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Tesseraction posted:Michael Tracey is a right-wing guy cosplaying as a left-leaning guy who is so obnoxiously contrarian he has been retweeted by Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America. Must be why they kicked him off Tracey Island before the series started 
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Jun 1, 2020 13:23
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thespaceinvader posted:Wanna bet the person whose fire they returned was a cop hiding amongst the protestors? Don't call the police, they'll shoot me Don't call an ambulance, I can't afford it Don't bother calling the fire brigade, I didn't pay the fee this year Truly top number 1 country!
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Jun 1, 2020 16:12
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Yeah I'm with you twisto
Bobstar fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Jun 2, 2020 09:24
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From the Ars Technica comments section (which, for a comment section, is fairly non-terrible, if a bit liberal sometimes) Antifa are the people who stormed the beaches at Normandy. From the land side.  Another mental health boost: got that fudge to look forward to!
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Jun 2, 2020 09:58
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To flesh that out a bit rather than just reposting stupid things from other forums, behind these forums I find Ars to be one of the most readable communities of internet people, and I think that's partly because they have actual effective moderation (ie staff coming down with the ban hammer and calling out trolling, unlike every other site which loves ~~engagement~~ no matter how toxic). The people skew American soft-liberal-left-mush but of the type that could make the journey to actual left given sufficient prodding, and real world events are being a good prod right now. E: and partly because they're focussed on fairly narrow technology topics, although it's always fun to see the boohooers going "whyyy are you being mean to Trump again when he did terrible science talking, you're supposed to be a science and technology website, stop making it political!"
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Jun 2, 2020 10:05
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Yeah the news is not a helpful thing to scroll. The Graun have a George Floyd section stacked on top of their usual giant Corona section, so you have to scroll halfway down the page to read about the normal terrible things that would be happening anyway. Which is why it's good this thread functions as part news distillery, part chat thread, and I for one encourage random asides (ASK me about lightbulbs! TELL me about cookery! and so on) So, never feel bad e/n-ing in here, we are here to support each other, but also duck out if the news does get too much 
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Jun 2, 2020 10:45
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Mute or unfollow FB friends (or even 'unfriend' though as I had a major cull a couple of years ago, I don't do that often these days). I know some have done the same to me because I have some friends who only want to see 'happy' posts or 'the govt needs our support in this trying time' views - I do make an effort to sprinkle happy posts in, but also do 'news' posts because I know I have a fair proportion of friends and family who just believe the BBC and either The Times or The Graun and who think they are honourable and trustworthy. Most of the time I avoid making overt political posts because you end up preaching to the converted and p'ing everyone else off. I'm in the process of winding down my Facebook, I've realised that I'm scrolling scrolling scrolling, very little interesting content, boomer memes (well-meaning, I'm not friends with any really terrible boomers), I'm making sure I have contact details for people I actually care about (so we can keep talking on WhatsApp, take that Facebook!), then it's off to deactivationville. The only positive thing I've seen recently is people whose politics I didn't know, sharing good and correct things. That always makes me smile. Now I'm shopping for Dyson knockoff stick vacuum cleaners. It's all go today!
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Jun 2, 2020 13:00
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CGI Stardust posted:Great, thanks! Will give it a go then, see what happens. I remember it because it's like the useless gun in Goldeneye, which makes the Russian connection in my head. Egg is just crazy though. Picture of bike, yep Picture of car, yep Picture of egg, yay-tzoh - confused face
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Jun 2, 2020 16:08
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goddamnedtwisto posted:While we're at it I'd also make appearance covenants punishable by death. Many poor-door units have specific clauses in their leases/tenancies forbidding the use of outdoor space for anything other than a very narrowly-defined set of uses, normally excluding any form of storage or clothes drying. That's right, you can be thrown out of your home for wanting to air out a towel rather than pissing away money (and carbon emissions) on using a tumble dryer, because they're terrified of the balconies not matching the architects drawings and maybe even forcing a member of the upper classes to gaze upon the underwear of the underclass. Ugh, that stuff can get in the bin. They should indeed be banned as you say, but if not, make it so you can only forbid storage and washing on the balcony if the flat is provided with ample bike storage and a large, well ventilated utility room.
