UKMT December - Poorly Moderated by the 81st Most Powerful Person in the UK Media

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT December - Poorly Moderated by the 81st Most Powerful Person in the UK Media

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Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Ludicro posted:

Whoops, you're quite right. Would be nice if some of that fixed the pot holes all over the place.

Unfortunately it's local councils who are responsible for all the non-trunk roads, and they've been hammered for the past four years.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2014 14:39

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 14:32

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Umiapik posted:

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/11/27/voters-back-redistribution-wealth/

Voters back all kinds of things that you'd think a left-wing party would be happy to have as policy. Renationalising the trains, price caps / more regulation on the energy companies, redistribution of wealth and so on. Labour keep going for limp halfway-houses, though, like allowing the public sector to bid on train franchises. Presumably because they don't want to frighten the plutocrats.

Do we ever talk about party funding? Cos both Labour and the Tories have almost no members now, which means their only source of income is donations from rich individuals (with a bit of trade union funding for Labour). Which is one reason why a lot of public preferences never make it through into party policy, because it doesn't suit the small number of rich people upon whom the parties depend for their existence.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 11:00

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

LemonDrizzle posted:

Beaker's talking tough on housebuilding: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/planning/11267536/State-to-build-new-homes-for-first-time-in-generation.html

Prediction: this is another paper policy that will never actually happen.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 13:22

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Guavanaut posted:

Why is this? Is everyone members of the smaller parties that can make more idealistic promises or the latest bunch of crypto-fascist shitehawks now? Or does nobody care anymore?

What was it that changed politics from something where you were a card-carrying party member to a numbers game where you check a box every five years or so?

I don't know. People talk about stuff like the rise of consumerism and individualism and, since you could have almost infinite choice when it came to buying a washing machine or a t-shirt, the idea of mass mobilisation in politics (with all the attendant compromises that implies) went out of fashion.

That sounds too superficial and hand-waving to me. Perhaps people got complacent with all the progress that had been made?

Whatever the reason, the fact that both of our big political parties are basically hollow shells propped up by the wealthy explains a lot about why things are the way they are.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 13:25

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

How can we square the "these are not new laws" claim with this:

http://obscenitylawyer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-following-content-is-not-acceptable.html

Which is a post from a lawyer who specialises in exactly this kind of case, and which begins:

quote:

The following content is not acceptable from the 1st December 2014

Today marks the beginning of a new phase in a sustained campaign of internet censorship which has wide-reaching consequences beyond the mere production and consumption of pornography.

These new regulations impose even more draconian restrictions on the types of pornography that can be depicted on regulated Video on Demand services. Previously the Crown Prosecution Service�s Guidance on the OPA provided a list of sexual activities which were deemed illegal to publish.

However these new Regulations specifically state that only sexual content that is equivalent to the BBFC R18 Category can be sold via VoD service. This is a significantly lower threshold.

It sounds like this would put UK Fisting* Video-on-Demand, Incorporated out of business.

*Only if you penetrate with all five digits beyond the knuckle. If you don't go beyond the knuckle then you can use any number of fingers on two or more (!) hands and it's all fine. Apparently.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 18:16

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Also, that post finishes by wondering if this is a tightening-up of the law in preparation for another round of internet filtering:

quote:

Of particular concern in terms of loss of freedom is the underlying intent to allow undesirable foreign websites to be blocked under UK ISP�s filtering systems. This has immeasurable implications on freedom of information and net neutrality.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 18:19

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

The blog post is saying that VOD content will be regulated as if it's an adult film, with an R18 classification. It's saying that's a more draconian standard of regulation than the one specified in the OPA. So it suggests that they're going further than applying the OPA to the intertubes. They're applying the BBFC's own internal standards instead, which is more than they needed to do. Or is that wrong?

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 18:45

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

KKKlean Energy posted:

Does this one come with an official definition? I would love to know when an act crosses the line from partial bondage to TOTAL bondage. What if a finger can still wiggle about?

