Wikipedia is already referencing articles saying it’s a pathogen related to the Black Death.

And for people worried about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that “today it can be easily treated with antibiotics and the use of standard preventative measures.”

I still use “cool” a lot, but I think its become one of those words that will persist through generations.

It’s not really a filler word, but I’ve been corrected on my use of “just,” particularly at my work place. “Just” is often used by some people to minimise the impact of what they’re saying intentionally. For example, “I just think we should change the wording in this law.” If you take out ‘just’ (and some of the other words) and say the thing you meant to say - it becomes a far punchier statement, “We should change the wording in this law.”

The OP made me think of a poem by Taylor Mali, “Speak With Conviction.”

I mean, yes and no. You can see all the iconic MJ moves in Bob Fosse’s performance here, but they’re not quite the same. As well, Bob Fosse, as far as I know and I honestly don’t know anything beyond this clip and I can’t be bothered to look it up, wasn’t also a singer and songwriter.

As well, there is rarely ever an original form of art - every great artist has either copied or stolen from someone else.

Terry Pratchett, an author that I greatly respect and admire, straight up stole/paid homage to all kinds of pop culture movies and science and quotes - he dressed up those stories and made them his own.

Rap artists off all kinds will steal bars and hooks from one another all the time.

I guess my point is, at what point is it paying homage to something and at what point is it stealing? If someone truly made something original it would likely be rejected for being so obscure as to be offensive to “good taste.”

I feel like the mountain police are the kind of police that traditionally say, “Bone apple tea” before each meal.

So you’ll hyper focus on being a watcher of the watchers until you get overwhelmed by the task and burnout whereupon you’ll be completely absent from the post and the watchers will have no one watching them anymore because you’ll be in bed staring between your phone and the ceiling and you’ll occasionally get out of bed to use the washroom and open your fridge for something to eat but then remember that you haven’t restocked on anything and close the fridge door and go back to bed with a glass of water at least and lament the fact that you are no longer doing the thing you said you would do and you’ll ruminate about that for several hours until you pull up your phone again because enough time has gone by now that the social media feeds are somewhat fresh again and you’re only seeing a handful of stale posts in your feed that you already upvoted but there’s enough new content to keep you scrolling until that gets old so you start looking for something to stream to take your mind off the fact that you’re no longer watching the watchers which would be fine but there’s nothing good enough for you to actually click play on something so you keep scrolling until the app actually stops giving you suggestions which makes you panic for a second because how pathetic is it that you actually scrolled so much that the app isn’t suggesting anything so you end up clicking on The Office for the hundredth time and pick up where you left off the last time you burntout which is the episode where Kevin brings the chili to work and it makes you breath slightly heavier out of your nostrils and it’s just enough dopamine to keep you going for a bit longer.

I for one welcome our new ADHD overlord.

I’m listening to The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen which I’m just over half way through.

Side tangent, I just recently reactivated my library card after an embarrassing amount of time (couple decades?) of not using it. I CANNOT BELIEVE just how much content I got access to for absolutely no cost to me. The entire time I’ve been away from a library it feels like they’ve revolutionized access to literary media.

Anyway, The Last Dragon on Mars caught my eye as I was scanning the audiobooks on the library app so I jumped into it with no other expectations. It’s an okay Young Adult fiction that mashes Ender’s Game with the Harry Potter books. The world building is neat, and the pacing is good - it’s just kind of missing some extra edge to set it apart from other YA.

The narrator of the audiobook, Landon Woodson, is quite good and I love the spin he’s giving for each character. He’s really the main reason I’ve kept listening.

Any amateur entomologists able to hazard a guess what those bugs are?

Some kind of dragonfly larvae?

I’ve tried looking for it in the past, but unfortunately Comedy Central has managed to scrub those old clips from YT.

Now I only have the vague memory of it and the impression it left on me.

It was part of the Colbert Report’s “Word of the Day” segment.

Colbert’s monologue on “Truthiness” that then led to Mark Carney’s speech on global order and middle powers. The next one will be about the Fall of the US Empire.

It was a slippery slope that some of us knew we were on…

While Chester was one of kind - I really like Emily Armstrong. I saw them live a few months ago and she put on a SHOW. I got worried when the first few songs she was getting the crowd to sing most of the lyrics for the old Chester stuff, but then she let it rip for the second half and fucking tore the place down.

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut.

Picked it up for $13 CAD a few days ago. Runs great on my Steam Deck with Lossless Scaling. Minor framerate dips, but I can’t afford the time or money to build a better computer so I’ll take what I can get. Being able to pick up the Deck, play for a few minutes, pause, and put it to sleep so I can deal with my kiddo is the only way I can play anything right now. Sucks that I “lose connection to the game server” if I put the Deck to sleep for too long, but it doesn’t seem to impact the gameplay too much.

Kojima definitely self-indulges too hard with his storytelling and celebrity worship, but I have to give him (or maybe his writers) credit for his world building.

The controls and gameplay can be a bit frustrating at times, but they’ve also resulted in some memorable moments. I’ll take the odd annoying moment, like losing my balance in a deep creek and dropping all my cargo, if it then creates a fun event, me scrambling down the creek madly picking up the wet suit cases of quest specific items to then narrowly deliver it all without failing.

