This is the 7th Lions v ABs series I've watched ('66, '71, '77, '83, '93, '05, '17) and I think this is probably the tightest my sphincter has been since the 4th test match in 1971. My ticker might not be able to handle this one. I get anxiety attacks even opening this bloody thread. If I don't have a paramedic on standby I might have to go into an isolation tank until the game is over and then look for the result. I thought this was supposed to be fun?!
Terry Jones: Monty Python star dies aged 77
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51209197
Dementia, a rare form. Hits close to home. Very sad.
Rest In Peace, Terry.
@Chris-B. said in All Blacks vs. B&I Lions test #1:
@dogmeat As they used to shout on the Basil Brush Show...."Who's that?"
Love that guy.
Boom-boom!
An all-time great as a player and skipper, obviously, by my memory after the Cavalier debacle in ‘86 was that Lochore was the guy who held the fern closest to his chest and helped rescue the ABs, much like Jock did a decade later. People forget how divisive the early-to-mid 80s were, when politics got in the way and supporters were turning their backs on rugby. Lochore was a great servant to the game and the union. And of course, I always loved how he remembered everybody in the Wairarapa, I remember being with family in Masterton in the late 80s and he knew everybody, a national hero who was at heart a smalltown heartland lad. RIP.
@MN5 said in Christchurch Gunman in Mosque:
The gunman ( and I still don't know his name without googling ) ...
I’ve been wondering the past two weeks whether this is by design. I suspect it is, mostly because of the idea that we don’t want to give the sickfuck psychopath “infamy and notoriety” or something. Maybe there are other explanations.
But burying his name seems to me irresponsible and inadequate. It’s a way of absolving him of some of the blame and spreading it far-and-wide onto “toxic white masculinity and privilege,” especially, which let’s face it means a lot of us here. Like, we did it. That’s why we keep seeing fingers pointed at ourselves with far too many confessional white-guilt op-eds telling us “we’re to blame,” etc. Am I being defensive? Maybe I am. But that’s what happens when people start fingerpointing and throwing around blame. And I suspect this is exactly the sort of highly emotional and divisive effect that the dickwad terrorist was banking on.
No, we and society are not to blame. Sure, there are a lot of factors you can pull outta your bunghole if you want to absolve the sicko. But he’s the shitforbrains who planned and executed this appalling crime. His name is Brenton Harrison Tarrant, and he ALONE is responsible for it. Certainly we can all do better as a culture and society making sure everybody feels included. But we are ALL individuals responsible for our own actions, and fingers don’t need to be pointed anywhere other than the sickfuck who planned the assault and pulled the triggers.
@ACT-Crusader said in FIFA Womens World Cup:
There’s some pretty brutal footage from international women’s football games. The hair pulling, kicking, biting, elbows.
“I went to a NHL game and a womens soccer match broke out.”
Re: "There are no easy answers, etc." Of course. But Scott Adams has an interesting hot take. I like it. "Change the frame."
Helping The Terrorists Recruit
There is more terrorism in the news, this time in London. So how do the British politicians respond?
They do a recruitment ad for more terrorists.
They start by giving the terrorists cool labels, such as “Islamic extremists.” Do you know what sounds like an awesome club for an angry young Muslim to join? I’m thinking “Islamic Extremist” sound about right. That branding should be great for recruitment.
The media also helps terror recruitment with their wall-to-wall news about the terrorists’ successes. Every time they mention the body count, the bad guys cheer.
A better approach for the media, if they want to be helpful, might involve inviting a continuous line of Muslim scholars and critics to talk about how these “gullible losers” were duped by ISIS to kill themselves and spend eternity in Hell. And we need lots of visual and other persuasion about Hell. I want Photoshopped images of the terrorists burning for eternity. I want descriptions of the smells, tastes, and sounds they are experiencing, so the next “lone wolf” has something to contrast with the 72 virgin story. Let’s put some doubt into that mix. Fear is a good persuader.
I also wonder why the families of terrorists are not being flooded with condolence messages from Muslim clerics saying they are sorry about their kid burning in Hell for eternity. Be sincere about it. Include some digital representation of Hell in those cards and letters.
Change the frame.
—
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/161427038341/helping-the-terrorists-recruit
The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code
Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldn’t lose at the track. Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-03/the-gambler-who-cracked-the-horse-racing-code
Look, this is a silly argument. I just ask questions. And I’m glad to know there’s somebody with the answers and can provide me some comic relief. Thank you.
@antipodean It was right there from the first draft. No stealth edits — hell, it’s even in your quote, and I cannot alter that. Washington Post. Wall Street Journal, too. Have a go at them while you’re at it.
@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Overall:
You know why experts tend to couch their statements?
Yeah, like politicians. Many of these “experts” have helped get us to where we are right now.
Because they acknowledge the possibility of new evidence.
Exactly. Facts on the ground change. And new reports are coming out this hour that the Chinese destroyed evidence.
I’m reading reports. Is it fabricated nonsense? Could be. Don’t shoot the messenger.
I'll take people who know what they're talking about over talking foreheads and journalists.
Okay, so no evidence was destroyed. End of. Next.
@antipodean What, I gotta explain comedy now? This might have been the first time, certainly in the past twenty years, that I think I’ve seen-or-heard the Washington Post referred as an “et al” appended in relation to Fox News. Contextually funny. It’s not a huge laugh, but it makes me giggle.
@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@Salacious-Crumb said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@antipodean funny how you single out fox.
Why is it funny?
Where do you get your science from, then? Twitter?
The guy you quoted sums up thusly:
“...it appears that the genetic differences in #nCoV2019 are consistent with differences expected to arise during natural evolution,...”
“Appears” means conclusive?
Reports flying around U.S. media today that virus came from Wuhan lab, Chinese authorities knew it, deflected by blaming wet market. Ordinarily I might relegate it to conspiracy talk, which it is, but this ain’t Infowars, it’s coming from Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post...
@MiketheSnow said in R.I.P. 2020:
James Drury, The Virginian
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/arts/television/james-drury-dies.html
Handsome man, rugged babyface made for black & white westerns. He has a small role in Peckinpah’s “Ride the High Country” shot in colour, one of the best westerns of the sixties, maybe ever, but always takes me “out of reality” a little bit when I see him, because he’s supposed to be in b&w.
@RoninWC said in R.I.P. 2020:
Lee Majors, Lee J. Cobb and Doug McClure to just to name a few of the other most
The Land That Time Forgot. Me and a mate were talking about Doug McLure this past weekend. Troy Donahue + Doug McClure = “Hi, you may remember me from such films as...”
