Sampson

Not a massive fan of the concept of the Vatican, but the Pope seems to be one of the world leaders I agree with most these days which definitely hasn’t always been the case, and I agree with him a lot in this article. If nothing else, I completely agree that the American Christian Right is often inherently unchristian. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jnz8q6p32o

TIL that it’s “shoo-in” and not “shoe-in”.

I’ve heard some variant on “don’t worry, they’ll never actually get the vote” enough times over the past 9 years to not trust it sadly.

It was interesting reading about the Netherlands and euthanasia during the recent debate on assisted dying in the uk and how it’s become a clear example of legal creep because it’s so hard to define who should be eligible of it and who shouldn’t because cases can be so different. I do think people should be allowed the choice to die but it was a totally valid argument about legal creep in assisted dying law and it’s exactly the same concerns I have about the death penalty.

Yeah it’s the legal and culture creep that scares me most about it and it’s a thing populists have a habit of doing - using emotionally charged examples for legal and culture creep. It’s easy to say this guy should have the death penalty without thinking how that changes the law and defining the reasons he should get it and others don’t as therefore opening up the option for milder examples- we like to think law is black and white but its often very subjective and interpretative as you can’t account for all examples. Same thing with when they put those climate protesters in prison for 5 years or stripped that girl who was born and raised in uk and had no other citizenship of her citizenship because she had parents or grandparents from Bangladesh, they were emotionally charged examples but you’ve set up precedents now that rogue governments or parts of the legal system can use in the future. UK law is based on case laws and you’re setting up legal precedents that judges and lawyers can use in the future as precedents for milder examples.

I disagree we kept Vardy too long, because he is still our best option - its the exact same problem we had with Schmeichel, we bought Daka too replace Vardy, but like Ward, Daka turned out to be awful and way out of his depth at PL level. Vardy is still our best striker at his age, as Kasper was, which says a lot more about our horrendous attempts to replace them, it’s been the recruitment to replace them that’s been the problem.

Saw this doing the rounds today. Great quote.

Seeing some of the UK papers this morning which seem to celebrating Trump and I just don’t get it. If you like what he’s promised for America that’s one thing, if you like that he “owns the libs” that’s another thing, but I genuinely don’t understand how a European newspaper for a European county can celebrate someone who openly wants to stop backing Ukraine and just show Putin he can invade another European country, wait it out for 3 or 4 years then get what he wants and wants to set up huge tariffs on the EU, who even if we aren’t part of anymore are still by far and away our biggest trading partner. I’m not being glib, I would genuinely like some arguments on how Trump is anything other than a bad thing for Europe and the UK.

I would say “get me off this planet” but Mars doesn’t look particularly appealing right now either given who wants to follow me there. Dont think the world has been feeling like such a political powder keg since in the 1930s.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes And Lenny Bruce is not afraid … Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn World serves its own needs Don't mis-serve your own needs Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength The ladder starts to clatter With a fear of height, down, height Wire in a fire, represent the seven games And a government for hire and a combat site Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry With the Furies breathing down your neck … Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped Look at that low plane, fine, then Uh oh, overflow, population, common group But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light Feeling pretty psyched … It's the end of the world as we know it It's the end of the world as we know it It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine … Six o'clock, T.V. hour, don't get caught in foreign tower Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down Watch your heel crush, crush, uh oh This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline

What should we rename Dogger Bank?

Yeh but you’re forgetting that when it isn’t all fixed tomorrow it’s the civil service and “leftist lawyers” faults and the Don needs more powers to be able to dictate society and those checks and balances and separation of powers aren’t really needed anyway, right?

I don’t go there much but then I’ve kind of fallen out of love with football in general, don’t think I’ve watched a game this season.

Reminds me of the “This is Water” speech by David Foster Wallace. Worth rewatching now and again

I absolutely want to see prominent British politicians voicing negative things against Trump tbf. I absolutely want to see that our leaders arwnt above criticising the leaders of US, France, Germany or other western allies when they act or steer the world in a direction that is against western values.

fuchsnft was long term unwell and bed bound and even at one point said he’d lived longer than doctors first predicted iirc, then suddenly stopped posting. Sadly it’s probably likely to assume the worst

David Lynch. Absolute legend. That one feels like a punch in the lungs

The populist right (for want of a better term) have created this catch 22 trap sadly. The trick on climate change is the same trick they pulled on Brexit and Covid. You can make all the economic or scientific arguments you like, Farage/Trump/Musk types will just tell them they’re lying and here’s some reasons why, the things can be completely made up and not in reality, it doesn’t matter. The catch is that as soon as you go back and say “no you’re not believing the expert scientists or economists and evidence” the retort is something on the line of “you’re calling us stupid, how demeaning” to shut down the argument. The sad thing is many intelligent moderates side with them (even politicians like Macron) and say “you can’t talk down to them like that” not only legitimising their opinion but also essentially shutting down any response from the other side. It’s a catch 22 deliberately designed to get the other side in a position where their only rebuttal is one to data or evidence and therefore you can claim they’re demeaning you by inferring you’re less intelligent than them. I still hear many moderates arguing Brexit won because too many Remainers inferred Brexiteers were stupid when all they were doing is saying you need to look at expert economic opinion. Which to me shows this trap the populist right put out continued to work. It’s the whole Metal Gear Solid 2 thing - there’s no such thing as truth anymore because people can’t invalidate each other anymore.

Hadn’t heard that name in decades. Just saw he was in the same comedy group as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson at Cambridge.

Yes kurzgesagt have done a couple of good videos on it too

4 1/2 years is a long time in society these days, between the 2019-2024 elections we had 3 of the biggest and most society-shifting events in post-WW2 Britain in terms of Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine-Russia war and to me the world and political landscape has shifted so much even in the 9 years since the EU referendum and Trump’s first election campaign that it feels like a very different world. So I don’t really feel comfortable really making any predictions about 2029 yet. I think if an election was held tomorrow though Reform and Tories would take each others votes though as they’re at each others throats all the time and won’t step down for each other and I’d expect a Labour-Lib Dem coalition, the thing Labour and LibDems did well last election was tactical voting and not caring about or particularly fighting in constituencies in which the other was likely to win

Wrong thread

I disagree. Humans have not even travelled to the nearest planet yet and barely made themselves known in Alpha Centauri, 1 solar system over yet. The Milky Way has between 100,000,000,000-400,000,000,000 stars for reference. We’re still a long way off really making ourselves known in other solar systems. And any radio waves take thousands of years to travel to the other side of the Milky Way and then back again - and in the telescope we’re looking at stars and planets on the other side of the Milky Way as they were 1,000 years ago not today. A more advanced civilisation than humans may still also not have left their solar system yet. I still think the odds are way in the favour of their being many planets with more “advanced” life and technology than on Earth within the Milky Way.

I don’t think it’s very unpopular that the Loch Ness monster doesn’t exist. If we were alone in universe as big as ours that’s a very frightening thought and seems extremely unlikely that aliens don’t exist to me. There are just so many stars, planets and moons out there that aliens are almost certain to exist somewhere, whether we ever find them is another matter.

I’m assuming Corky was talking about many on here saying they wanted him shipped out to West Brom for £5mil in 2014-15 rather than going to Arsenal.