palordrolap

Well, once you’ve had your country invaded by rabid psychopaths, there’s bound to be some gene admixture (to put that far too mildly) and so you’ve a chance that their descendents, even if it’s recessive and rare, will have the desire go on to do the same.

Of course, rabid psychopathy and the urge to invade other places can also come about on its own, but when you look at the way the Vikings and their Germanic cousins invaded western Europe a thousand years or so ago, and then note what happened a few hundred years later, it has to make you wonder whether it might have only happened the once.

That this happened around April Fools’ makes me think that someone forgot to instruct it not to partake in any activities associated with that date. The fact it chose The Simpsons’ address in its (feigned?) confusion is a dead giveaway (to me) that it was trying to be funny.

Or rather, imitating people being funny without any understanding of how to do that properly.

Its explanation afterwards reads like a poor imitation of someone pretending to not know that there was a joke going on.

It could be owned by an entity called Sutton Snax. That probably isn’t what they’re going for, but it could be read that way.

Now, x-apostrophe might be (more?) correct in that instance but it’s far more forgivable than any interpretation as a plural.

You’d definitely find dry little black rice-grain-like droppings on all surfaces if you had mice, especially in rooms that have food, and more will appear if you clean them away. Also, little sticky splotches that are easy to mistake for drink spillages, because they pee everywhere too.

I managed to get rid of mine, but I occasionally still find evidence they were here in out of the way corners that I forgot about.

Brave mice - because I’m sure some will have that trait - and those infected with toxoplasmosis won’t care about cats.

Good luck.

I’m one of those people with a low tolerance for depressing reality. I’m on medication for depression and anxiety, for what good they do me. Wires and chips in the brain is a step too far.

The reason I’m in the state I’m in is that I suffered a work-stress related breakdown, but the cracks have always been there. As you might imagine I am not ready to be forced back into work which I will find unbearable. Combine that with body horror and you might be able to understand my reaction and stance to this.

I’m one of those people with a low tolerance for depressing reality. I’m on medication for depression and anxiety, for what good they do me. Wires and chips in the brain is a step too far.

The reason I’m in the state I’m in is that I suffered a work-stress related breakdown, but the cracks have always been there. As you might imagine I am not ready to be forced back into work which I will find unbearable. Combine that with body horror and you might be able to understand my reaction and stance to this.

How about cultivating a world that is less depressing before jamming wires into people’s skulls to “fix” a problem that might not originate there?

Oh no, that won’t do, the people who have low tolerance for depressing reality have to be turned into drones for the corporate machine just like everyone else. If we can turn off the emotions that derive from a sense of self-preservation, they’ll be more willing workers for the constant grind.

In before employers require that their applicants must have one of these implants. People without will not be hired.

By the 24th century we won’t be Star Trek’s Federation, we’ll be an unholy hybrid of the Ferengi and the Borg.

I reckon I’ve been pretty lucky. The handful I’ve attended haven’t been that bad.

The “worst” one, at least from my perspective, was probably a relative’s where I was an usher and messed up something with the church seating. The guests sorted that one out themselves when they thought I wasn’t looking. The wedding itself went without further problems, but that minor mess-up on my part will always stick with me.

The next “worst” was the one where the reception / after-party had a DJ who cranked the music volume another notch every 10 minutes. The venue had a literal decibel meter on the wall, and I think he had made it his goal to max that sucker out. I’ve been in clubs where the music is so loud you can’t hear your own voice when you’re talking (shouting) to someone else and this went well beyond that.

By contrast, the ceremony itself had been very demure and pleasant, in an English country manor house no less, and were it not for that DJ, it might have qualified as the best.

The best one was probably when I was a kid. I don’t have any memories of the church ceremony, which has to mean I was bored out of my mind, but must have behaved myself and there were no problems of any sort. I vaguely remember the reception in a function room at a hotel and there was nothing of note there that I remember either, except exploring the hotel. Weather was good. Must have been perfect.

Nowhere. If this was a video game I would have quit playing a long time ago.

So I was watching a video the other day about weird coincidences, and there was one entry where some guy was told he’d already checked in for a flight. After much confusion, it turned out there were two guys of the exact same name booked on the same flight going to the same place.

Two balding middle aged white guys. Travelling alone - until they each made a new friend anyway - to Thailand.

And yet, paradoxically, it is far more intelligent than those people who think it is intelligent.

