The Off Topic Topic

[Razgovory]

Sometimes I get the impression that people don't care about 16th century Dutch paintings.

[Valmy]

Sometimes I get the impression that people don't care about 16th century Dutch paintings.

Well the 17th Century ones are far superior.

[grumbler]

Sometimes I get the impression that people don't care about 16th century Dutch paintings.

Well the 17th Century ones are far superior.

Bruegel can't old a candle to Rembrandt or Vermeer.

[Tonitrus]

Rembrandt insists upon himself.

[Admiral Yi]

  The man was a god.

[Tonitrus]

The man was a god.

I love Albrecht Dürer.  That is my answer to that statement.

[CountDeMoney]

Rembrandt insists upon himself.

The fuck

[Josquius]

I genuinely feel a tiny bit stupider from reading Jos's posts over the last few pages.

I get it dude.  You don't like London.  I feel your pain - I live in Canada and don't like the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto axis either.  I mean - put aside the fact there/s 2700 km between Edmonton and Toronto, versus 400km between Newcastle and London.

(Holy crap - only 400km?  That's a fucking day trip by car).

But that doesn't by any stretch mean that western Canada is more like, well I guess the USA, than it is eastern Canada.  I know from personal experience the Scots would be quite offended at the notion that northern England should be a part of Scotland (extreme edge cases like Berwick notwithstanding).

Said by someone who has never spent time in this part of the world...

You do realise distance works different in the old world right?
100km is a hell of a long way. Much of this developed in a period when walking was the main way of getting around.
It's irrelevant how far things are. You get some entire countries less than 400km across.

This has fuck all to do with "not liking London". London is actually an oddity in the comparison due to being such a different economic reality and being full of people from all over and not too many actual londoners these days.
I never said northern England should be part of Scotland. How the hell do you get that?
I pointed to the reality on the ground that people in the north are more like Scots than they are people in the south.
And yes, id imagine many in Scotland would get prissy about this as it damages their attempts to try and make out they're massively different to the dreaded English (the south) and so need independence , many in Scotland however can accept reality.

[The Brain]

Yes. Europeans are very rooted in their immediate area. On Sundays I often walk down to the turnpike and watch city folks go by in their horseless carriages.

[garbon]

BBC covering all the news fit to print

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70wnrg678lo

Teenager claims first ever Tetris 'rebirth'

A US teenager is the first known person to get classic video game Tetris to reset to level 0 after beating it.

Michael Artiaga, 16, claimed the historic moment of so-called "rebirth" while livestreaming himself playing Nintendo's version of the game on Twitch on Sunday.

It took him 82 minutes to successfully clear level 255 on Tetris - the game's highest. Artiaga, who streams as "dogplayingtetris", celebrated and watched in shock as it started again from scratch.

"Am I dreaming, bro?" he asked viewers, saying he was in "disbelief".

The teen carried on playing and eventually finished with 29.4 million points.

"I'm so glad that game is over," he added, as he prepared to wrap up his stream.

"I never want to play this game again".

He was reportedly playing an edition of the game made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console that prevents crashes after level 155.

The game's crashes and kill screens have marked the efforts of other young streamers hoping to set new records.

Oklahoma teen Willis "Blue Scuti" Gibson claimed to be the first to ever beat the game earlier this year when he reached level 157 in 38 minutes before it crashed.

Tetris was first created in 1984 by Soviet engineer Alexey Pajitnov, and has spawned into hundreds of versions for arcades, consoles and PCs.

The classic video game has remained popular ever since for its simplicity, yet frustrating difficulty.

Players have to arrange falling different shapes, each composed of four blocks, to make them fit together like a jigsaw into horizontal lines that vanish when completed.

If you fail to clear lines of blocks, which fall more quickly as players progress through levels, before they pile up to the top of the window - it's game over.

Artiaga is one of several teenage gamers who have livestreamed their attempts to break previous, and each others', records for the number of levels reached or lines cleared without the game crashing.

He became the world's youngest Tetris world champion at the age of 13 when he beat his older brother in the Classic Tetris World Championship final in 2020.

"I still cannot believe it... first ever to get Rebirth!" he wrote in the description for his two hour-long stream on YouTube, external.

"I'm so happy about finally getting this after all of the attempts. Thanks to everyone for the support over the years.

"It's finally over," he added.

[Barrister]

I genuinely feel a tiny bit stupider from reading Jos's posts over the last few pages.

I get it dude.  You don't like London.  I feel your pain - I live in Canada and don't like the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto axis either.  I mean - put aside the fact there/s 2700 km between Edmonton and Toronto, versus 400km between Newcastle and London.

