The Off Topic Topic

[DGuller]

It works on so many levels.  Asbestos itself was an act of mass murder perpetrated by soulless corporate executives.  Unlike the hijackers, though, they got to retire comfortably.

[Josquius]

Today I learned of the existence of Long Boi of the University of York.
Watch, listen, and learn all that you need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKIzzmJUr8M

[The Brain]

Today I learned of the existence of Long Boi of the University of York.
Watch and learn all that you need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKIzzmJUr8M

NSFW?

[Josquius]

Today I learned of the existence of Long Boi of the University of York.
Watch and learn all that you need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKIzzmJUr8M

NSFW?

0/10

[Tonitrus]

It's a class factor Tamas. I totally get what you mean. In the past the poor were working class. Today the poor tend to be lumpens, products of generational unemployment and possessing a huge aura of not giving a shit about everything and everyone.

Also a factor is women's lib and general declining wages. My nana was super house proud. Would spend hours cleaning her step. Because being a housewife was a full time job and it was expected you do these things in her day.
No longer do most households want or afford  a full time house carer.

If we want high-density housing those medium-rise slab blocks are about the best; high-rises tend to have windswept spaces between them or become dystopian if crammed together.

Yep. This is what you see across Europe,

C'mon Languish, why hasn't this discussion led us to Arcologies yet? 

[Sheilbh]

In terms of highrises you have a point, maintaining those as buildings go beyond the tenants' abilities.

However, as a general note I find linking people's income and their desire to clean up after themselves and take care for their own immediate environment highly offensive.

I grew up in a rural environment were near-everyone was on varying levels of low income, with the combination of fairly high maintenance households in terms of the size of buildings and gardens (both quite large compared to UK terraced standards, for example).

Yet, most of those households were maintained in perfectly decent condition. Not all, mind, and "surprisingly" the bums who could not bother to not live in a pest-infested garden littered with litter were usually the same who could not manage to hold down a job either.

It is perfectly possible to be poor and have dignity. I personally never had to combine the two but my grandparents and parents did, and they, like the vast majority of their peers, managed.

I'm doing the opposite of that

[Syt]

I had forgotten that the German team had a song for the FIFA World Cup 1994 that featured the Village People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEq12L_EE1U&ab_channel=richirobledo

[Josquius]

When I am head of FIFA I shall pass a rule that every team qualifying for a major international  tournament or Cup final MUST produce a song.

[Grey Fox]

Tomorrow morning at 10h30 am, my son will have completed a full year of school, in a pandemic, without missing 1 day of in class school. Quite the achievement by the school.

[grumbler]

Tomorrow morning at 10h30 am, my son will have completed a full year of school, in a pandemic, without missing 1 day of in class school. Quite the achievement by the school.

On a somewhat related note, the school I work for has a 98% retention rate going into next year, three percentage points higher than our previous high.  Parents really liked how the school dealt with the pandemic, and I think the whole "going through this together" mentality (especially on the part of the Parents' Association) really created an even stronger sense of community.

Frankly, I'm a bit shocked.  These are not the best of times for independent schools.

[celedhring]

So, New Zealand has a notorious political-themed pub with puppets of kiwi politicians as décor. 

Jacinda Ardern puppet like 'something from Game of Thrones', says New Zealand PM
Prime minister has been elevated from a DJ in 2018 to 'some kind of celestial being' this year in traditional puppet event
Soofia Tariq
Wed 23 Jun 2021 02.54 BST

A New Zealand pub, known for its lifesize puppets of New Zealand politicians, has unveiled one of Jacinda Ardern, who called it "a cross between some kind of celestial being and something from Game of Thrones".

The Backbencher pub, opposite the parliament house in Wellington, has been creating politician puppets for 30 years, and on Tuesday night unveiled its second puppet of the prime minister.

Ardern was seen holding her hand over her mouth when the puppet was unveiled. "I'm often asked what the most unusual thing I'm asked to do as prime minister is. Unveiling a puppet in your likeness is right up there," she said.

The grinning figure displayed in the dining room of the pub wears a chain mail dress and holds a sceptre, a change from her first caricature as a DJ in 2018.

National party leader Judith Collins, Act party leader David Seymour and Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick were also immortalised with new puppets.

Collins tweeted she was "very happy" with her puppet while Seymour said his was "not entirely unflattering".

Swarbrick was depicted as Katniss from The Hunger Games, holding a bow and arrow in front of climate protesters, which she found "very kind". While the drug reform advocate said "the bow and arrow was quite different to the bong I was expecting" she did have a marijuana leaf badge on her vegan leather jacket.

Visitors to the pub can also enjoy political-themed dishes such as "Ardern's fresh fish" or "Robertson's scotch fillet", named after the deputy prime minister, Grant Robertson.

[Sheilbh]

It also sounds like an actual political pub given that it's opposite the Beehive/Parliament buildings.

There's political pubs in Westminster - so one which is a free-for-all, but then there's a Labour, Tory and Lib Dem pub too - but I don't think any of them have Spitting Image style puppets

[Syt]

Meanwhile, the youth organization of the FPÖ in Carinthia:



"Our rainbow has only two colors:
PATRIOTSMONTH
instead of
Pridemonth!"

[Duque de Bragança]

Disappointed it's not the ÖVP pulling it, for Syt. 

[The Larch]

John McAfee has killed himself in prison in Barcelona.