samlcfc

5 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I’m not in any form of power mate, I’m merely just a punter. 
 

I’d be happy for them to be deterred by any means possible. The who, where and why isn’t for me to come up with, any more than it is down to you to want RvN out but don’t have to personally select the next manager.

I'm not sure that's comparable. Football fans don't have the slightest say in how their club is ran.

This is why they'll grow in popularity. 

They're just a bunch of chancers that have recognised a capacity to manipulate the latest wave of disenfranchised voters.

I use the word manipulation, because you can see the process play out elsewhere. Just offer unworkable solutions to current issues, then lay the blame elsewhere whilst refusing to engage in good faith conversation with any of your critics.

I saw earlier, that their latest big name in North Lincolnshire has decided that's the way to go with the media.

14 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I don’t think you can prevent the cause (as Starmer is currently proving) but a harsher solution may deter them from crossing.

I can't recall them detailing a particularly harsh solution to the issue.

I appreciate they're not in government yet, but they seem to have their sights on becoming more significant.

They've said they'll immediately deport migrants, without suggesting where or how. They've also raised offshore processing, without suggesting where or how.

I note that they've advised they'd leave the ECHR to facilitate the above, but considering the history of their prominent members, it seems that move is more likely to be used against people in the UK in way that's unrelated to the migrant issue.

11 hours ago, Zear0 said:

Not out yet, but the Oblivion remake/remaster is meant to drop fairly imminently and I can't wait. Never really got into Skyrim for some reason but absolutely loved this one (Morrowind still better as no difficulty scaling that plagued the "newer" ones). 

I did the opposite. Oblivion was a bit before I had really played any RPG's and I put a fair bit of time into Skyrim. I look forward to getting involved in this new release. Hopefully it captures the vibe I felt with Skyrim, whilst bringing things reasonmably up to date.

1 hour ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Adolescence is good but the one shot format makes it hard to watch imo.

 

Stephen Graham the goat however as usual.

Haven't watched the final episode yet, but enjoying the formats ability to maintain an emotional context, for lack of better phrasing. Personally, felt like it pulled me right into the chaos.

Just flew through the third and fourth season of 'The Boys' after sacking it off since the end of season 2. Good bit of ridiculous entertainment to have on whilst I was working.

Need to find something else fairly mindless to have on in the background now.

1 hour ago, urban.spaceman said:

Failure over several decades to hold internet providers and social media firms accountable for the content they host and as multitude of malicious things they’ve done. 

1 hour ago, Torquay Gunner said:

What on earth can be done about this? 

 

I was a teenager during the proliferation of mobile phones, but prior to modern smart phones arriving on the market, and even then I can remember some bad material being shared around.

It must be an absolute nightmare trying to moderate the negative behaviour this technology has the capacity to facilitate, just based on good faith and a desire to support the development of appropriate behaviour in young lads.

It'd be a hell of a job if those doing it had the support of the media and technology companies, but I can imagine a lot more resources go into considering how fringe behaviour might be promoted to increase user-engagement, or how users might be manipulated for the same purposes.

I'd say that the technology has quickly outgrown attempts to check its impact on society, but I haven't noticed any significant attempts to alleviate negative impacts. It's all just seems one massive experiment in making money, whilst the average person picks up the pieces.

Any attempts to raise it for discussion at this point inevitably touches on the concept of freedom is this context, and when the discussion largely takes place in a space heavily controlled by the same people that would lose out by giving up any self-determination, it feels like a difficult place to start from.

A further concern is that the PIP forms are difficult to complete appropriately, especially with regards to mental health. 

Those most eligible, often find the application process most difficult. If they don't improve the service significantly, they'll probably find there's a good number of successful claimants that they'd hope would be ineligble, whilst the most vulnerable go without.

Beyond being an awful situation for some people, could be a bit of a disaster for the party if it isn't significantly economically beneficial and they run into a bunch of horror stories come the next election. Hard to tell obviously, but I can't imagine them getting in next time around anyway.

40 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Probably quite old to some, but watched a video from Brian Cox talking about the Fermi Paradox (bear with me, it is vaguely related) and he speaks about a Great Filter being an explanation for the paradox.

One of the potential positioning of this filter being when we as a species are unable to unite and thereby end up ‘doing ourselves in’ rather than making a meaningful attempt at getting to the stars.

 

He also suspected that space faring species may also have a short window of primacy before also fading or destroying themselves and therefore end up never seeing other such species.

'Cool Worlds' do some pretty good content on this topic too, in case it might be of interest.

Youtube: Cool Worlds

6 hours ago, brookfox said:

Last episode of Invincible was great, can’t wait for the series finale.

Binged this the last couple week whilst writing up notes for work. Nice easy watch and very entertaining.

Some of the characters are great.

4 hours ago, Sampson said:

I know you should focus on things you can change and shouldn’t let the outside world affect you, but anyone else really struggling with the news atm? Just feels like the world is spinning out of control faster than anyone can wrap their heads round it. It’s the same kind of anxiety I had during most of 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. 

I can appreciate this. Future uncertainties can feel less daunting when things appear to be barrelling along faster than usual.

