The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

This weight lifter shows the world how to lose

https://youtu.be/veU_Zq5K6xk

[Sheilbh]

The squish sound is both unnecessary and somehow makes it funny

It weirdly made me think of this recent compilation of the varied causes of death in PSAs from 70s Britain:
https://twitter.com/ScarredForLife2/status/1419954481236688910

I feel like as a kid in the 90s I got the tail end of this stuff. I remember vidoes about the risks of electric substations (but still not sure what one is), the various "don't play with matches" cartoons and I feel like a disproportionate amount of primary school was spent on what to do if you got caught in quicksand.

[Tamas]

Is there a special British day today I am not aware of? Two of our neighbours are in a fierce battle of who can shoot more and louder fireworks in an as longly sustained timeframe as possible.

[Josquius]

I dunno.
It's the Swiss national day today.
Were they yodelling?

[Sheilbh]

Is there a special British day today I am not aware of? Two of our neighbours are in a fierce battle of who can shoot more and louder fireworks in an as longly sustained timeframe as possible.

Nothing I can think of - maybe a religious festival?

[Tamas]

Is there a special British day today I am not aware of? Two of our neighbours are in a fierce battle of who can shoot more and louder fireworks in an as longly sustained timeframe as possible.

Nothing I can think of - maybe a religious festival?

These are upper middle class detached houses with very white families in them, I am fairly certain they are Christians.

Anyhow, one of them families do fireworks semi-regularly so it wasn't a shock, just the intensity and the neighbour answering the challenge was surprising.

[Sheilbh]

Wonderful New Yorker interview with Melvyn Bragg:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/the-education-of-melvyn-bragg

I love Melvyn Bragg but it occurred to me reading this that he is - in the UK at least - like the arts broadcasting David Attenborough. Just universally admired but also instantly recognisable in voice and style - and even in that interview, he is somehow being brisk in getting through topics in his responses

I can't find it now but someone did YouTube video just of his cold introductions "Hello, in April 1815 the volcano Mount Tambora erupted on the island of Sumbawa in what we now call Indonesia." "Hello, in 1900 in the German city of Konigsburg the International Congress of Mathematicians gathered in what could be called a mood of hope and fear." "Hello, 'he who saw the deep' that's a quotation - the first words from the Epic of Gilgamesh, said to be the first great masterpiece of literature."

Edit: And this is just such a wonderful sentiment: "Well, I think the fascination of knowledge is an addiction. And I sometimes think the fascination of knowledge is the meaning of life. I really do. I mean, it saved me when I was a kid. It got me out of a really, really bad hole. And I've tried to keep out of it ever since."

[Josquius]

7 euros for a cauliflower.

The world is doomed.

[Maladict]

7 euros for a cauliflower.

The world is doomed.

where?

[Josquius]

🇨🇭

[Maladict]

🇨🇭

Ah. All is well with the world then.

[Sheilbh]

Surely that's cheap in Switzerland?

Meanwhile in London

Marie Le Conte
@youngvulgarian
one for London renting fans here - this is advertised as a one bedroom flat, but can *you* guess where the bedroom is in this picture?
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/property/london/kennington/#expired

[Josquius]

Guess it's up that ladder?

Bunk bed flats I saw were fairly common in Japan. I don't get how adults do it.

[The Brain]

Guess it's up that ladder?

Bunk bed flats I saw were fairly common in Japan. I don't get how adults do it.

Worked fine in the army.

[Sheilbh]

Guess it's up that ladder?

Bunk bed flats I saw were fairly common in Japan. I don't get how adults do it.

It still seems a generous definition of a "one bedroom" flat - and I am most alarmed about where the loo is