UKMT Summer 2022 - The Pipes, The Pipes Are Empty

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Summer 2022 - The Pipes, The Pipes Are Empty

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

Bobstar posted:

Speaking of global foreign money something

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/16/ofwat-chief-defends-water-companies-over-lack-of-new-reservoirs

quote:
He also defended the large pay water company bosses and shareholders have been given, saying it made them more competitive in the global market.

What does this mean?? It's just like a magic incantation in defense of high pay that this point.

Our reservoirs are going to travel around the world beating the poo poo out of the Bolivians and Colombians and so forth. Bigly reservoirs.

e: Me trying to nicely ask next door's cat to leave the kitchen while I'm cooking with the back door open

# ? Aug 17, 2022 13:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 26, 2024 14:36

Angrymog: Jan 30, 2012; Really Madcats

People in my work canteen talking about not paying their leccy bill, and being disgusted at all the clapping for nurses but not paying them.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 13:53

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Angrymog posted:

People in my work canteen talking about not paying their leccy bill, and being disgusted at all the clapping for nurses but not paying them.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 13:57

Wolfsbane: Jul 29, 2009; What time is it, Eccles?

Angrymog posted:

People in my work canteen talking about not paying their leccy bill, and being disgusted at all the clapping for nurses but not paying them.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:00

roomtone: Jul 1, 2021; by Fluffdaddy
(and can't post for 4 days!)

i just figure at some point the government is going to be forced to step in and take substantial measures to alleviate the energy costs that are about to come in. isn't the majority of the rise in prices just motivated by profit seeking rather than the actual cost of resources? the companies are all rich. if society is flat out collapsing and the government doesn't do anything, it won't be the government for very long, so they'll have to pay for people's electricity one way or another, regardless of how stupid liz truss is. that's why they ended up having to do the furlough even though it seems to contradict the core value of conservatism on the surface, self-preservation.

they'll wait too long and try to half-rear end it as much as possible but it's doing something they don't want to do vs complete collapse. at a certain point it wouldn't even be up to them, they'd be overthown. so i dunno, i'm not really that scared either way. nothing i can do about it anyway.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:02

Jedit: Dec 10, 2011; Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

roomtone posted:

i just figure at some point the government is going to be forced to step in and take substantial measures to alleviate the energy costs that are about to come in. isn't the majority of the rise in prices just motivated by profit seeking rather than the actual cost of resources? the companies are all rich. if society is flat out collapsing and the government doesn't do anything, it won't be the government for very long, so they'll have to pay for people's electricity one way or another, regardless of how stupid liz truss is. that's why they ended up having to do the furlough even though it seems to contradict the core value of conservatism on the surface, self-preservation.

they'll wait too long and try to half-rear end it as much as possible but it's doing something they don't want to do vs complete collapse. at a certain point it wouldn't even be up to them, they'd be overthown. so i dunno, i'm not really that scared either way. nothing i can do about it anyway.

That's what Thatcher would have done. Her current crop of cargo cultists lack the insight.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:07

DeadButDelicious: Oct 11, 2012; Leave me to do my dark bidding on the internet!

Angrymog posted:

People in my work canteen talking about not paying their leccy bill, and being disgusted at all the clapping for nurses but not paying them.

Our landlord owns the construction company that built our block of flats and all the utility bills go through him so even if we wanted to tell him to sling his hook when our next bill comes through he'd probably give us our two month's marching orders as a response. :smith:

Its not like we haven't been looking for somewhere affordable and nearby since the beginning of the year as it is. I feel like a Uni student again where I'm deathly afraid of checking my bank balance for how bad it is.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:11

roomtone: Jul 1, 2021; by Fluffdaddy
(and can't post for 4 days!)

Jedit posted:

That's what Thatcher would have done. Her current crop of cargo cultists lack the insight.

i think fear might make them more insightful

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:12

Z the IVth: Jan 28, 2009; The trouble with your "expendable machines"; Fun Shoe

roomtone posted:

i just figure at some point the government is going to be forced to step in and take substantial measures to alleviate the energy costs that are about to come in. isn't the majority of the rise in prices just motivated by profit seeking rather than the actual cost of resources? the companies are all rich. if society is flat out collapsing and the government doesn't do anything, it won't be the government for very long, so they'll have to pay for people's electricity one way or another, regardless of how stupid liz truss is. that's why they ended up having to do the furlough even though it seems to contradict the core value of conservatism on the surface, self-preservation.

they'll wait too long and try to half-rear end it as much as possible but it's doing something they don't want to do vs complete collapse. at a certain point it wouldn't even be up to them, they'd be overthown. so i dunno, i'm not really that scared either way. nothing i can do about it anyway.