Agree with the advice from Leicsmac. Even if not actively involved in any movements or some such thing, when stuff seems bad in the news media, I can always take comfort from considering the good that humans are doing on the ground. There are people out there that put in some intense good faith work in the world. 

Personally, I've found that practicing a level of mindfulness has been helpful. Taking a bit of time occasionally, to consider other potentially important things in my life such as close relationships and hobbies. Finding anything to use as a place that is at least somewhat insulated from concerns in other areas of life. These things often allow for a sort of day to day thinking that can give meaning to existing without having to worry about where I or the wider world might be heading in the long-term. 

With regards to perspective, I also enjoy listening to youtube / podcast content related to philosophy etc. Can be interesting to consider ways of thinking, when we receive a lot of our direction in this respect from the news media in relation to current affairs. 

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02350-X/fulltext

 

"A human-driven mass extinction is underway. The 2024 Living Planet Report reveals that the average size of monitored wildlife populations has shrunk by 73% in just 50 years, with the steepest declines in Latin America and the Caribbean (95%), Africa (76%), Asia–Pacific (60%), and in freshwater ecosystems (85%). Although estimates vary, the species extinction rate is thought to be 10–100 times higher than the natural baseline. This rapid loss of species is driven by anthropogenic overpopulation, habitat destruction, exploitation, and climate change. Industrialised societies have long adopted an extractionist perspective towards the natural world, viewing ecosystems as resources to be exploited and consumed for profit. Yet, in this pursuit, we ignore that the very ecosystems we destroy are key to our survival."

 

While our species continues its petty and short-sighted squabbling along itself, if grossly overlooks something so much more threatening to human future.

Reading the numbers on these sorts of statements is wild.

Although humans generally consider ourselves fairly adaptable, it feels like the sort of cause and effect calculations we use for planning can't possibly match the scale in these figures.

Where scientific research is a best approximation for us to plan off of too, it seems like the more research that is completed, the more dire the understanding of our circumstances becomes.

I'm not exactly wedded to the concept of perpetual human existence, but I'm imagining a level of untold human suffering that wouldn't be pretty to witness or live through.

I had a researcher friend go to a weekend of talks a month or so ago. He just looked defeated. Didn't even fancy pressing him to talk about it.

Severance is a brilliant watch. Considering the end of the first season, it'll be interesting to see where this one ends up.

If I don't get a hint of some answers soon, this borderline psychedelic, platonic ****ery is going to give me an existential crisis. 

26 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

After Elons antics who'd be up for this?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60416058.amp

Interesting article regarding a possible issue with biotech.

I remember either reading or watching something more long-form a while back, but couldn't find it. 

I don't know too much about Neuralink, other than it's potential uses and initial failure during human trial, although I understand further trials have been more successful.

My immediate concerns based on the technology alone, would be related to failure and upgrades. Regular brain surgery seems like an odd prospect, at least today, but things change quickly I guess.

It feels like the success of such technology would come from future technology that might allow for a wearable device to achieve similar results. 

3 hours ago, Samilktray said:

All caught up on Severance, incredible viewing. Is this the best show to come from a streaming service? Can’t think of many better 

Apple has put out some great stuff.

Personally, I've really enjoyed Silo too, which has been released around the same times. 

The first season was awesome and I thought the second was even better.

45 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Erudite.

 

And where exactly does that pathway leave us? Nowhere good.

 

As much as the sentiment is logical right now (Russia, China and the US all appear to be singing in harmony there), I'm wondering where a world divided into Cold War era blocs (but with even more division) based on nationalist superiority leads us in the next couple of decades, given the ascendancy of world changing technology and increased resource crises.

 

I know I keep asking this question, or along similar lines - but that's because no one seems to want to give a full and/or reasoned answer.

Like said above, the US were happy to adopt a controlling stake in NATO out of the fifties, whilst hamstringing the continent with debt, rather than seeing a newly united Europe step out onto the global stage with the potential to put them on their knees. 

If the new perspective is for the long-term, it seems like it's going to be a formative period for Europe.

As noted in my previous post, I'm worried about the capacity of the financial elite to undermine our democracies and restrict Europes choice in some respects. If unable to consolidate power, I'd imagine the continent would be possibly be somewhat of a battleground for competing superpowers.

If the countries involved were to overcome those pitfalls, the latent economic potential of the unified continent would be huge. A population that dwarfs the US and Russia, with great communication infrastructure and massive landmass.

Geopolitical blocs and prospective resource scarcity would see more militarisation from all the emerging economically isolated regions I'd imagine. With a shift to more coercive power globally and possibly more authoritative regimes, ignition of new wars will probably be on the cards at some point, and I guess we'd just have to hope that things don't get too hot.

Not a great area of knowledge personally. Would happy to hear more positive ideas!

2 hours ago, bungy said:

Actually taking steps to end 2 awful wars which Biden did absolutely nothing to stop. Explaining previous US governments actively pushed Ukraine into this madness with false promises of NATO membership which was promised would NEVER happen to Russia.

Trying to end this disastrous illegal migration which is destabilising countries all across the globe.