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Jun 2, 2020 17:03
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forkboy84 posted:Half the shows I watch are some sort of cop bullshit. Homicide, the hundred different Law & Orders, that dumb Bones show. I'm pretty sure it's a) cop shows are a simple way to do mystery stories/whodunnits & b) it's one of the few types of shows you don't have to watch the entire series to follow it. Sometimes I just want a monster of the week story, tune in for 1 episode, forget all about it. Which if you told me would be my opinion a decade ago I'd not have believed you. Stuff like Breaking Bad & Game of Thrones broke the serialised drama for me. The best whodunnit is House, because it doesn't need cops, and the bad guys are germs  Also anyone who hasn't watched the Shield should watch the Shield. I only learned recently it was based on, and almost called after, the Rampart scandal
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Jun 2, 2020 19:53
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Fringe is excellent and crazy, John Noble is great, and I need to rewatch it soon. It did lead to my wife and me coining a TV trope of "Broyles' brother", after the character played by the excellent Lance Reddick, when we started noticing that seemingly every show we were watching featured a slightly-older-than-the-protagonists black man who was still a main character but usually an ancillary role like a chief, boss etc. Bobstar fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Jun 3, 2020 |
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Jun 3, 2020 10:08
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Ugh, blue lives matter. When I first heard it I thought it was a variant of the stupid "colourblind" mantra of "I don't care if you're white, black, or purple!" because the idea that police are a class that need protecting was just too stupid.
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Jun 3, 2020 12:02
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It's ok, Keir is going to work out how to become Electable by taking a representative sample of the kind of people who call into LBCquote:Starmer to host regular monthly LBC phone-in
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Jun 4, 2020 10:55
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Sometimes you get the odd funny typo in the Graun liveblogquote:Labour MP Zarah Sultana asked whether the government would commit to a race equality strategy covering all Whitehall department.
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Jun 4, 2020 11:20
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Tell me why this thought process of mine is too simplistic: prisoners should be allowed to vote, if only because they can then vote for people who promise to make the thing they're in prison for not a crime, and release those convicted of it. That works for things like drugs, and is unlikely to make any difference in actual bad crimes. I'm more down the No Prisons route myself, but the above is more as a rebuttal to people who think prisoners should never vote because reasons.
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Jun 4, 2020 12:52
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thespaceinvader posted:Prisoners should be allowed to vote because if imprisoning people disenfranchises them then there's double the incentive to lock up your political opponents on spurious charges. I think that actually fits as a subset of my theory, although a weird circular one. Prisoners should be allowed to vote, so that they can continue to vote against the status quo (of people who put them in prison to stop them voting), but if they can vote, they won't get put in prison in the first place, etc. But yes I agree, that's also a good reason.
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Jun 4, 2020 13:01
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Guavanaut posted:Ending the logical loop that sees people criminalized for things that they can't then vote to decriminalize, like drug war nonsense. Yeah this is what I was driving at really, but you phrased it better. That's not even starting on people who have been in prison but aren't any more not being allowed to vote...
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Jun 4, 2020 13:18
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Guavanaut posted:Yeah felon disenfranchisement is some bullshit and iirc Florida has like 10% of it's voting population disenfranchised, which isn't apartheid bad or Georgian Britain bad, but it's definitely "part-free state on the development index" bad. Well that's more terrible than I thought... This also goes back to what prison is for, i.e. what the punishment actually is. With prison, at it's most basic, it's deprivation of liberty (whether that's for punitive or public protection reasons). Then people make up their own add-ons to what prison "should" be like, such as - No Playstations - No TVs - No books - No exercise - No voting - Solitary confinement for all! If we're going to have prisons, then there should be a conversation about these things, but if you tried that, someone would say "holiday camps" and it would all be over, and all of the above and worse would end up being formalised. So abolish prisons, IMO.
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Jun 4, 2020 13:42
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hemale in pain posted:I refuse to believe anyone mad at gender neutral toilets is doing it from a position of sincerity. Any sort of toilet based argument is insane. How'd you even notice a trans person in a toilet? why would you be looking at people in a public toilet??? ahhhhh And the theory that a very committed man would pretend to be trans to enter toilets, so he can shout "hah! bigot!" when challenged, rather than just dressing up as a janitor. No sincerity indeed.
