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I tried to play it recently and felt the same. It looks incredible and it seems as though there is some gold in there, but the lack of variation in the filler just stops me from wanting to get involved. I get that there is character development to be done, but I don't think I've got enough time to ride for 20 minutes, have a 5 line conversation and then ride back. I'm really not a fan of some of the mechanics, like being forced to walk slow around the camp. I was listening to Lex Fridman interview Todd Howard recently about the Bethesda games. He discussed how there are things they considered adding that may add realism, but they ultimately didn't because it takes away from the fun. I feel there's a few of those in RDR. Despite the fear of missing out on something that is slated as such an amazing experience, I think I'm just going to accept that it isn't for me.

Outside of that, I saw an article from a psychology POV, musing that people might get a sense of self-importance from being loud on the phone and being in the conversational limelight. Even if people in general couldn't really care less what they have to say. I've definitely met a few people with a narcisisstic streak, that'll take negative attention over no attention. Someone even did a psychology study into why we find people annoying when they speak loudly on phones in public. Apparently people generally speak 1.6 times as loudly on phones as they do in face to face conversations! Obviously, as illustrated by our comments, it's also annoying to see someone doing something with no obvious visible benefits and some negatives that could seemingly be easily avoided. Edit: I also realise very few people give this much of a shit, but you'll forgive me for some ridiculous procrastination.

Last time I considered it, I couldn't think of a single reason that'd make sense across the varied group you see doing it. Had to assume that there's a hearing/focus based reason for some people, and then a bunch of people that've just picked up on the behaviour. Might be something around the idea of getting stuff on the screen, like make-up for example, considering modern phones are primarily used as a screen.

It's a slippery slope. One day it's a pair of shoes, next a non-essential piece of technology. Next thing you know, you'll be directly exploiting the worker and extracting surplus value from their goods!

I tried a friend's Quest 2 recently and it was my first experience with a VR headset. I wasn't expecting it to feel so immersive. It was a great experience and I'd definitely grab one if I had a bit more cash at the moment. A quick Google says they're expecting the Quest 3 towards the end of 2023, so I'll probably save up and grab one of those when they arrive. Looks like it'd be on another level when coupled with a gaming PC.

Sounds like this thread is a constructive place to work out some thoughts, and I'm sure everyone here considers it a safe space for people to use in whatever way they may find useful. Writing to someone can be a totally different experience to journaling I think, and we're all happy to encourage it if it helps you work out some thoughts. I know I've managed to consider things that the unreasonable side of my mind struggles to touch when voicing my thoughts to other people. Can also be helpful to have other people provide another way of looking at things when your own mind can't quite see it on some days.

For those in Leicestershire, there's also the Crisis Cafe's if you'd like to drop-in and meet someone in person. Crisis Cafes: Addresses across Leicestershire, offering immediate mental health support. Crisis Cafes - Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (leicspart.nhs.uk)

Awesome sounding trip. Sounds like you packed in some great experiences. I've always loved visiting the significant ancient archeological sites I've been lucky enough to get to, and Petra's one of those that's always stuck in my mind as looking pretty epic from the pictures. Seems like it'd be impossible to disappoint. Did you book the whole thing as a package ahead of time, or piece it together yourself? There's a pretty established 'Jordan Trail' that I follow on Instagram. Looks like the varied landscapes mixed with sites like Petra would make for a pretty sweet hiking trip. One for the future maybe!

Sounds like a pretty complex piece of work. Very interesting read with regards to the methodology. I know it's the nature of the work, but it's grim reading. Each time the intricacies of the consequences of current human behaviour on this planet are explored, the situation just looks so desperate for certain types of life. Without yet exploring the nuances of it, the way we humans go about our lives could possibly be viewed as such a massive act of violence. I can barely imagine how this period will be looked back upon if we ever manage to really elevate our societies in general. I do wonder if we'll ever see more than a civil disobedience response from those affected by, or emotionally invested in the consequences.

