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Danger - Octopus! posted:A fun security feature in banknotes which is interesting to look up online but not to try yourself (because it's illegal) is to see what happens when you try to photocopy them. Interesting, I knew about EURion, but not some of the other security stuff the article speculates on. I had a research project one time involving security marked papers that I assume used a similar method (entirely legitimate and above board, we were working with the company that made them) and it was quite annoying to make a presentation on our findings because you couldn't work with the images in commercial editing software. I wouldn't be surprised if consumer digital cameras also check for those marks. Banknotes are pretty interesting too, if you have a note and a few bored minutes you can take a closer look at one and try to figure out what all the weird little features and embellishments are for. e: Honestly creating high quality images of notes shouldn't be a barrier to anyone with a couple grand and a bit of imagination, but I can't imagine how you'd create a physical reproduction that would pass even a cursory inspection. I think stuff like EURion is more intended to stop some bright spark running off a hundred £20s on their inkjet and annoying both the local shopkeepers and shortly after that the local courts. big scary monsters fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Dec 5, 2021 |
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Dec 5, 2021 17:05
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I'm entirely convinced that 99% of people and like 90% of people who make their living off posting would be better off and happier if they simply logged off all their social media accounts forever. Pretty much the only positive way to use these things is to exclusively chat with your mates in private, or to aggressively curate who you have contact with to the extent that you've effectively recreated a Web 1.0 niche interest mailing list. If all you use them for is an ICQ replacement and for example showing pictures of cool lizards to other likers of lizard pictures maybe you'll have a good time. But even then it's going to turn out that @lizzardfan420 also posts constantly about Etherium and the age of consent and you end up contaminated all the same.
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Dec 7, 2021 15:19
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Gonzo McFee posted:
 The prime minister lied to me. Johnson lies about as often as he draws breath and everybody knows it, going after him for that is pointless. If the LOTO wanted to actually oppose maybe he'd try attacking the PM on what people care about : the illegal party he was having while they weren't allowed to see their loved ones for a year or more and all the Tories laughing at them for it. If this is what finally turns people against the government then I guess good, but it's also so loving stupid. If you didn't already realise that the Tories had nothing but contempt for you and would laugh while you died as long as they could continue to live it up then how are you even getting this news in your hermetically sealed box under a rock?
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Dec 8, 2021 15:38
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Been reading up a bit on the Nationality and Borders Bill. Do you reckon Patel was invited to any of the parties? I have to think that her true believer zeal makes at least a few of her colleagues as nervous as the rest of us.
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Dec 8, 2021 16:19
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A gentle reminder, not directed specifically at Barry but at anyone who's feeling frightened and anxious from online discourse, that it's alright to log off, it's alright to do other stuff and to try and live as normal a life as possible while all this goes on. You can stop reading doomer threads for a while, quit following every frightening news story and uncertain development as they happen, and take a bit of a break. If you have less terminally online friends, try chatting with them instead of CSPAM. If the world ends you'll hear about it, please try look after yourselves in the meantime. Easier said than done, no doubt, but it's worth giving it a try.
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Dec 8, 2021 17:57
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forkboy84 posted:Fighting words, them are. I meant everyone else. Not you two, you're on double shifts at the bad posts factory.
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Dec 8, 2021 18:05
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Is this the new scheme where promising young students are arrested and hounded to suicide by the British state?
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Dec 9, 2021 00:29
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Lungboy posted:Also changing the law so if the courts make a judgement the government don't like they can just "lol nope" it. Encouraging to see wide cross-party support for the Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich Bill, 2022.
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Dec 14, 2021 19:33
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I'll go against the thread trend and say that vaccination should be compulsory: the needs of society take precedence over your bodily autonomy just like the needs of society take precedence over any of your other freedoms when it comes down to it. I imagine most Western countries are going to continue to go the route of encouraging vaccination by inconvenience, where unvaccinated people can't go on public transport or to the shops or to the pub without a negative test from that day and probably can't travel internationally at all without a very, very good reason. At that point you might as well just go with compulsory vaccination for everyone who is medically able to get it and house arrest for those who refuse, because those people are effectively prevented from participating in society anyway.
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Dec 14, 2021 21:50
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namesake posted:The capitalist state is only going to handle the pandemic to the extent that it allows the stable return of the accumulation of capital and the trajectory we're currently heading on is that the costs of the pandemic is paid entirely by the working class, in terms of health and freedoms. I won't argue with this part, but I don't think I agree with the implied conclusion of "so let it all burn" (apologies if I've misread you). It is unfortunate that preventing hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths props up the existing and bad regime, but it feels a bit like the argument that letting the poor starve is all worthwhile in the service of fomenting an appropriate revolutionary spirit. You could effectively destroy capitalism by converting the surface of the planet to radioactive glass, but I feel like the side effects might not be worth it.