(Holy crap - only 400km?  That's a fucking day trip by car).

But that doesn't by any stretch mean that western Canada is more like, well I guess the USA, than it is eastern Canada.  I know from personal experience the Scots would be quite offended at the notion that northern England should be a part of Scotland (extreme edge cases like Berwick notwithstanding).

Said by someone who has never spent time in this part of the world...

You do realise distance works different in the old world right?
100km is a hell of a long way. Much of this developed in a period when walking was the main way of getting around.
It's irrelevant how far things are. You get some entire countries less than 400km across.

This has fuck all to do with "not liking London". London is actually an oddity in the comparison due to being such a different economic reality and being full of people from all over and not too many actual londoners these days.
I never said northern England should be part of Scotland. How the hell do you get that?
I pointed to the reality on the ground that people in the north are more like Scots than they are people in the south.
And yes, id imagine many in Scotland would get prissy about this as it damages their attempts to try and make out they're massively different to the dreaded English (the south) and so need independence , many in Scotland however can accept reality.

Jos - you realize that "distance" actually works the exact same everywhere in the universe, right?

I have in fact driven the entire length of Britain - twice.  It's a remarkably small country that would fit comfortably within Alberta itself.  Which makes your disdain for the south of England all the more humorous.  It's the narcissism of small differences I guess.

[Josquius]

Jos - you realize that "distance" actually works the exact same everywhere in the universe, right?

No it doesn't.
Travel time has always been a huge factor in the development of civilization.
North America was largely settled in modern times. Mass transit and communication has always been the norm as long as there has been a Canada. White people have only lived in most of the continent for, what, 6 generations?
In Europe meanwhile there were centuries over which travel was far more restricted. Most people rarely left their home village. Communication was often sparse; passing travellers were about the only way you heard what was going on in the world. When you didn't read and basically never met anyone who didn't come from your immediate area language and culture could develop off in a variety of directions.
This led to far greater diversity than you get in post-European settlement North America.

I have in fact driven the entire length of Britain - twice.  It's a remarkably small country that would fit comfortably within Alberta itself.  Which makes your disdain for the south of England all the more humorous.  It's the narcissism of small differences I guess.

I've visited Beijing. That makes me an expert on the intricacies of Chinese culture?
Hilarious that pointing out Group A is more like Group B than Group C can only be about disdain for group C and not at all an accurate assessment.

[Barrister]

Jos - you realize that "distance" actually works the exact same everywhere in the universe, right?

No it doesn't.

No - it literally does!    100km is 100km whether it's in Canada or in England.

Every time I've been to Europe I've rented a car and driven all over the place.  And every European seems to think I'm crazy.  So I get it it's a cultural thing - North Americans are much more car-centered versus Europeans.  But that doesn't make "distance" any different no matter where you are.

Travel time has always been a huge factor in the development of civilization.
North America was largely settled in modern times. Mass transit and communication has always been the norm as long as there has been a Canada. White people have only lived in most of the continent for, what, 6 generations?
In Europe meanwhile there were centuries over which travel was far more restricted. Most people rarely left their home village. Communication was often sparse; passing travellers were about the only way you heard what was going on in the world. When you didn't read and basically never met anyone who didn't come from your immediate area language could develop off in a variety of directions.
This led to far greater diversity than you get in post-European settlement North America.

So on the one hand I'm a fifth generation Canadian - my ancestors (on both my Ukrainian and my English sides) came here about 120 years ago.  But that's western Canada - you ask a Quebecer they go back several hundred years on this continent.

But beyond that - so what?  Does that mean my eyes don't work?  I can't make observations?

There's a fierce rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary, despite the cities being about 300km apart.  But I can tell you that rivalry is precisely because both cities are so similar, because many/most people have friends or relatives in both cities.

You hate southern England precisely because it's so similar to northern England, not because it's so different. 

I have in fact driven the entire length of Britain - twice.  It's a remarkably small country that would fit comfortably within Alberta itself.  Which makes your disdain for the south of England all the more humorous.  It's the narcissism of small differences I guess.

I've visited Beijing. That makes me an expert on the intricacies of Chinese culture?
Hilarious that pointing out Group A is more like Group B than Group C can only be about disdain for group C and not at all an accurate assessment.

Expert?  No.

But can the observations of an outsider have valid observations - which may not be obvious to someone who is to close?  Abso-fucking-lutely.

[Grey Fox]

Somehow, 2 native english speakers are lost in translation.

[Habbaku]

Somehow, 2 native english speakers are lost in translation.

To be fair, one is English.