They get to everyone as well I sometimes hate myself for being pulled in, but the utterly shameless pricks that manage to find themselves comfortable jobs just spreading hate and misinformation in the media is a nightmare. I hate the way people of that ilk on TV/Radio, also do the thing where they highlight touchy subjects that could be discussed in a genuinely interesting and informative way, then invite some enthusiastic youngster on and just shout at them for a half hour or so. They just rise to the top, cause damage to society imo, and never see a single consequence as they live out their days protected by wealth. I only ever listen to the radio for a bit in the mornings now, and read some news from some half decent news outlets. Get most of my information surrounding complicated major issues from podcasts, but still have to see these knobs knocking about social media occasionally.

I dont often buy many things that I'd have to go to Amazon for, but I usually end up finding things cheaper on other sites when I am searching online. I've also found that many things listed on the site are out of stock. I originally stopped using them because they seem like a shitty company, but going forward from that it seems like they're only really beneficial if you need your stuff the following day.

Yeh, I enjoy the dancing. Most weeks I've ended up fast forwarding through everything else on iPlayer. I can appreciate some of the emotion. For those who haven't danced before, it's must be pretty intense to pick up a new skill like that and learn what they do, especially if they really end up enjoying it.

Considering this is a fairly active thread, I thought I'd drop a post in here in case it helps anyone who might relate to how I've been feeling and look to seek out support. The resources surrounding mental health in the UK aren't great, but I was assigned a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist through Vitaminds a few months back and have found what they have taught me to be really quite beneficial. RelativeIy, I'm not sure I'd consider myself really up against when it comes to my Mental Health, although that may just be the lack of self-compassion my therapist keeps picking me up on! I've come to understand that I've probably suffered with Mental Health issues related to anxiety and depression for a decent part of my life, but managed to build up somewhat useful coping strategies during my childhood and through my teenage years. It would appear the the problem there however, is that as my circumstances changed in adulthood as tends to happen, those coping strategies don't quite hold up as well or as often. I think I've been fairly successful and feel somewhat privileged, but as I put it to my therapist, I really started to feel like I wasn't experiencing life in the same way as some people. I still have things that genuinely bring me joy, but more often than not, those same things feel like laborious tasks which needed completing. Something to put to the back of your mind, for a good day of which there are too few. I occasionally teach dancing for example, and where this dancing occasionally makes me feel more alive than ever, it's often an experience of forcing myself through anxiety to cope with something I feel I should enjoy. During the worst times, it feels like there's an overwhleming second personality in my mind. One which believes my wife and friends don't like me for example, that they just put up with me due to the time invested in our relationships. I silently withdraw into myself for a week or three due to the energy that's required to deal with these thoughts, which feeds back into that personality when I see how that affects the people around me. There's a constant commentary of suicidal ideation, for which the reasons I fight back aren't necessarily condusive to a constructive lifestyle. Saying the above, I don't think there is any reason for anyone to worry about me really. I'm not actively suicidal, but I've come to understand that I've been living in this grey space between those worst times, where suicidal ideation hasn't been an uncommon thought and I hadn't seen an issue with it, as odd as that sounds when I actually type it out or voice it. I've just not been that attached to life, and between the good times, I've either floated apathetically in this grey area or occasionally fell into darkness for a while. The good news! The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy I've been undertaking has so far been hugely helpful in at least supporting me to avoid those 'worst times'. It's helped to me to understand what I'm going through and some prospective historic causes. I've had success in identifying the sorts of thought processes that carry me away to the 'worst times' and the triggers for this behaviour, which has assisted me in developing a type of mindfulness which allows personal early intervention. It's been quite incredible how often I've caught myself thinking certain thoughts recently, where I've actively been able to choose a different path and had the energy to follow it through. The bad times have so far occured less often, and the severity of them is lessened. There's definitely work still to do where enjoyment and capacity to deal with tasks is concerned, but I feel in a much better place now. Not having to worry so much about impending worst times has taken a lot of pressure off of me. It feels less like this grey space is filled with constant shadows, and more like there are light spots too. Light spots which I can consciously aim for and hopefully some day float into at will. I know a big barrier to my seeking support was a sense of imposter syndrome and a fear of being told that what I felt was undeserving of support. If anyone has any question regarding therapy and how I accessed it myself, please feel free to drop me a message and I'd be happy to discuss.

