Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 05:58:49 PM

I hate Royal Rail And given that only 5% went for that I'm not sure you need to worry about others liking it

British Rail (mid-century modern and the double arrow logo) or Great British Rail (Art Deco - a murder on every train).

#2

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 05:54:03 PM

I can't seem to write a big reply on my phone without it spontaneouslt combusting
So about houchen tomorrow.

I quite like Royal Rail.
Though doubtless for different reasons to why others would like it.
It's quite twee and silly. Has vibes of a 1950s comic book.
And quite nice symmetry to see that coming public in a similarish in the grand scope period to royal mail being given away.

#3

Off the Record / Re: 2024 US Presidential Elect...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 05:50:16 PM

In the case involving the hush money to the porn star the Indictment was in March of last year, and his legal team has been delaying as much as possible.

#4

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Admiral Yi - Today at 05:49:34 PM

I agree on "lying" but more generally I think it is good to basically ban people from impugning people's motives because there's no way to know. We don't see into each other's souls and forcing an assumption that everyone is operating on good faith even if you think they're wrong/mad/evil is good - and if they do say something that turns out to be untrue force them back to withdraw it.

I've been beating this drum for decades now.  Questioning a person's motives provides no additional information other than you dislike them.  Praising motives does the opposite.  It's what a person does when they are unable to argue the merits.  It also feeds into my previous point that many people's agenda is to get angrier.

#5

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 05:48:08 PM

No Engine McEngineface

#6

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Jacob - Today at 05:46:47 PM

Rail Britannia 

#7

Off the Record / Re: Grand unified books thread

Last post by Jacob - Today at 05:41:57 PM

Yeah, I'm no expert but the foreign language thing makes sense to me because I think the censorship is primarily about controlling the Chinese population - first politically, and secondly in a "kids these days, let's make sure they don't consumer stuff that undermines their moral fibre" in a paternalistic sense.

I suppose you're right about them not slotting sci-fi in as something overtly political (and I'd expect they consider it more wholesome than fantasy or romance, because sci-fi has an implicit "do your science homework" message).

I think another factor is that they probably still have a threshold under which they don't act for reasons of practicality  or - I suspect - because it doesn't cross their radar. The online fiction that has had the biggest crackdown - as I understand it - is romance, especially romance that veers into erotica and/or LGBTQ themes. My impression is that it's either driven by "netizens" making a big deal about it, it leaking into the regular media, and/ or it pushing the "kids these days" button for the old men elite cadres of the CCP. And I think sci-fi just doesn't hit too many of those criteria.

But yeah, I think it's almost always reaction rather than proactive censorship - they care if they can see a big (negative) impact in China. Anything else doesn't really matter, until it's part of a trend (that has a big negative impact in China).

#8

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 05:29:50 PM

I don't think so, I think it is more about soothing feelings that might have been hurt by the rest of his speech that was directed at the budget.

#9

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 05:15:17 PM

Odd, I like the grimy version more. Probably because that's what I'm used to.

That makes sense.

I watch an embarrassing amount of art restoration style TV shows and YouTubes () and sometimes do prefer the slightly hazy damaged varnished painting that had hung in a room thick with cigar smoke for 100 years.

#10

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 05:11:24 PM

Yeah I can see how it makes sense in a federal system - although not aware of anywhere else like that - thinking of other federal states like Germany, India, the US. There's regionalist or state specific parties but not aware of anywhere else that's split the two.

And you definitely have an element of that "before" stage you're talking about here. Welsh Labour, for example, since devolution have always operated on the basis of clear red water between them and the national party - always positioning themselves to the left which was very annoying for a national Labour government, but good for Welsh Labour (which has been in office since devolution in 1999). Similarly the success of Ruth Davidson really re-branding the Scottish Tories under her leadership and taking them to second place ahead of Scottish Labour (which was unimaginable in 1999 when the Tories had 0 Scottish MPs).

In fairness this always happens in local elections when one party is doing well that the leaflets produced by local parties for their elections basically remove all the national branding, colours, no pictures of senior national politicians on the campaign trail - it's all about how "local" they are. Though that leaflet takes it unusually far

Although I'm slightly worried about the leader thing because I think that is a trend that's happening more broadly in democratic politics as that the old party structures and mass parties have died. I think there seems to be a trend to a more personalist/leadership style politics. I'm not sure it's a good thing because I think the parties and party structures played an important role in democracy - but (as ever) I don't think we can go back. I'm not sure it's a positive trend - it seems like a more acute triangle version of democracy v a broad pyramid if that makes sense.