According to the blog post, there needs to be some visible and obvious means of indicating that you want to stop. So having all four limbs tied plus a ballgag is presumably out. If you can shout "CHICKEN JALFREZI" when things are getting a little too intense then presumably it's OK to be tied up.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 19:50

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Semprini posted:

UKMT December: Repeal the porn laws

UKMT December: The Anti-Porn Law League

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 19:55

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

TinTower posted:

In other news, the white supremacist who built a nail bomb is not going to face terrorism charges.

Terrorism is pretty much a function of the melanin content of your skin and the particular flavour of Abrahamic religion to which you subscribe

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 10:13

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Why did you have to take a DNA test?

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 14:45

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Bozza posted:

By DnA I mean "Drugs and Alcohol" btw, I had to take one as a precondition of my employment with Network Rail and a subsequent one when I reapplied for my Personal Track Safety competence which requires it.

Ah, OK. That makes much more sense!

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 19:08

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

EmptyVessel posted:

Unless they close it at night all I can see is a lovely picturesque new mugging location.
As a bonus feature, easy disposal of weapons/evidence/bodies straight into the river too.

It is closed at night.

Also if you're more than 8 people and want to cross it, you need to apply for permission beforehand, because otherwise you might Protest, and that's not what we want.

Also you might well have to buy tickets for it.

Also no, there isn't a general right of way.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 19:53

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Manic_Misanthrope posted:

What's to stop protest groups organizing into small 7 person teams and starting a protest while already on the bridge?

Policemen with truncheons?

I think Mark Thomas tried to organise something like this when they banned protesting outside Parliament unless you had a permission slip from ~~the headmaster~~ the police. They wanted people to do hundreds of individual protests all at the same time. Dunno what happened.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2014 10:28

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Well, in ten years time when nobody can afford a house, the bridge will make a good campsite for the homeless I guess

# ¿ Dec 4, 2014 10:30

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

If he's paying rent to a company registered in a tax haven then it's probably a trust that he controls, presumably as a way of avoiding taxes on the house. I mean I doubt Russell Brand is too poor to buy a house if he wants to.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2014 12:26

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Jedit posted:

Maybe. If he works away a lot it might not be worth his while owning a place.

Either way, calling him a hypocrite for saying the rich should be taxed while paying rent to a tax evader is absurd. If Brand doesn't pay his own taxes that's one thing, but he's not his brother's keeper.

I'm suggesting that Brand owns the tax-haven company, ie that he pays his own company rent to avoid tax.

I could very well be wrong, but that's what I get from reading between the lines of the press questions.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2014 13:33

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

hookerbot 5000 posted:

Most of the differences are almost certainly more to do with the socioeconomic differences in people choosing to breastfeed.

Breastfeeding also seems to produce runny yellow custard-ish poop that smells a lot less bad than what you get from bottle feeding.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2014 18:06

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

KKKlean Energy posted:

Sounds like you're having a whale of a time.

They're all happy memories by this point.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2014 18:45

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

EvilGenius posted:

There's a general disregard towards health in poorer families, eating junk food, smoking and drinking while pregnant, etc, due to lack of education. If you're pregnant, the benefits of breast feeding are made pretty damned clear to you whenever you go the hospital, the doctors, or when a health visitor comes round. But I imagine it's pretty easy to be pregnant 'off the radar', and to bypass all of that and miss out on where most of that info comes from.

I'm fairly sure that a great deal* of the benefits from breastfeeding have never been conclusively disentangled from the confounding effects that come from the fact that breastfeeding is more common among rich and educated mothers, who tend to have all kinds of better outcomes for other reasons.

*but not all

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 11:41

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Gilganixon posted:

A good article by Zoe Williams today on this topic points out that responsibility is privatised.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the establishment's need to deflect blame for the consequences of wrecking all public services.

