted:

Call me crazy, but perhaps a classroom would have been better

What next? Teachers?!

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:50

DaWolfey: Oct 25, 2003; College Slice

I'm actually feeling really offended by these pacer classrooms lol

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:52

Chatrapati: Nov 6, 2012

OwlFancier posted:

I did spend one joyous day throwing all of the chairs on top of the mobile classroom. But you can't do that with a pacer the seats are bolted down.

Man, maybe I am the fool for thinking that they would be retrofitted.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:54

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

Why are the replies half people making fun of the trains and half people screaming about turkey?

# ? Sep 6, 2021 23:55

Trickjaw: Jun 23, 2005; Nadie puede dar lo que no tiene

Excellent. So we are now officially outranked by bank republics for infrastructure.

Those portakabins were horrid, no heat in winter, no ventilation in summer, and disturbingly prone to rocking in wind.

# ? Sep 7, 2021 00:07

Lobster God: Nov 5, 2008

Chatrapati posted:

Man, maybe I am the fool for thinking that they would be retrofitted.

Just think about it. Think about the shape. Think about what you need to do in a classroom. Think about whiteboards, lines of vision, electricity, movement of kids around the room for group work.

A portable/ temporary classroom is one thing but these are totally unsuitable.

I had plenty of lessons in temporary classrooms (and they were functional but not great) as a kid and I've been a teacher. The space in a porta cabin is one thing. A Pacer?

There's no way these things will be suitable or cheaper than a temporary classroom.

# ? Sep 7, 2021 00:14

goddamnedtwisto: Dec 31, 2004; If you ask me about the mole people in the London Underground, I WILL be forced to kill you; Fun Shoe

My primary school had two Portakabins in the playground which never made any sense because the school was small enough that there were just one class in each year which had a fixed classroom each. I think I once had a couple of classes in one because there was a broken window in my normal room, but apart from that they just sat there enigmatically taking up already extremely limited space. Then they got moved to the nursery school round the corner when it was "discovered"[1] that the original 1950s building was basically lead-enriched asbestos, where they're still somehow in use.

[1] "Discovered" as in literally every parent, teacher, and local official knew about it but pretended not to until the big storm in 1987 slightly damaged it and no builder on the planet would go near it.

# ? Sep 7, 2021 00:36

Marmaduke!: May 19, 2009; Why would it do that!?

Lobster God posted:

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1434814678476197889?s=19

I really don't have words for this. How the gently caress are you going to use a pacer as a classroom?

Looking forward to 2035 where half the north is living in doss houses constructed from Pacers.

He's missing a trick, a proper shameless politician would say he's just opened a brand new school

# ? Sep 7, 2021 00:40

Comrade Fakename: Feb 13, 2012

goddamnedtwisto posted:

My primary school had two Portakabins in the playground which never made any sense because the school was small enough that there were just one class in each year which had a fixed classroom each. I think I once had a couple of classes in one because there was a broken window in my normal room, but apart from that they just sat there enigmatically taking up already extremely limited space. Then they got moved to the nursery school round the corner when it was "discovered"[1] that the original 1950s building was basically lead-enriched asbestos, where they're still somehow in use.

[1] "Discovered" as in literally every parent, teacher, and local official knew about it but pretended not to until the big storm in 1987 slightly damaged it and no builder on the planet would go near it.

My primary school had a bunch of portakabins too, the teachers complained about them all the time. For as poo poo as they were, at least the Blair Labour government fixed that poo poo.

# ? Sep 7, 2021 01:52

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Comrade Fakename posted:

My primary school had a bunch of portakabins too, the teachers complained about them all the time. For as poo poo as they were, at least the Blair Labour government fixed that poo poo.

My secondary school had a set of "temporary huts" which had been there since the 60s. They were still there when I left in 2001 but I think they ultimately got rid of them a few years later.

# ? Sep 7, 2021 01:57

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# ? May 25, 2024 00:28

Noxville: Dec 7, 2003

Marmaduke! posted:

He's missing a trick, a proper shameless politician would say he's just opened a brand new school

It�s actually one of the 40 new hospitals

# ? Sep 7, 2021 07:48

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