These are all contemporary turn-of-the-century comedy TV series where each pairing shares at least one cast member:

• Spaced - You’d probably want to be reasonably familiar with UK pop culture of the time to truly appreciate it, but it’s still somewhat entertaining even without that.

• Black Books - Sister series to Spaced. Probably not in the same universe, but shares some of the same cast. A bit more surreal and doesn’t require so much pop culture knowledge.

• Green Wing - Turn the surrealism up yet another notch, add in a teaspoon of darkness, then set it in a hospital.

• JAM - Turn the surrealism dial fully around to the black setting, to the point of being outright disturbing and wrong.

• Big Train - Turn that dial back into silly and relatively light hearted… though you can tell there’s something a bit troubling going on at the same time.

Outside that stable, but you may have watched:

• Babylon 5 - Top rated sci-fi. Some episodes can be a bit meh, but the ones that aren’t are amazing.

• The Animatrix - Apocryphal short animations of various stories set in the universe of The Matrix, which you might want to rewatch first.

Yes, I have been under a rock since the turn of the century. I like it under here.

Updating databases to support anything other than that which would run on a 1970s mainframe costs the sort of money that eats into C-level’s yacht funds, so it won’t happen. These are the people who when faced with the “pick two from done right, done quick and done cheap” will never pick the first one.

Or in other words, if your name contains something outside the English alphabet’s A-Z, you’re out of luck. They’ll give you an approximation you don’t want and you’ll like it. Lower case? What’s that? You’re Irish and your surname has an apostrophe? F**k you, that’s in the bin, you’re OBRIEN now.

I was about to suggest SHXWMATHKWAYAMASAM as something that would be bound to work, but it’s 18 characters, and, being two more than a power of two, that all but guarantees that someone will truncate it at 16. Sigh.

There’s a bit in an Agatha Christie Poirot story about how if composer Guiseppe Verdi had been English he’d have been “Joe Green”. I’m not sure if Verdi ever used a translation, but it’s known that Beethoven referred to himself (or allowed himself to be referred to) as “Louis” in French. “Ludwig” is the German equivalent of that name.

I can recommend behindthename.com if this sort of thing piques your interest.

Check the backs of the handles. Sometimes a manufacturer will stamp their name there. Or the name of the restaurant they were made for, but that’s less common, I think.

Kind of obscure, but Brits of a certain age will always think of Alan Dale as “Jim from Neighbours”. Another one being Guy Pearce as “Mike from Neighbours”. Pearce has had a slightly bigger career than Dale maybe, but you’ve almost certainly seen them both in popular movies and TV shows.

Neglectful / high threshold. A post or comment has to be extremely one way or the other for me to click one of those arrows, and as for boosts, basically forget about it, even if they are the right thing for stellar content. I would like to give out more (of all kinds), but never seem to be able to bring myself to do it.

I think seeing a ratio that already looks right might play into it a bit (since I’m on an instance that shows both up and down), but there are plenty of 0/0s that don’t get anything from me either.

Getting into the further “why” is deep existential, psychological stuff that’s probably well beyond the fluff level of an internet points discussion, and I might not even be able to begin to examine that without the help of a qualified therapist or something.

Thinking about what I would answer to this question.

My first thought when accidents happen is always “How do I make it so that this didn’t happen?”

I know this is an irrational thought, but you asked. It’s probably from using computers where “undo” is commonplace. (And much missed, often with horror, when it isn’t).

For dry foods, anything that didn’t touch the floor is examined closely and then put back on a fresh plate. Or the same plate after a quick rinse and paper towel dry. The rest would be tossed with heavy heart.

Wetter foods get similar treatment, but there’s more floor cleaning required. That would be done immediately, and any rescued hot food that had cooled in the meantime would get a quick re-warming in the microwave.

Either way, I would be cursing silently the whole time, and I wouldn’t enjoy my meal, but I’d still eat what, if anything, I saved.

… sometimes I will eat escaped dry cereal when pouring from box to bowl just to spite it, even if it ends up on the floor, but it has to look immaculate for me to do that. Anything vaguely oily or sticky doesn’t qualify for this, even if it looks fine.

“will protect the most vulnerable,"

It’s often useful to imagine that they know what people will think they mean when they say things like that, but that they actually mean an entirely different “most vulnerable” group: MPs, their friends and associates.