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Jun 4, 2020 15:29
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sebzilla posted:This is a shameful new direction for drummer jokes and I for one won't stand for it. Hah, you beat me to it. Let's be offended together. Oh wait we can't, there's only one drummer in a band* *ok maybe sometimes Also reminded of this from Soul Music quote:“Music made from rocks?” said Imp. “What do you callll it?”
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Jun 4, 2020 19:56
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Fair points, but this article doesn't so much elaborate on the headline as restate it, along side a bunch of semi-related good things. What does "if you have made greater contributions to the system, there is an argument that you should receive more out of that system" mean? Without elaboration, it just sounds like the dogwhistle that we all reacted to in the headline. It sounds like it could be a prelude to a needs based system rather than a means based one - e.g. a pandemic has ruined your income, so you can have benefits based on what you need (i.e. your outgoings), and regardless of things like savings cutoffs and child limits as you say. But that still isn't really based on greater contributions - if you just started living in expensive London when the pandemic (or regular scheduled capitalism recession) hits, you might not have contributed much yet. Or is it an argument for universalism? But again the more in = more out seems at odds with that.
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Jun 5, 2020 10:02
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Cerv posted:my reading is it's an argument for universalism. everyone is eligible without means tests and caps and so on, and at a higher level that now with leaves people destitute. Hmmm. I guess it's "paying in more" that's ambiguous. For the NI-pension link, the contributions are defined across the working life. For benefits that might be needed at any time, it's not so clear cut. Do we mean paying in more in total, in which case people starting out get screwed over, which is in keeping with the lower minimum wage for young people, but at odds with how commercial insurance works? Or do we mean paying in more per unit time, which is more like insurance, where you can pay more per month to get more cover, but you get paid out right away if needed? But can lead to a rich young person getting more out in total than a poor person who makes it to death without happening to need it. Basically my gripe is solely with the "have paid in more" phrasing, which I find hard to make sense of (sorry cerv I know this isn't your policy that you must defend, just thinking out loud really) Cerv posted:undoubtably Henry Charles Newspaper III, inventor of the newspaper: "And there will be a line at the head of each article, usefully summarising its contents" Modern people: "How can we obscure this article as much as possible while still gaining clicks, preferably by using only words that can each be multiple different parts of speech?"
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Jun 5, 2020 10:42
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I'm torn about UBI. Mainly because I worry that if it was introduced under the Tories (lol) or bad-Labour, it would be far too low to be useful, and also used an a get out of jail free for all social matters by said parties to replace all existing benefits "Please help, I lost my job and can't pay my rent" "Why not? You get £7,000 a year UBI just like everybody else, and they're managing" "Please help, my specific disability needs cost more than the UBI" "Stop moaning, you get £7,000 a year UBI just like everybody else, you don't want ~~special treatment~~ do you?  "I'd want it to look something like this: - UBI is £25,000 a year - People in £50,000 a year jobs are now in £25,000 a year jobs, plus UBI - These people's employers now pay an extra £25,000-ish in payroll tax for those employees - People in £15,000 a year jobs now get the UBI, and the employer will need to pay them something substantial if they want them to keep working - Something something handwavy tax system to make the previous step work (i.e. that employer will have to pay tax on top of the <£15,000 salary) - Kill all landlords, public housing rented at a sane proportion of £25,000 - Needs-based provision for disabilities etc, without horrible tests of course E: this is explicitly designed to slot into the current system, and appease the "where will the X-billion a year come from, eh??" types. I'm sure there are better ways if we work without those constraints. Bobstar fucked around with this message at 11:30 on Jun 5, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 11:27
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TACD posted:As I understand it, this is part of the argument for providing universal basic services instead of income. If you're directly guaranteeing the provision of food, shelter, and medicine then the providers of those services can't play silly buggers with the price to exclude people. Good point, and to roll in sassassin's point too, if you do that then the headline cash figure doesn't need to be so high (and I did just pluck that out of the air as being considerably higher than benefits - though real living wage is just under £20,000 if you assume 40h a week, 22.3k in London) And that's very doable too. We already have the medicine, at least in principle. Housing we agree on (could be free at point of use or token rent). Food - I guess current supermarkets aren't the most absolutely terrible example of a market (high praise I know) in that they provide food and kind of compete (moreso than utilities, trains, or US health providers). But I also like the British restaurant idea we talked about in an earlier thread. Transport - Luxembourg's done it And yes, if everybody gets used to these tangible free things, they would hopefully be harder to take away. E: just remembered my actual point: if you wanted the UBS but not the UBI, you could have income benefits like the current furlough scheme, where they pay 70-90% of your wage. But with a nice high floor. They have something like that in some Scandinavian countries (I've just read), but it looks like you have to pay into a voluntary scheme, otherwise you get the measly basic one. Bobstar fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 12:29
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Tarnop posted:The underlying assumption: that we can just fiddle with the dials and eventually come up with a system that will convince everyone that welfare isn't a transfer of wealth from working people to the unemployed, is ridiculous. It's the same old technocratic garbage. Combining several previous points, the least unfair reading I can come up with is a version of the unemployment/sickness benefit like the furlough scheme, where you get something close to your previous wage, at least for a time. That would by default be more in = more out, while still being a kind of universal thing - the remaining unfairness being that of income inequality.