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Dec 14, 2021 22:11
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namesake posted:I'm not saying the way out is through a wave of covid deaths, I'm saying the way out is resistance. Schools have to be in person so parents can work better, work safety has to be a minimum to maximise profits, all recreation has to be crammed full to maximise income. Those are rules of capitalism, not human society. namesake posted:big scary monsters was talking about house arrest or mandatory vaccinations for everyone, that's different from an inappropriate patient safety policy for healthcare safety. They are linked though because they are both tools used to create a certain kind of society and we know that the current form of society that will reproduce itself is capitalism. Either you let the currently ruling class shape society and control the people within it according to the needs of ever accumulating capital through shoving just enough labour into producing commodities or you take a stand somewhere. Socialists should be fighting for health and freedom and find a way to make both happen. OK, I understand you now. I do agree with you that vaccination is being coopted by capital, for example through the vaccine certificates, to try to find a way back to the control and worker coercion that has slipped slightly through the pandemic. But, while I used examples of what capitalist states are or will likely be doing in my post, I am pretty actually uncomfortable with the two-tier system of people with vaccination certificates and an unvaccinated underclass. Particularly because already oppressed groups are the people most likely to be unvaccinated, whether by choice or not. One nice aspect of mandatory vaccination for all would be to prevent that. But in the face of a pandemic it would probably be a good idea almost no matter what your society's dominant ideology looked like. Obviously in an enlightened utopia you'd hope that the coercion would be unneccesary to achieving near-universal vaccination, but we aren't there and I don't think this helps us get there.
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Dec 14, 2021 22:43
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smellmycheese posted:Yikes An entire room of perfect Backpfeifengesichter, astounding.
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Dec 14, 2021 22:48
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Just Another Lurker posted:That lad at the front left with the wooly jumper is definitely lusting after the buffet table, he wants it all! I did want to give him some credit for what at first glance looks like a decent Christmas jumper. But looking closer I think those are royal lions marching around the chest and possibly parliamentary portcullises a bit lower down. Is this official governmental festive attire?
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Dec 14, 2021 23:32
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A while back I wondered how many citizenships you could pick up if you dedicated yourself to it, but assuming no convenient grandparents or marriages letting you get on a fast track to naturalisation. As far as I recall, Poland is the EU state with the easiest standard route for naturalisation, requiring only three years permanent residence. Downside is you also have to speak Polish. Other possibilities: if you have a couple €100k spare you can buy a Maltese passport through their citizenship by investment scheme, you could take a Master's degree in France to be eligible for naturalisation after only two years, or in several countries if you provide some exceptional service to the state the monarch/president can grant you citizenship on the spot.
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Dec 16, 2021 16:07
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goddamnedtwisto posted:I wouldn't call it *easy*, but IIRC 3 years of service in the French Foreign Legion, or being invalided out due to enemy action within that 3 years, is sufficient for French citizenship. That's a pretty good time frame for gaining citizenship, but it's one of those where the other requirements seem pretty high. In a similar vein (though not in the EU), if you simply become a Catholic Cardinal and move to the Holy See you can get Vatican citizenship immediately.
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Dec 16, 2021 16:22
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Kin posted:How does it work in other countries or is paternity leave just one of those things that are free market hosed and it's down to how generous a company is to pay you to be off looking after your new kid. Wikipedia has a big list by country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave#By_continent. If it's accurate it's fairly variable in Europe. As you'd expect the Nordic countries are pretty OK, but the surprise winner is Lithuania with two years paid at 70% or a year at 100% either-parent leave on top of the paid individual leave. The UK does look pretty ungenerous out of the wealthier countries.
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Dec 17, 2021 08:13
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ThomasPaine posted:Really though you can't just write English phonetically with a heavy accent and a bunch of dialect words then get indignant when people suggest it might not be a distinct language in its own right. "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy", as they say. There are plenty of supposedly distinct languages that are really no less similar to one another than Geordie and Janner are, but for historical and political reasons they are not treated as dialects. Danish and Norwegian spring to mind, although I hope no Norwegians read me saying that. And there are other examples of dialects that might as well be separate languages. A person speaking Schweizerdeutsch will get subtitles on German TV because it is so unintelligible, while someone speaking Bayerisch often won't even though it can be just as hard to understand for other German speakers. There is some disagreement as to whether either of the two are languages or dialects.
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Dec 17, 2021 19:31
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Guavanaut posted:They know about French right? French and Urdu are really both just dialects of Proto-Indo-European.
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Dec 17, 2021 19:45
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Anyone got any experience of degrees or masters in Quantum Computing (or with a big component of it in other degrees)?
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Dec 18, 2021 16:53
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We had goose one year and it is much better than turkey imo. One of these years I'm going to get swan.
