The Off Topic Topic

[The Larch]

I'm currently on holiday in Milan, and last night I went to San Siro to watch the Rolling Stones.

It was... a bit sad. I mean, it was super-entertaining - their songs are just too great -, but they are a shadow of what they were (they are in their late 70s ffs). Keith Richards in particular looks like he's barely there. Jagger doesn't nearly have the same energy he once had (although he just had Covid).

I (more or less) understand the feeling. In the summer of '19 I went to a music festival over here just because one of my favourite bands (Madness) were playing. Now, these guys are much younger than the Stones (the band was founded in the mid 70s), but I had the feeling during the whole concert that they were not pushing it on the slightest, as if they did the whole gig without going further than 3rd gear. Now, it was a relatively small festival (I was really surprised that they actually took part on it), so I can assume that they had more important dates in their schedule, but it kinda left a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth. I really wonder if I should try to go and see them again in a larger/more important venue before it's too late.

[Zanza]

WFH, taken to the extreme? 

Tokyo mayoral win a 'huge surprise' for candidate living in Belgium
Japanese national Satoko Kishimoto won ward of 500,000 people 5,800 miles away with online campaigning

A Japanese woman living in Belgium has been elected as mayor of a district in Tokyo after coming to prominence through her online campaigning during the Covid pandemic.

Satoko Kishimoto, 47, who has lived in the Belgian city of Leuven with her husband and children for a decade, is now mayor of Suginami city, a ward of 500,000 people, more than 5,800 miles away from her home.

I am typically in favor of WFH, but I feel that for a mayor it's fair to expect them to work on site...

[The Larch]

WFH, taken to the extreme? 

Tokyo mayoral win a 'huge surprise' for candidate living in Belgium
Japanese national Satoko Kishimoto won ward of 500,000 people 5,800 miles away with online campaigning

A Japanese woman living in Belgium has been elected as mayor of a district in Tokyo after coming to prominence through her online campaigning during the Covid pandemic.

Satoko Kishimoto, 47, who has lived in the Belgian city of Leuven with her husband and children for a decade, is now mayor of Suginami city, a ward of 500,000 people, more than 5,800 miles away from her home.

I am typically in favor of WFH, but I feel that for a mayor it's fair to expect them to work on site...

I think it was mentioned at the end of the article that she'd be moving back to Japan in order to take up the position. Still, quite amazing that she managed to get elected.

[Josquius]

Dentists make their money from fixing peoples teeth.

Logically therefore when a toothpaste is advertised as being recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists one should stay well clear.

[mongers]

Yesterday evening I went to a Green Party meeting in the centre of the national park, I was the only one that cycled and also probably the person living furthest away. 

Only about a dozen people attending, but still.

[Sheilbh]

I'm refusing to acknowledge this news for my mental wellbeing, but FYI
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/22/polio-uk-public-health-officials-declare-national-incident-over-poliovirus

[Barrister]

Dentists make their money from fixing peoples teeth.

Logically therefore when a toothpaste is advertised as being recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists one should stay well clear.

Nah.  Where dentists make their money is from annual cleanings and the like - which can be done by a dental technician.  Ideally the dentist can have several cleanings all going at once without getting their hands dirty.

"Fixing teeth" requires the dentist themself.  Not nearly as lucrative.

[crazy canuck]

Dentists make their money from fixing peoples teeth.

Logically therefore when a toothpaste is advertised as being recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists one should stay well clear.

Nah.  Where dentists make their money is from annual cleanings and the like - which can be done by a dental technician.  Ideally the dentist can have several cleanings all going at once without getting their hands dirty.

"Fixing teeth" requires the dentist themself.  Not nearly as lucrative.

Not so.  If that was correct then you would have offices that only do cleanings and checkups with referrals to other dentists to do the dental work.  The dental procedures themselves are very lucrative, especially now that new techniques and technologies have reduced the time it takes for many procedures, while the rates charged have also climbed.  Lots of profit to be had.

So much so, in fact, that private equity is now buying up many of the practices...

[Grey Fox]

Everything at the dentist is lucrative.

[Josquius]

Yesterday evening I went to a Green Party meeting in the centre of the national park, I was the only one that cycled and also probably the person living furthest away. 

Only about a dozen people attending, but still.

Did you declare yourself green king and chastise their weakness?

[Eddie Teach]

That would have been awesome.

[FunkMonk]

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-alexa-deepfake-grandma-re-mars-demo-machine-lear-1849095743

Amazon's Latest Trick: Pipe In a Dead Person's Voice Through Alexa's Speakers
The uncanny valley of the future doesn't just feature lifelike robots; it also includes deep faked voices.

At Amazon's re:MARS conference, the company announced it's working on a feature that can synthesize short audio clips of a person's voice and then reprogram it as longer speech. Amazon's Senior Vice President and Head Scientist for Alexa, Rohit Prasad, showed off a demonstration where, as TechCrunch described, "the voice of a deceased loved one (a grandmother, in this case), is used to read a grandson a bedtime story."

There aren't many more details beyond this initial demonstration. Reuters reports that Prahad mentions the goal of this technology is to "make memories last" after "so many of us have lost someone we love," which makes it seem rather intense.

Black Mirror was a documentary.

[HVC]

Creepy

[Jacob]

Perfect for all those Stan Lee cameos.

[Josquius]

There is a positive side to it though : if you're losing your voice ala Stephen hawking you get to keep it.