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Jun 5, 2020 14:55
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Guavanaut posted:At least say "there can be no excuse for abuse or violence against or by police" if you're going to try to both sides it Khan. I can't find it now, but I saw a thing today where someone threw a tear gas grenade back at the police, and got charged with throwing a deadly weapon 
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Jun 5, 2020 20:41
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Oscar Romeo Romeo, Prince John and Owl Fancier, I am obligated to tell you that my kittens have been dabbing at the animation in your avs 
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Jun 6, 2020 09:28
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Mebh posted:Photographic evidence required... Bobstar fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Jun 6, 2020 09:44
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justcola posted:I have decided to learn German during lockdown, partly for fun and partly as I'd like the option to run away one day (which is a big internal dilemma for me as I see running away as being a luxury and abandoning my friends and family as well as any positive change I can do here on one hand, whilst on the other, I just can't be arsed living most of my life under a government I loving despise that repeatedly gets voted in) I keep getting distracted from my European language effortpost, but here are some bits that might be useful. Duolingo is good, but can be a bit hit-or-miss because each language is built by a different group of volunteers. Some people find the content whimsical and fun, others think it's silly and not helpful (the Spanish version can be put together into a bleak story, while the Dutch version has sentences like "help my rhinoceros has been stolen"). Other (paid) options include: Pimsleur - a primarily audio course in 30 min/day chunks, with listening and repetition. I found it really great to get me speaking quickly - it's slow enough, methodical, and contained just the right amount of explanation from the American dude for my liking. It is all about sound though, and it doesn't want you to try to spell the words in your head, which I did because that's how I learn, and I found it much harder with Russian where I couldn't do that. Gives you DRM-free audio files, which is nice. Rosetta Stone - has got much cheaper since Duolingo came along and undercut it. It's "thing" is no translation - it just bombards you with pictures and words and you work it out, "like how you learned your first language". A cool idea, but challenging if you like to know why. Using a grammar book alongside can help with this. Most useful as a longer-term thing, as it stays quite basic for a while as you build up the layers. italki - find a tutor online and do video chat lessons (now with 100% more pandemic!). Having a tutor is a great way to keep motivated and have the learning tailored to you. You can pick from a range of enthusiastic amateurs (cheaper) and professional language teachers (expensiver). Free ideas: You mentioned TV already, I like to mix in some shows I already know (Friends, Simpsons, lightweight stuff like that) with the dubbing and maybe subtitles, either in the target language or your own, depending on how well you know the episodes. Find a German who wants to improve their English and do intercambio - speak one language for a bit, then switch, with the native speaker helping out the learner. Everybody wins! German-specific thoughts: German is grammatically fairly complex, with lots of cases, endings, 3 genders and all that jazz. BUT that doesn't mean it's scary and horrible. Think what you're trying to achieve and how your brain works. If you're like me, you'll want to know the grammar nuts and bolts, which means sitting down and studying it (it's very hard to construct the system yourself from first principles just by seeing example sentences). But you don't need to do that to get started. A colleague of mine has lived in Germany for over 10 years, working in German every day, and will still say the same noun with 3 different genders in the space of one sentence, mess up his endings etc... but he's confident, fluent (i.e. the language flows without interruption), and comprehensible, and that's far more useful than someone who never dares to say anything until they're perfect. Germans know their language is hard, and won't think you're stupid for making mistakes. Feel free to PM me for German help, I'm fluent and bored! 