They might be dumb enough to think they are untouchable, despite having cost cut both the police and the army.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:12

Doctor_Fruitbat: Jun 2, 2013

There's not really a good time to have Liz Truss in charge, but this really is an astonishingly bad time to have her take the reins. She is far, far too stupid and high on her own farts to stumble across a workable solution even by accident.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:25

fuctifino: Jun 11, 2001

https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1559886693599268864

:allears:

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:28

kecske: Feb 28, 2011; it's round, like always

Danger - Octopus! posted:

I know things are poo poo for individuals with the energy price rises, but I'm really struggling to see how businesses, public services, community organisations and cultural venues are going to survive this without major government intervention too. Even for places that charge for whatever their service is, it's not like the public are going to be able to afford massively higher prices what with their own outgoings having to be cut to afford their home energy bills.

https://twitter.com/1goodtern/status/1559519407742885890?s=20&t=8wp8MWlTVPw0ApgTmuYtFw

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/17/the-lowry-salford-faces-tripled-electricity-bill

I work in a big cultural venue in that there London and 3 years ago a year's energy (gas & elec) after subsidies and reclaimed costs through CHP etc was about half a mil a year, next years projected estimate has passed 3 million and is still going up.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:28

bump_fn: Apr 12, 2004; _{two of them}

Danger - Octopus! posted:

I know things are poo poo for individuals with the energy price rises, but I'm really struggling to see how businesses, public services, community organisations and cultural venues are going to survive this without major government intervention too. Even for places that charge for whatever their service is, it's not like the public are going to be able to afford massively higher prices what with their own outgoings having to be cut to afford their home energy bills.

https://twitter.com/1goodtern/status/1559519407742885890?s=20&t=8wp8MWlTVPw0ApgTmuYtFw

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/17/the-lowry-salford-faces-tripled-electricity-bill

curious to see how accelerationists respond to this

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:31

Doctor_Fruitbat: Jun 2, 2013

Is there any business in the country that can weather the price hikes we're hearing about? Like we're going from "basically workable" to "literally no energy bills can be paid by anyone in any sector" in a matter of months.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:34

Regarde Aduck: Oct 19, 2012; c l o u d k i t t e n; Grimey Drawer

everything collapsing is the optimist scenerio because there's a relatively brief episode of suffering and then something better could emerge

what is more likely is there's a last minute barely functional 'solution' that keeps the country on life support but with everything getting worse indefinitely

much like Brexit, oh how I wish we saw the chaos we predicted instead of the slow and steady decline we got

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:35

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

Regarde Aduck posted:

much like Brexit, oh how I wish we saw the chaos we predicted instead of the slow and steady decline we got

can't disagree there, yeah

bump_fn posted:

curious to see how accelerationists respond to this

Not a lot I can do about it, unfortunately

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:41

OzyMandrill: Aug 12, 2013; Look upon my words
and despair

We're down around 1.2 dollars to the pound, so those with multimillion pound foreign investments have seen a 15-20% rise since the start of the year! that will make those fuel bills a bit eeasier. Huh? We pay global rates which are priced in dollars? so the scheme to goose the exchange rate to get rich quick is colliding with the scheme to convert the national assets into private company assets that trade globally in dollars? And we're all hosed?
It's the Brexit dividend at last!
(Still virtually no mention in the media about the exchange rate catastrophe which is driving this, and is source of the real brexit dividends to those with large foreign investments)

OzyMandrill fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Aug 17, 2022

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:42

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

Guavanaut posted:

literally lolled

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:43

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

roomtone posted:

i just figure at some point the government is going to be forced to step in and take substantial measures to alleviate the energy costs that are about to come in. isn't the majority of the rise in prices just motivated by profit seeking rather than the actual cost of resources? the companies are all rich. if society is flat out collapsing and the government doesn't do anything, it won't be the government for very long, so they'll have to pay for people's electricity one way or another, regardless of how stupid liz truss is. that's why they ended up having to do the furlough even though it seems to contradict the core value of conservatism on the surface, self-preservation.

they'll wait too long and try to half-rear end it as much as possible but it's doing something they don't want to do vs complete collapse. at a certain point it wouldn't even be up to them, they'd be overthown. so i dunno, i'm not really that scared either way. nothing i can do about it anyway.