From that same article:

quote:

Breastfeeding is a prime example: there is good evidence that it prevents gastric bugs, through a specific and identifiable mechanism, the presence of the antibody SIgA. No other supposed result � improved IQ, better health in later life, reduction in other infections � has ever been separated from the confounding factors that, in the UK, breastfeeding mothers tend to be richer, and with that comes more maternity leave and better housing. An intelligent approach from social scientists was a longitudinal study, comparing breastfeeding outcomes from a country where there was a middle-class bias (the UK) to a country where breastfeeding mothers were more likely to be poor (Brazil); all the differences between the breastfed and the bottle-fed were reduced, most evaporated, some reversed.

Which seems to fit with what I'd heard about confounding factors and that the supposed benefits of breastfeeding are mostly (though not entirely) the benefits of being relatively well-off, for which, in Britain, breast-feeding is a proxy.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2014 19:58

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Brown Moses posted:

[edit] UKMT - Poorly Moderated by the 81st Most Powerful Person in the UK Media

# ¿ Dec 8, 2014 13:33

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Did anyone listen to the Radio 4 doc on Friday about Jeremy Thorpe? It sure sounded like someone tried to kill his lover.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11277432/Jeremy-Thorpe-scandal-New-claims-over-plot-to-murder-Norman-Scott.html

quote:

It was one of the greatest political scandals of the era � the charismatic former leader of the Liberal Party, Jeremy Thorpe, in the dock at the Old Bailey, charged with conspiracy to murder his homosexual lover after years of alleged cover-ups over his behaviour. Thorpe, who died last week at the age of 85, was found not guilty of plotting the murder of Norman Scott, a stable boy and part-time male model, but his previously glittering career was never to recover from the scandal.

Now, in a dramatic twist to the story, a new witness has come forward to claim that the plot to kill Scott to silence him and protect Thorpe from public humiliation extended to the highest levels of the Liberal Party. Dennis Meighan, a self-confessed former small time criminal, has claimed not only that he was the one who supplied the gun that was used to kill Scott�s dog Rinka on Exmoor � in one of the scandal�s most memorable incidents � but that his original mission was to go as far as to �get rid of� Thorpe�s lover himself. Furthermore, he claims that the order came from someone high up in the Liberal Party.

The Beeb explicitly said they'd been sitting on the documentary for decades and could only broadcast it now because Thorpe was dead.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2014 14:22

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Brown Moses posted:

Or what happens when people like myself pass our investigative work to the police? At what point is that seen as acting as investigators for the police, bypassing the restrictions they face?

Interestingly (and I'm sure you know this), this was what a lot of crime reporters on the NOTW told themselves. They saw themselves as doing right in a way that the police couldn't because the police were too tied down by red tape and regulations. We all know where that led...

# ¿ Dec 8, 2014 18:58

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

I would imagine the chief motivation for suicide would be shame and depression rather than apprehension about prison violence. Padeophiles tend to be kept away from the general population for that reason.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 13:10

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Seaside Loafer posted:

I had to go back to the loving jobcentre today for the first time in 2 years. I have to go back tommorow for first sign on. I was told my 3 options are a 'course' (dunno what that means) signing every day (inpractical) or slave labour (will turn to crime first).

How about that for depressing.

I'd pick the course of those three, though ironically it will leave you little time to actually apply for jobs.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 14:55

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Does the JobCentre ever advertise anything other than retail work? Like, do they have their own job ads system or are you just expected to browse Monster.com from within that particular building?

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 15:52

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Did it say anything about On Target Earnings or OTE? All sales jobs use ludicrously improbable assumptions about how many widgets you'll sell when they calculate those.

Zephro fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Dec 9, 2014

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 17:43

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

hookerbot 5000 posted:

From the Mirror article

There you go.

As a PSA to any other teenagers possibly reading this: sales jobs are generally the pits, and anything they tell you about your likely commission is almost certainly bollocks.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 18:05

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

So while America is fessing up to the CIA's network of secret torture prisons all over the world, we still won't publish Chilcott, apparently because we're worried it'll embarrass / annoy the Yanks.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 20:49

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

serious gaylord posted:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB16076

This is an interesting study.

43% of men, and 50% of women are taking regular prescription medicines.

22% of men and 24% of women are taking 3 or more prescription medicines with an average of 18.7 prescriptions per person in England per year. This is excluding contraceptives and quiting smoking stuff.