Bobstar fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Jun 6, 2020 10:43
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Jedit posted:*breaks out limited German* Pretty much. Just replace "dann" with "als" - dann is then, als is than. And justcola, the beginning would be "Ich lerne langsam". The present continuous (I am learning / estoy aprendiendo) doesn't really exist in German, you just use the simple present (I learn) both for things in progress, and for habitual things (if you want to really emphasise that something is currently happening, you can add words like gerade or dabei, but in this case you wouldn't need to )
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Jun 6, 2020 12:40
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Isomermaid posted:There was a house for the people that sneered at other people for perceived notions of non purity in the blood in that children's book and it wasn't the good house. Whoever wrote that book I wonder Founder of UKMT: "okay, so we all know there are four types of bluetick. brave, smart, evil and miscellaneous. UKMT board: "yes, continue."
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Jun 7, 2020 10:17
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Guavanaut posted:TERFs: they are trying to erase women as a group by saying 'people who menstruate' words exist for a reason and those biologically accurate words must be used I think you mean CIS. Because apparently it's an acronym or something  Edit: I have reminded these kittens that I expect them to live to a combined age of at least 36, or else Bobstar fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 12:07
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Guavanaut posted:Speaking of people who menstruate, I'm reminded of some analogies in period dialogue around the early 00s. There was a movement of some esteemed gynecologists including Elsimar Coutinho, the pioneer of depo provera, young urban professional businesswomen, and whatever you'd call the generation of feminists that were in their late teens and early 20s in '98-01 that we can finally get rid of menstruation as a medical lifestyle choice and this would be very liberating for women and reduce the risk of breast and ovarian cancers and it'll come in a spray and this is all very exciting. This sounds a lot like the rationale for having a placebo week in the pill, as per this explanation: quote:John Rock, the gynecologist who helped develop the birth control pill and a devout Catholic, created the break because he hoped the Pope would approve, professor John Guillebaud told the Telegraph.
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Jun 7, 2020 12:56
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That's awesome. I am a fan of the Bestå range of TV units. You can customise them the way you like by colour, foot-having-ness, shelves, doors, drawers. And the widest base unit's 1800mm wide which should fit a giant TV. The planner tool does seem to use flash though, lol. Bobstar fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 17:11
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Ratjaculation posted:BUT how else can we educate people on our history without statues that glorify their actions? hmmm So many people pretending not to know what statues are. "Let's build a statue for neutral reasons" said nobody ever.
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Jun 7, 2020 18:19
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Tindalos posted:It was. Uh, excuse me, democracy is a thing that happens once every 5-ish years, when I put a cross IN PEN!!! next to my team's logo, and at no other time
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Jun 8, 2020 12:01
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JeremoudCorbynejad posted:I read the headline and didn't know what to think because my brain has never had to parse "anti-racist critic" before and had to turn a cog for a minute. Anything to avoid calling someone the r-word. The worst possible thing to call somebody!
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Jun 9, 2020 17:02
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Camrath posted:Fudge Update Great news! Keep well, fuzzyfaces. Looking forward to getting stuck in. And my tabby kitten pounced on your gang tag as I was reading your post, which is a good sign, probably.
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Jun 10, 2020 13:41
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Jedit posted:The ones who know and don't care because it doesn't affect them are already starting to care about the COVID-19 response because it does affect them. And when their businesses start to go under because they're not quite rich enough for the Tories to help, they're going to care about Brexit too. I think this is right. It's a giant magic trick, they make it seem like nothing can touch them by keeping the number and categories of people affected by their Tory Terror exactly right - so that the Very Sensible people can scoff, and rationalise, and tell each other than everything is fine. This is what protects the Tories, but they're not actual political wizards. Events which push the number and/or type of people affected past the critical point can occur, and that's when things will happen (NOT ACCELERATIONIST)
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Jun 10, 2020 13:47
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News on the fate of the statue: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/10/bristol-mayor-marvin-rees-edward-colston-statue-slavery Mayor of Town posted:He said: “We’ll retrieve the statue and take it to one of our museums where it will be assessed for damage. A decision hasn’t been made [regarding] what we will do with it going forward. In terms of the space where it was, I think we need to facilitate a citywide conversation about that. The conversation needs to be almost without emotion. Yep, very sensible grownup here, not like that uninformed mob...
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Jun 10, 2020 14:56
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