It’s worth checking out if you enjoyed the Metal Gear games, or enjoy exploring maps and unlocking areas and the emergent gameplay of something like Breath of the Wild.

Cool, I hadn’t heard of this game! I love the idea of a “single-player MMO.” I don’t have time for subscriptions, and trying to grind gear to keep up with the content/other players. Like you said, being able to drop the game for a few months and pick it back up where I left off is amazing.

Wish listed!

If you’re interested in why he is doing what he is doing - I would highly suggest turning on the close captions. It was a game changer as someone that is entertained by infotainment!

I’m not OP, but here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262350/SIGNALIS/

I haven’t played it yet, but it’s been on my wishlist for awhile.

At times like this I almost miss the old “bone apple tea” community over in the other place… Almost.

You asked about what we thought fascinating of the UK and what you might be taking for granted so I’ll let 'er rip.

I felt the almost omnipresent pressure of an imperialistic black hole that pulled everything to it’s centre. I walked the streets of London and saw enormous edifices to grief and religiosity and greed. I saw graffiti from people yearning to express themselves against systems that often held them down. I saw stolen art and belongings of my ancestors hung in galleries to be admired and gawked at. I saw the whims of kings cut entire forests to the ground so that they could “worship” a distant speck of Christianity while hunting their favourite game in their historically exclusive fields. I saw the hollowed out guts of the Industrial Revolution turned into trendy shopping centres and into walkable cities. I saw Palestinian protestors laying on the streets of Oxford as graduates in their gowns stepped around and over them. I saw the land literally wrinkle before my eyes as I went North to Edinburgh. I heard Texans make a fuss at the top of Arthur’s Seat. I tried to see the Queen’s yacht from a parking garage because I didn’t want to pay (rather disappointing). I noticed that almost none of your industrial coolers and fridges actually kept anything cold (but the lights worked and I think I remember hearing the fans whirring, blowing lukewarm air). I saw a doorman enjoy his job and crack some jokes and making people smile. I saw the king’s “gateman” with a bullet proof vest and a semi-automatic rifle intimidate tourists to keep them away from his gate. I saw a highschooler throw an orange at a fabulous black actor at the Globe, and another thrown orange from a different high schooler soon after - the play kept going. I saw weapons of war used as posts in the ground. I saw a cyclist get chewed out by a “pensioner” for going too fast and almost hitting her. I saw works of art painted on discarded gum.

I bought a Yorkshire pudding burrito and walked far too long to find a place to sit and eat it - rather tasty.

Fascinating place.

I’d take your statement about Star Wars sequels being about death a bit further - they’re about learning about the past and moving forwards (sometimes that means destroying the past to be able to move forwards).

My cousin was actually deeply affected by the sequels because the theme of the wiser, older generation passing on knowledge to a younger generation that was resistant to becoming the next leaders.

I thought the scene between Yoda and Luke in the Last Jedi perfectly captured the theme of the movies. I’ll copy paste the quotes from IMDB:

Luke Skywalker: [Yoda appears as a ghost] Master Yoda.
Yoda: Young Skywalker.
Luke Skywalker: I'm ending all of this. The tree, the texts, the Jedi. I'm going to burn it all down.
Yoda: [Yoda summons lightning to burn down the tree and the Jedi texts. He laughs] Ah, Skywalker. Missed you, have I.
Luke Skywalker: So it is time for the Jedi Order to end.
Yoda: Time it is for you to look past a pile of old books, hmm?
Luke Skywalker: The sacred Jedi texts?
Yoda: Oh, read them, have you? Page-turners they were not. Yes, yes, yes. Wisdom they held, but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess. [Skywalker, still looking to the horizon.] Never here, now, hmm? The need in front of your nose.
Luke Skywalker: I was weak. Unwise.
Yoda: Lost Ben Solo you did. Lose Rey we must not.
Luke Skywalker: I can't be what she needs me to be.
Yoda: Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.

I also really likes the news that said, “There have been no fatalities involving cyclists this year.” Great news!

Great observation.

You asked for examples and sources - I gave examples and 2 sources. Maybe it’s drastically different where you live?

My challenge to you is - what are you doing to change the narrative where you live?

Anyone can sit from the sideline and comment that nothing has changed since these protests took place - it’s a lot harder to get out there and make the change happen. Maybe you’re already making those changes already, in which case - keep going!

Do you think that the needle has moved in a positive direction since these protests? Even if it feels like only a few millimetres?

Starting from the bottom of this list: 5. There’s more women in the workforce than ever before https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2022001/article/00009-eng.htm 4. We’ve seen a drop in poverty since 2017 (but it’s climbing back up!) https://www160.statcan.gc.ca/prosperity-prosperite/poverty-pauvrete-eng.htm 3. As a direct response to Trump, Canada elected a Centre-Left Prime Minister in Marl Carney’s Liberals when the election was decidedly going to be a Rightwing landslide with the Poilievre’s Conservatives. 2. Green, renewable energy has never been more popular.

1. There have been significant reforms since the George Floyd protests. Some cops have seen prison time, or lost their jobs entirely.

That’s not to say our job is done and everything is a utopia now - we still have a lot of work to do. However, we do need to acknowledge when things have moved in a good direction or we’ll be overwhelmed by the bad and lose hope.

You’ve gotta see some of the good through all the shitty headlines that want to make you click and feel bad.