Estimated that the NHS are now spending over �15 Billion a year on these.

Which is, incidentally, another good argument for a centralised health service. The NHS can negotiate big discounts on drugs in the way that a patchwork of individual hospitals couldn't.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2014 11:54

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

hookerbot 5000 posted:

(I spent half an hour dicing a butternut squash once).

QFT. The only quick way to dice a butternut squash is with a chainsaw or a lightsaber.

quote:

What sort of a crazy renegade puts peas in their pasta sauce

What sort of a crazy renegade doesn't just cook the sauce and the pasta at the same time

# ¿ Dec 10, 2014 15:47

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Pissflaps posted:

He was cutting the petrol pump pipes to get to it. The garage owners were fuming.

A crude plan, but effective

# ¿ Dec 10, 2014 18:27

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Fans posted:

Are people seriously buying into the "The Poor are going hungry because they can't cook" bullshit? UKMT always gets weird over food.

Let's lighten the mood and check out the latest Christmas Miracle for our favorite Christmas Card sender.

Christmas is a time where we should forgive past sins after all! Or just pretend they never happened.

Ah yes, the Intelligence and Security Committee, those ~~useless bunch of credulous time-servers~~ fearless seekers after truth who, after investigating this in 2007, confidently announced that nope, Britain has nothing to do with torture at all.

I'm filled with confidence.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2014 11:04

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

baka kaba posted:

Maybe avoiding Argos is a good tip though

This is a good tip in general.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2014 11:52

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

Pissflaps posted:

What's wrong with argos?

Most of the stuff it sells you can find cheaper online, and you don't have to carry it home with you.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2014 11:56

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

KKKlean Energy posted:

Perfect for those obese poors with no time to do anything.

I weigh 35 stone and I lie on my couch photosynthesising in the glare of my 442-inch OLED curved-screen TV

# ¿ Dec 11, 2014 12:02

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

ReV VAdAUL posted:

A lot of older voters believe Grammar Schools were a tool for social mobility:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/05/-sp-social-mobility-decline-elitist-education-david-kynaston

They're broadly incorrect to think so but Farage isn't spinning this out of whole cloth.

Yeah. For some people it's based on personal experience, because grammar schools were pretty much the only way out and some people at least were fortunate enough to be able to seize it.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2014 09:52

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

The low-level discipline thing is what worries me most about British schools. I grew up in Hong Kong and went to a British school there. I couldn't believe what people got away with when we moved to the UK. I had a physics class in which almost everyone used to drum on their desks the instant the teacher turned his back to them to write something on the board, then stopped and faked innocence whenever he turned around. Another class made a point of singing "happy birthday" to their teacher at least a couple of times a week. And a bunch of other stuff that sounds trivial when you write it down but which basically had the effect of turning every lesson into a battle between kids and teachers. I only passed my A levels cos I did a lot of work at home to make up for the fact that we learned gently caress-all nothing in the lessons. And it wasn't a "bad" school, either, nor were the kids any dumber than any others. The teachers just absolutely couldn't control them. I was astonished by it.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2014 10:22

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 14:32

Zephro: Nov 23, 2000; I suppose I could part with one and still be feared...

ReV VAdAUL posted:

What do you think your school in HK did differently or was it more of a cultural thing among pupils?

I'm not really sure. The pupils were from all over the place (Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Korea, America, Malaysia, England as well as HK itself in my class alone). The teachers didn't rule with an iron fist or anything, and the kids weren't the mindless Chinese-style fact-absorbing robots of popular stereotypes. There just wasn't the oppositional atmosphere that I saw when I went to school here.

quote:

I think this is a more general thing in the UK. Year 9, top set maths, so the best behaved class you are likely to get, and we still taunted a trainee teacher by moving our desks slightly to the side every time she turned around until we were packed up against the wall.

Yeah, this is the impression I have, though it's only an impression. I still find it very weird.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2014 13:50

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT December - Poorly Moderated by the 81st Most Powerful Person in the UK Media

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