If you're not approaching retirement and are investing life savings with a view to having them sit there long-term, you're right that you needn't keep looking at it and just check back periodically. If you look at the performance of your fund over the past 5 years, you'll note that it goes up and down over the short term, but is up over the 5 years. That's generally what most investors will see with long terms savings, just different volatitlity at different times in their life if they're actively managing them. Young and risky, usually look to see more volatility, but more long-term growth because they have the time to ride it out. Old and risk-averse, see less volatility, but less growth because as they just want to protect what they've got before retiring.

I guess some of what I mentioned doesn't consider the nuances of individuality where humans are concerned. In the human context, it does seem that the society generally heads in the same direction, although I guess there's not too much room for movement at this point in time and with what we've managed to achieve in terms of societal systems. Mostly everyone is subject to the same restraints in providing for their basic needs. I imagine you're partly right whatever the case. There's probably always going to be at least some people who favour exploration for the sake of it. I'm not knowledgable enough in the slightest to expand on this point, but it'd be interesting to consider the possible directions of any far future exploration. In this respect, I mean that we currently look out to different solar systems and galaxies, whereas I wonder if there's anything else beyond our current systems of measurement. I'm probably talking shit at this point Maybe one for theoretical physiscists and mathemticians.

Absolutely. It's pretty crazy how many future possibilities you can envision whilst building on a human-centric context as above, before even attempting to consider how something might have evolved and progressed under different conditions elsewhere.

These sorts of thought experiments are pretty fun. Considering the exponential technological growth achieved in recent decades on earth, I'd imagine there's also a chance that a fairly small window exists between being sufficiently advanced enough to contact alien life, and being so far advanced that the desire to do so fades away. The above could be true because of many societal or philosophical factors and it may not even mean an alien species wouldn't be able to contact another, but rather that they just wouldn't. It's so difficult to predict where technological advancement might take a civilisation, you can entertain a huge amount of reasons why one spacefaring species might not contact another. Maybe space exploration becomes entirely defunct for many at a certain point. Maybe it continues for many, but in a self-serving manner. Maybe the cons far outweigh the pros of making contact at some point. Discovering life elsewhere would be hugely significant to us humans at this time, but for another species that can travel anywhere and knows like exists beyond doubt? Species may even disappear into a virtual existence, where all their desires may be met with ease and without issue. For all we know, we ourselves could be visited regularly by probes akin to those we send out ourselves, but if the capable makers put even a little thought into being cautious about it, we wouldn't know. A witness sighting here, a radar return there, but nothing sufficient enough for our scientific method to comment on.

Reading a book called 'The Hunt for Zero Point'. Bit of a mad story, but it's about a Defence Industry Consultant and Aviation Journalist following up on rumours of an alternative method of propulsion Saw in the news, that the US had written provisions into their 2023 defence act, to protect whistleblowers with regards to disclosing similar that might be tied up in government funded black projects with defence contractors. Sounded interesting and thought I'd find a related book. Stranger things probably haven't happened, but it's a fun little rabbit hole.

When we were doing the business early in the season, my wife told me a few times that I should stick a bet on it. She doesn't have the slightest interest in football, so I just kinda laughed it off. I put £3 on 500/1 around christmas after we flew through a bit of rough few games. Mainly because I figured I'd never hear the end of it if we managed to pull it off by some miracle.

