The Off Topic Topic

[Sheilbh]

"I kick arse for the Lord!"

That's John Carpenter's Vampires, right? 

I think it's Peter Jackson's Braindead - but I could be wrong

Edit: In my head it's very definitely got a Kiwi accent

[Barrister]

It should be incorporated into any future vampire movie. It was already done in "From Dusk Till Dawn", after all. 

Heck it was done in The Lost Boys a decade earlier!

Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever seen The Lost Boys. 

Now you know what to watch tonight!   It's got a young Keifer Sutherland, the two Coreys (Haim and Feldman)... even has a bit role for Alex Winters (of Bill and Ted fame).  It's a little cheesy (it was the 80s) but very watchable.

[Malthus]

Reminds me of how I met my in-laws' priest.

I probably told that story before - but anyway, this happened soon after I started going out with the woman I later married. I met up with her at her house. Her parents were out. I was sitting with her in her room (just talking, I swear) when suddenly her door flew open and in popped a Catholic priest in full regalia. With an evil grin, he swung some metallic object in my direction, and out of the end of it spurted a stream of water that hit me directly in the face; then, without a word, he popped out the door again and shut it.

Turns out this was a ceremony they do every year - the parents left a key for him to get in and bless the house with holy water when they were out. He saw me, and took his opportunity to have a little fun at my expense. 😄

To say I was surprised was an understatement, as I had no idea anyone was in the house, let alone a priest in full robes.

[Duque de Bragança]

"I kick arse for the Lord!"

That's John Carpenter's Vampires, right? 

I think it's Peter Jackson's Braindead - but I could be wrong

Edit: In my head it's very definitely got a Kiwi accent

Maybe, but James Wood's character was better at it. 

[Valmy]

Reminds me of how I met my in-laws' priest.

I probably told that story before - but anyway, this happened soon after I started going out with the woman I later married. I met up with her at her house. Her parents were out. I was sitting with her in her room (just talking, I swear) when suddenly her door flew open and in popped a Catholic priest in full regalia. With an evil grin, he swung some metallic object in my direction, and out of the end of it spurted a stream of water that hit me directly in the face; then, without a word, he popped out the door again and shut it.

Turns out this was a ceremony they do every year - the parents left a key for him to get in and bless the house with holy water when they were out. He saw me, and took his opportunity to have a little fun at my expense. 😄

To say I was surprised was an understatement, as I had no idea anyone was in the house, let alone a priest in full robes.

At least he wasn't chanting "the power of Christ compels you"

[crazy canuck]

I think that's my favourite, but big fan of this priest who's really getting into it:

That last guy is having way too much fun.

This is probably going to become permanent.

[FunkMonk]

I'm disgusted. Guns have no place in a house of God.

[Valmy]

I'm disgusted. Guns have no place in a place of worship.

Only holy handgrenades.

[Sheilbh]

So this is fascinating:

ABSTRACT

This article is first to report on the secret European five-partner sigint alliance Maximator that started in the late 1970s. It discloses the name Maximator and provides documentary evidence. The five members of this European alliance are Denmark Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. The cooperation involves both signals analysis and crypto analysis. The Maximator alliance has remained secret for almost fifty years, in contrast to its Anglo-Saxon Five-Eyes counterpart. The existence of this European sigint alliance gives a novel perspective on western sigint collaborations in the late twentieth century. The article explains and illustrates, with relatively much attention for the cryptographic details, how the five Maximator participants strengthened their effectiveness via the information about rigged cryptographic devices that its German partner provided, via the joint U.S.-German ownership and control of the Swiss producer Crypto AG of cryptographic devices.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2020.1743538

The article and information seems to come from Dutch sources so is very focused on that side of the alliance. It'd be interesting to see the French, German (particularly interesting given the BND-CIA collaborations mentioned in the article) and the Scandinavian side. Also very striking at the countries that have asked to join and been invited because they lack relevant capacity, though politics may also play a part: Norway, Belgium, Italy and Spain. Of these, Norway seems really surprising.

Also quite a big fan of the covers for the brochures when they had a conference:

Figure 1. Cover pages of booklets of several Maximator meetings. The page of the meeting at Rheinhausen – home to a BND satellite listening post (Schmidt-Eenboom, 'The Bundesnachrichtendienst, the Bundeswehr and SIGINT'.) – is most informative, since it includes the flags of the five countries forming the Maximator alliance. Edison is the codename for the Netherlands; this meeting took place in Amsterdam: the bottle in the picture carries three crosses (x) on top of each other, which forms the logo of the city of Amsterdam.

Economist article on the same:
https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/05/26/maximator-a-european-spy-pact-to-rival-the-five-eyes-comes-to-light

Edit: Also the origin of the name, in a 70s Munich beer hall is very Le Carre:

The name Maximator refers to a beer brand from the southern German region of Bavaria (see image 1, below). Bavaria's capital is Munich, and its suburb Pullach was, until 2017, home to the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German foreign intelligence agency. At some stage in 1979, representatives of the alliance-in-the-making were having a beer there, while pondering a good name for their emerging cooperation. They looked at their glasses, filled with Doppelbock beer of the local brand Maximator5 and reached a decision.6

[Duque de Bragança]

Maximator also has a cool B-movie vibe. Approved!

[Sheilbh]

Maximator also has a cool B-movie vibe. Approved!

It does! I can just imagine the smoky, low ceilinged room, glasses of beer, disappointed looking men in brown suits. It's great.

[Grey Fox]

NASA is launching actual astronauts from US soil this afternoon.

It's been a while.

[Barrister]

NASA is launching actual astronauts from US soil this afternoon.

It's been a while.

Depending on weather.  It's only 50/50 that they're going up today.

And it's more historic than that - this will be the first launch ever of humans into orbit by a private company.

[celedhring]

Is the Dragon vehicle large enough to mantain social distancing? 

[Grey Fox]

And it's more historic than that - this will be the first launch ever of humans into orbit by a private company.

Yes, I expect failure.