Friends         | I'm incorrigible.  Geoff: 12 minutes ago • Report • Link  0 Geoff:  Best sort of client phone call. - Had something to genuinely inform the client of. - Had something I could easily explain to the client and they could understand. - Had something positive to inform the client of. - The client listened. - The client was happy. - The call lasted almost exactly 5 minutes. Geoff: A man has been arrested after students were threatened with a replica gun at a university. Armed officers were called to Exeter University at about 11:30 BST to reports of a man "making threats to other students, whilst in possession of a handgun". Devon and Cornwall Police said a weapon seized was "not believed to be a viable firearm" and no-one had been injured. A 25-year-old man has been held on suspicion of possession of a firearm. Student Katie Leadbetter-Hope said about seven officers had "stormed into the Amory building" with a police dog and a man who "looked like he was of student age" was later led outside in handcuffs. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-48688919 --- tl ; dr Dumbass shows up at uni with a replica handgun. Police smack him down and take him away. Could the US police take a lesson from this? Geoff: An age-check scheme designed to stop under-18s viewing pornographic websites is expected to be delayed for a second time. The changes - which mean UK internet users may have to prove their age - were due to start on 15 July after already being delayed from April 2018. While the government has not officially confirmed the postponement, it is expected to announce on Thursday that the date will be pushed back again. The reason for the delay is not clear. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48700906 --- The reason for the delay is that it's an unworkable law, introduced by technologically inept politicians, hoping to please an even more ignorant electorate about something that isn't going to solve the problem that is being blown out of proportion. (Post deleted by Geoff )  Geoff: *There was a fairly major typo which changed what I meant there. So I'll re-post. My kids could get around any ISP or even site based restrictions without breaking a sweat or spending any money. That's why I talk to them, make sure they understand about sexuality and relationships and respect and consent and fantasy/RP vs reality and aftercare. Porn isn't a problem for the kids. Prudery and pretending that talking about sex is too scary for children is what the fucking problem is. Geoff: Me: "Does my oath of vengeance mean I am not allowed to retreat from undead?" DM: "No. It means you have to attack undead over other enemies." Me: "But I don't have to stand here letting these fuckers attack me?" DM: "No, you hate them, but you're not stupid." Me: "Good to know." View all 7 posts  Aura_: Slight spoiler--no reading for you! Recently CR introduced proper Romero zombies. And it was scary as all hell to hear "The amount of damage it took should have killed it, but it's still up and still advancing..." in a room where the two doors just slammed shut.  Geoff: Me: "Uh-uh. Everyone within 3 metres of me (so long as I am conscious) gets a +4 to all saving throws." DM: **narrows eyes** Me: **smug** DM: "That was going to be so fucking cool." Geoff: We are in a time where someone thought this was a logical, moral, sensible, and possibly even compassionate argument.  View all 4 posts Geoff: I had the misfortune of running into one of this chap's supporters earlier today. A fellow traveller posted this as evidence of how fallible Mr Walsh was. View all 7 posts Geoff in reply to Salim_: No. I have owned cats in the past. No, I did not try to pay them to have sex with me. And I wouldn't have even if they were nekos.  BAD_WOLF__ in reply to Geoff: What's the difference between a Neko and a mosquito? Mosquito stops sucking when you slap it... *goes away forever* Geoff: It's days like this, after six months of working for Mercedes-Benz, I just got a new client which I _want_ to work with. A new app for young kids to help them develop creative writing skills. And the work I did for Mercedes-Benz is subsidising my work for them. https://www.nightzookeeper.com/ View all 6 posts Aura_: I didn't get enough lessons on creative writing when I was that age, but my kids got NO creative writing at all At least I got the basics like, how to distinguish a fairy tale from a fable. (Post deleted by justme0123 )  justme0123: In school, I am sure I had a creative writing "chapter" at least, I know we worked on it a little bit, now my son took Eng lit, in HS and UNI and had a lot of lessons in it, but my daughter had none, I hope mac learns the love of the written word. Geoff: Four suspects will face murder charges for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, three of them Russians, international investigators said on Wednesday, with a trial due to start next March in the Netherlands. Almost five years after the plane was downed over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, prosecutors said there was enough evidence to bring criminal charges. The suspects were named as Igor Girkin, a former colonel of Russia’s FSB spy service; Sergey Dubinskiy, employed by Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency; and Oleg Pulatov, a former soldier with the GRU’s special forces spetsnaz unit. All were Russian soldiers previously sent abroad. A fourth suspect, Leonid Kharchenko, is a Ukrainian. He led a military combat unit in the city of Donetsk as a commander, it was alleged. Girkin was minister of defence in the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). He was the commander of the DNR when the plane was shot down on 17 July 2014. Dubinskiy served as Girkin’s deputy in the DNR, and Pulatov was Dubinskiy’s deputy. Kharchenko was under their command. Investigators said the soldiers “formed a chain linking DNR with the Russian Federation”. This link was how the separatists obtained heavy equipment from Russia including the Buk launcher used to fire at MH17 with “terrible consequences”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/19/mh17-criminal-charges-ukraine-russia Geoff: I saw this and thought, "Yeah. That's probably how I'll go." Then I thought about it some more and realised that thing I shouldn't be petting is Aura when I've annoyed her one too many times.  Geoff: President Trump has promised to cure cancer, eradicate AIDS, and ensure that American astronauts land on Mars if he wins a second term. “We will push onward with new medical frontiers. We will come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases—including cancer and others and we’re getting closer all the time,” Trump said to a cheering crowd at his rally in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday night. “We will eradicate AIDS in America once and for all and we’re very close. We will lay the foundation for landing American astronauts on the surface of Mars.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-promises-to-cure-cancer-eradicate-aids-if-he-wins-another-term --- Presumably, his loyal followers are all hoping he'll win so they won't be given the code word which forces them (via post-hypnotic suggestion) to take their suicide pills. Geoff: Public mistrust of vaccines means the world is taking a step backwards in the fight against deadly yet preventable infectious diseases, warn experts. The biggest global study into attitudes on immunisation suggests confidence is low in some regions. The Wellcome Trust analysis includes responses from more than 140,000 people in over 140 countries. The World Health Organization lists vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 threats to global health. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-48512923  View all 4 posts Geoff: Doctors in the UK have long been instructed to not prescribe antibiotics needlessly. A more dangerous use of antibiotics failure to complete a course (something which is strongly warned against in the UK) or prophylactic use by farmers (notably prevalent in the USA). It is another facet of the same problem: public ignorance of medicine being preyed on by malicious outside parties. Geoff: And it's super-bacterial infections, not viruses. Antibiotics don't work on viruses, that's why people shouldn't go to the doctor for them with a cold. Geoff: A billionaire Donald Trump supporter has given Oxford University a record £150m donation, part of which will fund an institute charged with tackling ethics in artificial intelligence (AI). Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of private equity group Blackstone, said he made the donation to help people “remember what being human is” amid what will be the “unstoppable” rise of robots. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/oxford-university-donation-stephen-schwarzman-ai-study-robots-trump-a8964731.html |