We produce 50% of natural gas natively, and import the other 50% from the global market (mostly Norway). The cost of local gas production has not gone up since 2021 - it's just the oil companies in the north sea seeing the global price go up and hiking how much they charge in response, keeping the profits for themselves. The international market we can do less about - Europe will pay inflated prices if we dont (unless we, say collaborated with the EU maybe?). But the government and media is so scared of annoying *the free market* the idea of just forcing them to sell at below market prices, or nationalising the production companies in a declining field, has not been mentioned anywhere.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:44

Jaeluni Asjil: Apr 18, 2018; Sorry I thought you were a landlord when I gave you your old avatar!

It's this pernicious myth that all charities are stuffed full of people earning more than �100k.

The average full-time salary of a charity worker is around �30k. Many of us are on FTE less than that and in any case are on part-time contracts (though we all work considerably more than our paid hours) so pro-rata down. My pro-rated salary is lower than the personal tax allowance. My boss on more weekly hours than me gets a couple of hundred a month more, and the CEO gets just another �200-�300 per month on top of that.

Our annual salary bill with 4 employees is under �50k.

We have active volunteers (mostly people of retirement age) who do necessary work on fund-raising, help in the office and so on and our trustees are all unpaid.
There are very few charities creaming it off the top.

We work on the 3rd floor of a rickety old listed building and last year we renewed our electricity for 12 months. We couldn't go longer than that because
(1) as with all charities we are dependent on donations and with the signposts already being there that the winds of austerity were incoming,
(2) we were thinking of trying to relocate as the stairs up to our 3rd floor offices are becoming more and more difficult for the volunteers to manage - given assorted mobility issues - and the founder of our charity can no longer even make it to the first floor due to heart problems.
However, our landlord has halved our rent since covid so finding something we can afford (even if he charged us full rent) is impossible.

I dread to think what our fuel renewal costs will be, and believe me the building is absolutely freezing cold in winter when there's no heating.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 14:57

Barry Foster: Dec 24, 2007; What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)

https://twitter.com/novaramedia/status/1559889991270109184

# ? Aug 17, 2022 15:06

Jaeluni Asjil: Apr 18, 2018; Sorry I thought you were a landlord when I gave you your old avatar!

fuctifino posted:

https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1559886693599268864

Replies to that tweet. :smdh:

# ? Aug 17, 2022 15:12

Angrymog: Jan 30, 2012; Really Madcats

I work for a charity too, and we're not exactly a hot bed of radicalism, so hearing what I think were a table of customer service staff getting serious about not paying bills - they were discussing the steps the company has to go through before they can cut you off, wasa minor suprise.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 15:14

Comrade Fakename: Feb 13, 2012

Payndz posted:

Having just watched Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 on Netflix, where pretty much everybody has chips in their head and as a result get hit with visual spam ads, are constantly suffering hacking attempts, get unwittingly used as distributed processors to deliver lethal attacks on others and are eventually taken over and put into an ambiguously explained real-world Matrix delusion by AIs and overclocked 'posthumans'... yeah, screw that. Christ, literally within the last hour my wife's laptop, despite running Windows Defender, a VPN and antivirus software, got hit by some weird thing that made what she described as QR codes appear on screen before forcing a reboot. Imagine that happening to your actual brain.

That said, the background premise that "an American AI went beyond its intended task and caused the entire global financial system to implode so that a sandwich now costs $1500 and everybody is broke except for the ultra-rich who live in secure compounds guarded by mercenaries" felt disturbingly on-point for now. Shame that aspect mostly got brushed aside once the action returned to Japan.

SAC_2045 is basically the worst piece of Stand Alone Complex, so you should definitely check out the original anime series as it's phenomenal.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 15:15

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Comrade Fakename posted:

SAC_2045 is basically the worst piece of Stand Alone Complex, so you should definitely check out the original anime series as it's phenomenal.

Season 2 of the original SAC anime series is particularly good, since it leans into 'actually, the terrorists the protagonists are trying to stop are the real heroes, and the government largely exists as a vehicle for mediocre incels to exercise their weird pet political theories and limitless capacity for cruelty'.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 16:02

Small Strange Bird: Sep 22, 2006; Merci, chaton!

