Topic: Current Events

[6pairsofshoes]

My general take on it is, if a virus can't replicate, it can't evolve into something worse.  So I'm all for preventing my body from behaving like a health club for a pathogen that could use me as a gym.  The less we get sick when we are exposed, the less the chance that it can turn into a superbug. 

I have a friend who is wheelchair bound because she caught Polio as a child.  She is older and the stories she tells of being 6 years old and suddenly, inexplicably, falling down, and all the subsequent therapies and treatments she endured, are heartbreaking.  She is old enough that when she was a young vulnerable age, there was not a vaccine yet.  It makes me so grateful that there was a vaccine that was available when I was a child.  I remember my mother taking me to the local Fire Dept. and getting the dose on sugar cubes.  I think, in that case, a vaccine is far superior to letting lots of people get polio to establish herd immunity.

[6pairsofshoes]

So Churchill, who was a respectable Sunday painter, suddenly finds that his art is highly collectible.  Brad Pitt purchased "Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque," a work executed in 1943, to give his then wife, Angelina Jolie.  Recently, it was sold at Christies (London) for $11.5 million US.  Pitt collects Churchill's work.  Other works have fetched prices in the hundreds of thousands or low millions.

America has a Churchill museum in Missouri, the state where he made his "Iron Curtain" speech in 1946.  https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/collections.html   There are amusing stories of his padding around the White House in his bathrobe.  I take it he had a liver made of iron.

[8ullfrog]

Location: California, US

The Midterm election was yesterday. Could have turned my ballot in early, but I didn't. I have a hell of a time researching the judicial candidates, and they tend to be fairly unpalatable either way. (Judges rise up by sludging it.)

I think my vote might have been discarded, but neither of the gambling initiatives passed.

I find phone gambling to be a dark trend, it makes it that much easier to suck money out of phone zombies. I also think of this whenever I play a "free" MMO and see people flying around in ships that cost some startlingly high prices.

I remember being a bit annoyed that my Galaxy class starship (Free edition) didn't include saucer separation, but then I remembered any time Picard did it, the situation was dire. You kind of want to keep your saucer attached.

(You guessed it, saucer separation was a pay feature)

At least I never fell down the well of Gacha games, which have evaded gambling statutes by not paying out cash. No, you're "buying" the miniscule (0.8%) chance to get a character for your team!
(I remember when skins were free)

Update: checked again, ballot was accepted.
https://california.ballottrax.net/voter

[6pairsofshoes]

We took our ballots to a drop box about a week in advance.  Voted no on almost all the numbered propositions (except the constitutional amendment recognizing the autonomy of women over their own bodies).  And the one for prohibiting selling bubble gum flavored vaping products.

We get lots of flyers and the local mayoral race with ranked choice voting was a real maze of people we'd never heard of, some whose qualification was cited as "Entertainer."  Nope.  Been there, tried that, didn't work.  Nice to see so many candidates whom the failed real estate developer from NY who now resides in Florida supported being handed their walking papers.

[8ullfrog]

Doc Brown: The ACTOR?

[goldshirt*9]

My head is killing me  .
It always starts out well visiting the local pub, then boom 

[smokester]

My head is killing me  .
It always starts out well visiting the local pub, then boom

I go to the pub with the specific intention of leaving it with less pain than I had when I walked in. It works every time.

So, loving this gas thing that I'm doing as it is far less gruelling than the grunt work that I'm used to. However, I've discovered that there's far more paperwork which is even more annoying.

[smokester]

I don't think I've ever been so underwhelmed by a Football World Cup. I'd honestly like England to go out in the first stage so I can forget about it.

[smokester]

I am boycotting this World Cup.

I too considered doing that and, in truth, I only really tuned in today to see Ecuador do a job on the Qataris.

They delivered but I didn't see it all as I had to take a break and watch some paint dry to wake me up a bit.

[dweez]

I would say I'm boycotting as well but since I never watch it, not really making much of a statement.

[8ullfrog]

Many slaves died building that stadium. And the focus is on people not being allowed beer.

Talk about spin doctors!

[smokester]

I would say I'm boycotting as well but since I never watch it, not really making much of a statement.

USA looking good bro'. I thought Wales Bale might have done a job on them.

Hold on, Wales just got a penalty ...

[goldshirt*9]

Just wondering,but is Christmas on its way, seems to be a LOT of Xmas movies around 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[8ullfrog]

Lean times lead to shotgun marketing. I've heard quite a few people saying they're going to forgo christmas as it's no longer affordable.

Our local news had a segment of people saying that THANKSGIVING is no longer affordable.

And yet food, fuel, and rent prices continue to rise.

I feel like a couple chain stores are going to fold after a lean black friday.

[goldshirt*9]

Not many chain stores left here I think as dont shop a lot.
Trouble is IMHO is that the stores still want the profits, yet people cannot afford the rising cost
About time they took a lower profit and make it up when people have the money to spend. Made enough over the las few years