Paulos_the_fog

stavvers, 3 days ago to random

Heads up to anyone using facebook or insta: you'll receive a notification about your data being used to train AIs. The opt out process is deliberately convoluted and you have to fill out a form to object. This is what I wrote in mine, and the objection was immediately registered as successful, so feel free to copy.

Masto reply bores, this is not a post on which to fart out your opinions about Meta or AI or whatever. So don't. I'm sharing helpful info for people who need it, not for you.

Paulos_the_fog, 3 months ago to random

Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?"
Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response:
"A few things spring to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
  This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
  After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
  God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
  He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
  In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.
  And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clump-fuls of hair and scream in anguish:
  'My God… what… have… I… created?
  If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."

Paulos_the_fog, 1 year ago to random

This will the photo the world sees of Britain today - a peaceful protestor being arrested for exercising what used to be an inalienable right in the UK!!!

RickiTarr, 3 months ago to random

How do you feel about physical touch? I mean this is the broad sense, not necessarily in a sexual way, but you can answer however you wish.

Personally, I enjoy it a lot, and find it comforting, but only from really specific people. If strangers or people I don't know well want to hug me, it's okay, but I won't seek it out. I think handshakes are weird. Hey, you want to hold hands with a stranger for a short amount of time for some reason?

Paulos_the_fog, 8 months ago to random

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

Paulos_the_fog, 11 months ago to random

Paulos_the_fog, 11 months ago to random

This research could bring about a revolution in the treatment of this awful disease!

I suspect that this will not be the last time mankind discovers the causative connection between a pathogen and a serious disease.

Remember the discovery of the connection between infection with Helicobacter pylori and stomach cancer. That was revolutionary at the time as doctors did not believe bacteria could survive in the extremely acid conditions in the human stomach.

The discovery that the tumorigenic HPV16 & HPV18 viruses were responsible for a substantial proportion of cervical cancer was just as revolutionary and led to the development of extremely effective vaccines targeting these viruses.

https://www.livescience.com/health/fertility-pregnancy-birth/endometriosis-may-be-caused-by-a-common-gut-bacteria-small-study-suggests

Paulos_the_fog, 9 months ago to random

The Conservatives say they can’t afford the Pension Triple lock because it is too expensive.

The UK has the lowest State pension in Europe, the oldest retirement age in the world and is the 6th richest nation in the world.

You would have to be damn stupid to believe that lie.

(with thanks to 'Blade of the Sun' for that one)

Paulos_the_fog, 9 months ago to random

Paulos_the_fog, 7 months ago to random

Paulos_the_fog, 6 months ago to random

Paulos_the_fog, 5 months ago to random

Of course they are - the Russians bought the GOP lock-stock and barrel back in the Trump days and now the Republicans are doing everything they can to help the Russians whilst tut-tutting loudly about how awful the Russians are!
https://www.euronews.com/2023/12/05/us-running-out-of-cash-to-help-ukraine?utm_source=vuukle&utm_medium=talk_of_town

Paulos_the_fog, 5 months ago to random

Paulos_the_fog, 3 months ago to random

I would absolutely echo the views of the expert commentator! There is no way you will get me into a Boeing 737 Max series of aircraft unless it's at gunpoint!

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-30/boeing-max-9-flying-again-after-door-panel-blowout

osma, 2 months ago to random

Does this need to be said? Never rent a printer. It barely makes sense for businesses (where it pays for maintenance of very complex machines), it definitely makes no sense for a home device.

My Samsung laser is fine. Practically any Brother printer is more than fine.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/hp-wants-you-to-pay-up-to-36-month-to-rent-a-printer-that-it-monitors/

ChrisMayLA6, 3 days ago to Health

Is the answer to 'dental deserts' to force newly trained dentists to work for the NHS for the first years of their career (or to pay back the costs of their training)?

Well, unless Labour adopt such an approach we may never know, but the crisis in NHS dentistry might be alleviated by some form of national service requirement from dentists (alongside a better funding model!)?.

It may not be the best answer, but these are desperate times in dentistry.

#NHS #health
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/23/new-dentists-could-be-forced-to-work-in-nhs-to-tackle-englands-dental-deserts

Paulos_the_fog, 1 month ago to random

mikewas, 6 days ago to random

Why does your credit score drop when you pay off a car loan?

A friend of mine was furious the other day, when he saw that paying off his car loan caused his score to drop about 40 points.

Why does this happen?

Two reasons.

👇

#CreditScore #TransUnion #Equifax #Experian

Geri, 3 days ago to random

Farage will not be standing

who gives a fuck

Paulos_the_fog, 3 days ago to random

There were some interviews on the BBC the other day I believe it was in Bolton. They were asking people in the street what they thought about current political situation so on.
I'm not going to insult the people of Bolton, or wherever it was, by tarring all of them with the brush of abject cretinous stupidity that appeared to come out of the ‘stop a random person in the street’ interviews. I think it far more likely that it was the BBC that engineered the extreme right wing bias of the interviewees.
There seemed to be a vacuous obsession with immigration. I don't know whether the imbeciles interviewed realise the reality of the situation that Britain is in. Britain is in fact in dire need of immigration for a number of reasons:
the birth rate is nowhere near high enough to maintain an active workforce that will be needed to pay the pensions of most of the cretins interviewed! Therefore, immigration is an absolute necessity to ensure that there are enough people paying into the pension pot.
Britain does not train anywhere near the number of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other medical personnel needed to fully staff the NHS. There are currently tens of thousands of vacancies for both doctors and nurses and those cannot possibly be filled without immigration!
Fruit and vegetables are rotting in the fields due to the lack of suitable personnel to harvest them. Brits themselves seem not to want to do this kind of work and in the past the pickers have been mainly eastern Europeans who were entitled to come here as EU citizens. Now the conservatives have screwed that up completely, they are not allowed to come so farmers and market gardeners are losing millions due to the in their inability to recruit pickers.
It's a mystery to me what the complete imbeciles interviewed think could be a solution to this issue it's pretty blindingly obvious that the only solution is immigration but they hate that – idiots

DrALJONES, 4 months ago to Israel

deleted_by_author

freemo, 4 months ago to random

I mean, its not even about white people. In fact many nonwhites are immigrants themselves and just as white people arent native its kinda hyocritical either way if gour here.

#Immigration

Paulos_the_fog, 3 days ago to random

freemo, 2 months ago to random

At this point im pretty sure we are one election away regardless of who wins.