Darth Walrus posted:

Season 2 of the original SAC anime series is particularly good, since it leans into 'actually, the terrorists the protagonists are trying to stop are the real heroes, and the government largely exists as a vehicle for mediocre incels to exercise their weird pet political theories and limitless capacity for cruelty'.

I'll have to check it out; I quite enjoyed 2045, despite its faults (really meandering, unfocused storytelling and the fact that until the final episode, outside of the action sequences Motoko basically did nothing except stand with her arms folded staring off into the distance while people told her things). It's the 1st and 2nd Gig boxsets, yes?

# ? Aug 17, 2022 16:18

Comrade Fakename: Feb 13, 2012

Payndz posted:

I'll have to check it out; I quite enjoyed 2045, despite its faults (really meandering, unfocused storytelling and the fact that until the final episode, outside of the action sequences Motoko basically did nothing except stand with her arms folded staring off into the distance while people told her things). It's the 1st and 2nd Gig boxsets, yes?

Yes, that's right, though there's also a TV movie that is set after those two (not the Mamoru Oshii films) that is not very good.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 16:23

Salisbury Snape: May 26, 2014; While a grain platform can be used for corn, a specialized corn head is ordinarily used instead.

We carnt let em take are wheelybins

# ? Aug 17, 2022 16:37

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

https://twitter.com/TelegraphLife/status/1559583549522599939

Telegraph Death

# ? Aug 17, 2022 16:41

Brendan Rodgers: Jun 11, 2014

Comrade Fakename posted:

SAC_2045 is basically the worst piece of Stand Alone Complex, so you should definitely check out the original anime series as it's phenomenal.

Some of Ghost in the Shell, like the 1st and 2nd seasons of the original Stand Alone Complex, is insanely good and prescient, it's aged like a fine wine in terms of the way it analyses society through cyberpunk. Sometimes I'll see something happen on the news and I'll look at it through the lens of Stand Alone Complex. At least it's not Harry Potter.

A lot of the other series are crap.

Brendan Rodgers fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Aug 17, 2022

# ? Aug 17, 2022 16:46

sinky: Feb 22, 2011; Slippery Tilde

Z the IVth posted:

They might be dumb enough to think they are untouchable, despite having cost cut both the police and the army.

And the fire service :brexit:

# ? Aug 17, 2022 18:02

Brendan Rodgers: Jun 11, 2014

sinky posted:

And the fire service

Fire service would probably be on our side, like paramedics.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 18:09

Z the IVth: Jan 28, 2009; The trouble with your "expendable machines"; Fun Shoe

Brendan Rodgers posted:

Fire service would probably be on our side, like paramedics.

Yeah I'll take the axe-swinging guys in red as well.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 18:51

Bobby Deluxe: May 9, 2004

Barry Foster posted:

It does seem bizarre that no-one seems to be lifting a finger while we barrel towards actual, literal, everything-folding-at-once apocalypse

British exceptionalism, nobody believes it could happen to us. Until it does, at which point every single oval office will be angrily demanding help from the same international community they've spent their adult lives complaining we send too much money to in foreign aid.

Bonus answer: Could you all stop making such a fuss, Rees Mogg is going to be minted from betting against the UK.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 18:57

Jaeluni Asjil: Apr 18, 2018; Sorry I thought you were a landlord when I gave you your old avatar!

Sewage chat:

I found the interactive map on the SAS site:

https://www.sas.org.uk/map/

If you hover over a cross or tick you can see where it is.

A tune for every occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB3XGrWZQlM

Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Aug 17, 2022

# ? Aug 17, 2022 18:59

Kegluneq: Feb 18, 2011; Mr President, the physical reality of Prime Minister Corbyn is beyond your range of apprehension. If you'll just put on these PINKOVISION glasses...

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Sewage chat:

I found the interactive map on the SAS site:

https://www.sas.org.uk/map/

If you hover over a cross or tick you can see where it is.

Oh hey it's the seaside town I was recently in on holiday! :itwaspoo:

# ? Aug 17, 2022 19:22

sinky: Feb 22, 2011; Slippery Tilde

Brendan Rodgers posted:

Fire service would probably be on our side, like paramedics.

Yeah they'll be on our side, but thanks to the tories there wont be as many of them around when people start burning things ~~because they belong to rich people~~ to keep warm.

# ? Aug 17, 2022 19:25