Ending woke madness etc

Also reading this forum lately about the Ukraine war the lack of knowledge is staggering. I think the vast majority on here  had never even heard of Ukraine 4 years ago. Had absolutely no idea about how right wing and corrupt it is and probably wouldn’t find it on a map if their life depended on it.! But all of a sudden everyone is an expert only by watching MSM. 
You are one of very few I’d bother engaging with! 

The same Trump that couldn't have cared less about peace in Ukraine whilst he was first in office, and it had a less significant capacity for impact on his Presidential campaign.

Consistently buddying up with Putin during his first term, whilst undermining NATO and withholding military funding during Putin's increased aggression in the region. That last part, all to bolster his personal political movement against opposition at the potential cost of life elsewhere.

He'll take centre stage in the talks, considering he's got not chance of avoiding it this time round, but we can be pretty confident his priorities don't lie with achieving a constructive lasting peace across the "big, beautiful ocean".

4 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Never.

 

But thankfully people with empathy have worked hard to make it at least a bit fairer.

 

And, hopefully, will continue to do so in spite of the social Darwinists trying to set the clock back.

 

"There is no justice. There is just us."

 

(And, lest anyone think this purely moral stance, a fairer world is a longer lasting one from a practical standpoint, too.)

 

Absolutely. If we resign ourselves to thinking that fairness and justice is unnattainable, then we might as well pack up and accept the worst of human nature. 

Where it's been said before that progress is neither automatic nor inevitible, it seems quite relevant when you consider the recent actions of the US administration. Whilst I can appreciate some subjectivity, it's pretty maddening to consider capitulating to the whims of this fantasising bullshit artist.
 

Should also be considered that unchecked aggression has led to some pretty dark chapters in history.

Watched 'How to Change Your Mind' on Netflix over the last week. Entertaining look at historical and contemporary use of psychedelics, particularly in therapeutic settings. 

Increasingly relevant also, considering the legalisation in some countries for therapeutic use. Obviously a documentary which I assume has been appropriately cut for that purpose, but it was interesting to see the capacity for incredible perspective / lifestyle change in some difficult circumstances.

I've been taking sertraline for a few months. The way in which it can help will depend on circumstances i guess, but personally feel it has reduced the extremes of variation in mood. During times of high stress for example, I am able to manage my thought patterns more constructively and any physiological symptoms are much less invasive. CBT was also helpful to a degree in this respect, although I had taken part in that before my sertraline prescription.

Dependent on symptoms, I understand the sort of techniques involved in CBT can work well in tandem with something like sertraline, the thinking being that it creates a stability in mood which allows for the brain to learn new patterns in thinking and responding to situations more reasonably.

5 minutes ago, sharpylcfc said:

Is Football Manager like the PC version on the Steam Deck?

Yeh, it would be. It's basically just a handheld PC. It has the option to switch between using it in a desktop mode and gaming mode, where the UI is reduced down to a gaming dashboard.

Grabbed one of these the other week, as an attempt to sustain a hobby which I've had little to no time or energy for the last few years.

Fantastic piece of kit and I've had a few hours on Spiderman / Bomb Rush Cyberfunk over the last few days. Probably more time than I've put into singleplayer games for a good while.

Really great for just being able to jump in and out of games when the opprtunity arises. Pleasantly surprised by how immersive it feels considering the size of the screen and the games look great on it.

Reuters: Images show China building huge fusion research facility, analysts say

SINGAPORE, Jan 28 (Reuters) - China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research centre in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organisations say, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation.

On 02/02/2025 at 20:38, leicsmac said:

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faustfiles/114043

 

Science research related, not exactly good news.

The CDC has instructed its scientists to retract or pause the publication of any research manuscript being considered by any medical or scientific journal, not merely its own internal periodicals, Inside Medicine has learned. The move aims to ensure that no "forbidden terms" appear in the work. The policy includes manuscripts that are in the revision stages at journal (but not officially accepted) and those already accepted for publication but not yet live.

In the order, CDC researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms: "Gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female," according to an email sent to CDC employees (see below)."

We're getting a pretty stark reminder that progress has to be actively defended, and reactionary forces can send things into reverse pretty quickly.

Beyond historic injustice, the contemporary transition from moralistic to scientific interpretation of these issues has opened so many doors for people receive dignified healthcare treatment. Really feel for those that will be most effected. 

2 minutes ago, the fox said:

Maybe the argument here is the limiting of life outside our planet to strictly organic-based lifeform? But like i said before, am neither for or against the existence of alians.

Yeh, somewhat. I'd consider it a possibility, although organic lifeforms are a possibility also. I was trying to say that humans don't really understand the full picture to say either way.

Me neither. I don't suppose it really matters overall, but it's a fun conversation!

14 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

There's something in this.

 

Our perception is always going to be limited by our five senses and the way our brains interpret them. Those limitations are far from universal.

Outside of any discussion of what we could be capable of biologically, would you consider that we might develop technology that would allow us to perceive beyond the sensory prison of this scenario?

I'm not sure what I think of this, but it occured to me that scientists even now go some way to detecting things beyond our sensory capabilities with regards to quantum physics. I can't decide if that's relevant or not