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#1

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Richard Hakluyt - Today at 03:37:02 AM

Is she going to protect herself from MenB?

So what is the deal with this? This seems to be a joke for online UK people and is there some irrational panic going on? Or is there an actual bad situation and this is just typically British gallows humor?

I'm not sure at all. Meningitis has been in decline in the UK for a number of decades and was virtually absent for a couple of years during the covid years (for obvious reasons). What may be happening is that having gone away it is now national news if there is an outbreak. This is a general problem, as things become rarer then they become more newsworthy, leading the statistically illiterate part of the population (ie 90.73% of the total) to think things are getting worse.

Having said that it is a horrible disease that cuts people off in their youth. Back in my boarding school days my entire dorm got laid low with flu one year. It was a pleasurable skive for me, not so good for some of the others. But for one of us it was fatal; 17 years old, clever fellow, captain of the swimming team etc etc. Very tragic 

#2

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by jimmy olsen - Today at 02:50:54 AM

I just had these with a sandwhich my wife made and they were fantastic

#3

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by jimmy olsen - Today at 02:50:10 AM

When I was a kid, I wasn't a fan of snickers. It was just ok, something I'd eat if there wasn't another option.

I fucking love them now though. 

#4

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Syt - Today at 02:36:31 AM

In the Transmetropolitan comics I always found it silly and over the top when "The Smiler" becomes president with the sole motivation that he thinks he should be, and with the goal of putting people in their place and making their lives miserable. With policies like kicking mental patients to the curb and encouraging "care in the community" instead. Or tearing down a notorious housing project of his predecessor that was built with toxic materials ... but not providing new shelters to the people. And censoring unpatriotic speech because "there ought to be limits to freedom. Doesn't seem so far fetched now.

#5

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Syt - Today at 02:33:07 AM

Trump thinks not using sneak attack tactics is dumb. Why would you not use any advantage that you can against your enemies, or against your friends (who are also your enemies who are just useful to you at the moment)?

#6

Gaming HQ / Re: Victoria 3

Last post by Crazy_Ivan80 - Today at 01:49:04 AM

Now it's waiting for the first player that keep hormuz closed the entire game

#7

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Sophie Scholl - Today at 12:42:32 AM

I'm just saying I live in America, I see household spending, we aren't a country in struggle. That's largely a fake news narrative people ran for 4 years under Biden. I think America is mostly indolent and intolerant of even a little bit of adversity.

Out of curiosity, do you think your view of the way things are now in America versus 2007 might be tied to being a much better financial situation yourself and interacting with folks who are also in a much better situation? As someone who was broke and working borderline jobs in 2007 and in 2026 and interacts with a lot of folks in said positions, including a lot of younger folks, I don't agree with your assessment of the health of America's economy and population's lack of adversity.

#8

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 12:23:28 AM

There is an organization that now tracks the cases in which a court or tribunal comments on the fact that AI used in the submission presented by the parties has generated fabricated cases or legal principles.

In BC alone it happened in 10 cases LAST WEEK.

You see, that just demonstrates the superiority of the American legal system.  Our Department of Justice is fully capable of generating fabricated legal principles completely on its own, without any assistance from AI.

#9

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 12:20:53 AM

Yes, and the comparison is an extremely apt one.  Sneak attacks during peace negotiations enraged the Greatest Generation, but Trump is as far from Greatest as it is possible to be, so he thinks that such attacks are admirable.

It was telling that he immediately recognized the parallel and yet embraced it.

Multiple high level Japanese officials were convicted of the crime of waging an aggressive war as a result of the Pearl Harbor attacks. Tojo was executed (for that and other crimes); others received long prison sentences. Not sure Trump knows that; I doubt that he cares.

The other aspect of the comment - the sheer idiocy of gratuitously insulting the leader of a major economic power at a time when the US is desperately scrambling to fine willing participants to help clean up its Persian mess  - is sadly just par for the Trump course.

#10

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by HVC - Today at 12:12:47 AM

They'll actually be 12k with the other 50% of the gold funnelled to trumps accounts as is the Trump tradition.