I wasn't trying to have a go. Just considering that if I didn't have any morals and was going to be 'successful' giving something a go as a Layman, I'd probably choose to become a figurehead by playing off of age-old stereotypes rather than trying and to teach something new to the masses. I'm sure things can be done better with regards to communicating science and you may have a better window into that than me, but I wouldn't say I'm demeaning anyone by suggesting some of those following Andrew Tate or Donald Trump haven't learnt anything new from them. Teaching isn't what those and their ilk are trying to do. We could definitely find common ground with regards to communication. I'm not so authoritative that I'm opposed to people having their own opinions I've just found, admittedly anecdotally, that those examples specifically leave a lot to be desired where communicating constructively is concerned. Andrew Tate for example, has been raised supportively with me in passing during conversation, before the stance is developed and often dropped significantly after a bit of consideration. Maybe something to be found in there about how to communicate sciences. In my opinion, I'd probably suggest that receptiveness to science, particularly around Climate Change has been impacted by societal beliefs constructed over a few decades. It seems generally accepted that humans could have whatever they wanted, when they wanted, as long as they worked hard enough. That doesn't actually seem to have ever been the case, but it's a hard thing for society to look at introspectively considering it's been the mantra for so long. I think some science must be hard to communicate, when it's about challenging our beliefs rather than rolling with them. Again, not trying to have a dig. I have these challenges as much as anyone else.

I think it's probably a much easier task to manipulate people than it is to constructively inform them. Andrew Tate generally just plays on preconceived stereotypes in society in order to make ill-gotten gains for himself. There's a chance he doesn't even believe what he says, but just doesn't worry about any damage he causes to make some money. Basically a scam artist. Donald Trump isn't any different really. Just on a larger scale. There's definitely a difference in effort between communicating scientific research, and stirring up puddle-deep opinions to make yourself some money.

Worth listening to if you can get past the somewhat cringey nationalist angle. I guess they've got to stroke the egos of the people funding it. Confirmed about 2mj energy in, and 3mj out, with an additional 100mj from the grid. - Proof of concept for a reaction that could potentially produce 100's mj out. 30-40 years for a commercial power plant. Still science and engineering work to be done in order to scale it up. Their research involving 'laser confinement fusion' will inform 'magnetic confinement fusion', which is the form generally accepted to be closer to commercialisation in terms of technology, but I'm guessing without the actual completion of a net gain experiment having happened yet.

It was quite fun to read about how the extreme temperatures being worked with weren't really problematic to safety, due to the fuel source being used up immediately if the reaction failed. Pretty insane to consider something so hot, only effects and area immediately around the reaction. I bet it'd be awesome to sit down and chat with someone who could communicate it all in a fairly simple way. I guess that what podcasts are for!

Beyond the potential benefits related to safe functionality and relative cleanliness compared to Fission, I don't personally know much about Fusion technology. Seem to remember most previous articles I've read discussing the heat capacity of any experiments, so this bit of news noting achievement of a net energy gain seems pretty big. https://www.ft.com/content/4b6f0fab-66ef-4e33-adec-cfc345589dc7 I remember reading that there had been massive private investment into this sector recently. Maybe there was an understanding that there was going to be some breakthroughs. More news tomorrow apparently.

Nice. Seems like everything has gone fairly smoothly along the way. Hopefully they get all they need to start looking forward to Artemis 2 and beyond in due course. I was watching a video from 'Everyday Astronaut' on YouTube the other day, talking about how he's been chosen as one of the passengers for SpaceX's 'dearMoon' mission. Must feel insane to be a person in a relatively normal career compared to a professional astronaut, being told you're actually going on a trip to the moon. Pretty incredible times. It will be interesting to see if they make their prospective 2023 launch date for sending these tourists on a trip around the moon, considering Artemis 2 is scheduled for 2024. The context is completely different of course and without taking away from a plan to send tourists into space, I imagine the considerations for the Artemis missions are much more indepth considering the view to land people on the moon further down the line.