Friends         | Kirk: Spock. Spock: Ship... out of danger? Kirk: Yes. Spock: Don't grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh... Kirk: ...the needs of the few. Spock: ...Or the one. I never took the Kobayashi Maru test until now. What do you think of my solution?  Geoff: Everyone wish Aura's mom a happy birthday! 2 days ago • Report • Link 3 View all 12 posts  Aura: Thank you all 1 day ago • Report 0  BAD_WOLF__: Happy birthmas 1 day ago • Report 0  Corwin: Happy birthday, Aura's mom! 1 day ago • Report 0 Geoff: There are none so blind as those who will not see. --- The reality of Brexit is biting hard. Poor people are suffering most – and now everyone can see it Enveloped in Westminster silence it may be, but every day and in every way Brexit is getting more real. For so long, this was an argument made through the medium of abstract nouns: “freedom”, “sovereignty”, “control”. But now reality is intruding. This week came word that Brexit added almost £6bn to Britons’ food bills over a two-year period, and that it was the households with least that were affected most. There’s a reason politicians refer to “bread-and-butter issues”: because there is nothing abstract about food and what it costs. Looking back, it was always a tell that leave campaigners sought to avoid the realm of the concrete, preferring to stick with intangible talk of “independence” or a regained mastery of our national destiny. They knew reality was a hostile environment for the Brexit project, one that would expose its folly. Remainers tried to resist, hoping not to fight on the battlefield of dreams but on the terrain of facts and figures, yet it never worked. It just made them sound boring, casting them as spoilsport bean-counters and, besides, all their numbers were themselves abstractions – projections of a hypothetical future. The forecasts of gloom could be, and were, swatted aside as “project fear”. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/02/brexit-poor-people-paying-eat-debate-human Geoff: Fun fact: When Mike Oldfield recorded Tubular Bells, he was only 19. Bonus fun fact: Next year, Mike Oldfield is 69 (nice) and he's doing a tour to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Tubular Bells. And we're going to see his show at the Great Hall in Exeter. For work. The last time I saw him live was the TBIII tour. Which was AMAZING. And that was 1999.  Finger5: If the retirement age hasn't been pushed up yet, women I went to school with could be retiring in 10 years. I also feel old. The tories want to set retirement at 75 because people are living longer, although in the North life expectancy is going down, 73 to 77 if I remember. That's going to be a good earner for the government when they cash in our pensions. Geoff: www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/zarba1/fishermen_rescue_two_girls_who_were_swept_out_to/ Holy fuck. If you ever feel yourself being pulled out from shore, swim (as fast as you are comfortable) parallel with the shore. Rip currents are no fucking joke. Get out the current, and don't be scared to call for help.  Leahh_: It's terrifying. I've spoken to my family about how to get out of it. It happens so swiftly and it's out of control if you panic. View all 44 posts Corwin: Nothin' like a good hat. Some wear hats to "cover up" something... like baldness or a small alien creature that lives on your head and feeds off of your brain-wave energy. That's not why I wear hats... I just think they look cool... and my personal small alien creature has migrated from the top of my head and now dangles from my balls. Plenty of energy there. Geoff: Interferometry. I spent four agonising minutes trying to remember that word. It's like those little beams coming in from the outside to complete the Death Star's planet killing beam. But it's for taking picture of things a long long long way away. Like planets around other stars. View all 4 posts Finger5: I bet they spent minutes thinking of that name. Same story with the large hardon collider. You know that's what you call it.  Geoff in reply to Adite: That may also use interferometry, but the case in point I was thinking of is entirely theoretical because it would have to be in space (not just in orbit of Earth, but somewhere in orbit around the sun about halfway to Venus). Sort of the JWT on steroids with the mirrors spread over hundreds of kilometres. Geoff: Oh, you want a song to play at my father's funeral?   Or just anything by Meatloaf. Given the situation, probably best to go this over Paradise By The Dashboard Light.  Or hell, why not both? Geoff: There is more beauty and love in this world than there is ugliness and hatred. It's just easier for those who want to get exposure to do so on the back of ugly hatred. Geoff: It's the weekend now, right? Yay.  Oh, wait? What the fuck do you mean I have to do Friday yet? Geoff: For anyone not following the Song Title Game thread, have some Aretha, because I think we could all need some Aretha in our lives right now.  Geoff: I have been staring at spreadsheets all day. And to say that I have a pounding skull-fuck of a headache would be an understatement. View all 4 posts Geoff in reply to rockislandred1: So does Herschel Walker. His corpse will one day feed bacteria and fungi. Geoff: If I get arrested tonight or tomorrow, it is because I called my local MP an "inept tit" to his face. But he tried to blame the current state of the bus service in Devon on the Labour party. Yes, it's the Tories who had absolute control of the District, County, and National government for the past decade (several decades when it comes to the district and county councils). It's those pesky Labour councillors in Exeter who are to blame for this shitshow. I don't blame Simon Jupp for joining the Tory party. The guy is an intellectual nonentity and he'd never see a modicum of power without latching his lips onto the Tory arse. But read the fucking room. |
Always amazing how great music transcends genres. 