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Dec 20, 2021 01:19
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I've heard wild swan isn't that good anyway, you need to feed it up with good stuff rather than slugs and pondweed. And it seems a pretty unpopular bird to farm even outside the UK.
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Dec 20, 2021 01:32
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Since a fair few people mentioned vegan relatives: if you want a plant-based Christmas and don't mind something a little different, rather than a boring nut roast I suggest going for a traditional but non-British meal. To quote myself in the vegan thread:big scary monsters posted:We've cooked Polish the last two Christmases: barszcz with uszka, pierogi, gołąbki, kapusta kiszona and so on. A lot of the dishes are vegan anyway, several of the rest can easily be made so. None are a centre piece as such but it's a nice spread. If you search "wegańska wigilia" you'll find some good recipes and Google Translate does a tolerable job. Interesting, so all we have to do is get them off the red list and we can have a UKMT swan hunt from your place? I'll start the conservation charity.
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Dec 20, 2021 02:14
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Aidan_702 posted:Well to move away from meat arguments, what are peoples favourite trimmings? I'm partial to roasties, Yorkshire pudding, those little sausages, cabbage in any form, carrots or parsnip, sprouts... Anything but stuffing, everyone else in the world seems to love it but I think it's poo poo. e: VV You can also make pasztet with nuts and mushrooms and stuff. I'm not a big fan, sort of like a stodgy nut bread as I've experienced it, but there are a lot of variations and if you're into nut roast it might be to your liking. big scary monsters fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Dec 20, 2021 |
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Dec 20, 2021 02:54
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peanut- posted:Bookmark this one for when she’s brought in to replace Allegra Stratton I believe him.
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Dec 20, 2021 16:45
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I assume that she has an earpiece where someone with a solver tells her what the best possible answer is. The maths on Countdown is not conceptually difficult and you can find an optimal solution for any numbers/target combination in a fraction of a second on a computer. The hard part is doing it on the spot, in your head, under pressure. I guess they like to have someone with a little mathematical credibility and a convincing attitude on just to sell the idea of the show, but it's hardly vital. If there is no earpiece then I have to admit she is very good at solving that one problem.
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Dec 21, 2021 00:54
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The Food Bank Choir is one of the grimmer concepts I've seen of late.
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Dec 24, 2021 02:15
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kecske posted:but it still has to be made in France, who will keep bottling it according to EU laws? You can just call anything champagne, who cares. Did we leave the EU just to remain beholden to the fascists at the Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité? English sparkling wine? Champagne. Lambrini? Champagne. Bottle of Ribena? That's champagne.
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Dec 24, 2021 12:18
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I reckon things escape from government research labs more often than you'd think, and they often end up posting on Something Awful. Hope all you rogue test subjects had a nice Christmas, mine's been pretty alright. Bobstar posted:Have a photo of my cat joining in board game time
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Dec 28, 2021 22:44
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OwlFancier posted:I do not know what kind of swivel eyed nutter wants to socialize at work, my job literally requires me to be there in person and I still try to do it in the dead of night when there's nobody else there. What's the burglar's union policy on welcome sticks then?
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Dec 29, 2021 14:34
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I know contextless Twitter posts can be annoying to some ITT but I do appreciate when people post the funniest bits from that website here. I clicked through, read some stuff from "More Tweets", and now feel like I've just woken up from a serious head injury.
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Dec 30, 2021 11:55
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Aren't there a couple of religions/sects who are allowed to opt out of jury duty because they believe that judgement is only for god to deliver? If you have one of those "only god can judge me" tattoos they let you off both jury service AND defendant service.
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Dec 31, 2021 12:46
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JeremoudCorbynejad posted:Good job he specified that the attempt failed. To this day I was unsure whether or not Christmas had been abolished I like to think of the War on Christmas as an eternal fight where every year on December 25th* the Avatar of Christmas is symbolically defeated and has to go back to its shadowy nether realm**, ready to return late the next year to battle it all out again. *in the UK. Victory in Europe can be anywhere from December 6th to early January depending on country. **Finland, since Santa canonically lives in Rovaniemi.
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Dec 31, 2021 13:07
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endlessmonotony posted:... that's getting a cultural reference impressively wrong. I'm sorry, but I've been to the Rovaniemi Christmas village and they quite explicitly say that they have the real and genuine Santa Claus there. I chose not to meet him, though. e: Covid/cold chat, I had a cold a couple months back before people were talking about Omicron and it knocked me right on my arse. Can't recall the last time I felt so poo poo. I don't know whether it was a particularly nasty strain or whether I just had forgotten what getting ill felt like, but it didn't have any covid-like symptoms at all and I tested negative so I assume it was not that. big scary monsters fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Jan 1, 2022 |
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Jan 1, 2022 00:28
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Happy 2022, folks.
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Jan 1, 2022 01:34
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