Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - Mammy told me not to come.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

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[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

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[Hectorjelly]

Reading a book at the moment Enlightenment Now, and as a result was thinking how notably light we are on big news stories these days. Like there's no ship sinkings, mass famines, plane crashes, very little war, no polio or flu epidemics wiping people out. We're kinda reduced to making news out of a US presidents tweets. The news has become boring and irrelevant almost precisely because the world has reduced the number of newsworthy (i.e. awful) events. Fair fcks.

Ha...this has to be a joke

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

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[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

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[Hectorjelly]

Ship sinking: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.99e8c02acc39

Famine: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...memory-un-says

War: There are plenty of wars/armed clonflicts going on in Africa, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria etc... but you also have this in the last few days https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-down-warplane

Place Crash: local https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0225/10...bbotson-crash/ Globalhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/world/asia/lion-air-plane-crash-pilots.html (189 people died a few months ago)

Disease epidemics: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...d-still-rising

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-measles-is-a-quintessential-political-issue-of-our-time

Then you have Brexit, the resurgence of Russia as a interventionist evil empire, The US government shutdown, School Shootings in the US, China fleshing out Orwells dystopian vision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System etc etc etc

I genuinely wasn't sure if you were joking or not!

Edit: I forgot Venezuala & the Drug wars in Latin America (and about a hundred other things I'm sure)

[hotspur]

Did you really Google that there are plane crashes, diseases and conflicts to argue against the point that there are relatively fewer of them these days?

[Raoul Duke III]

I don't think anyone can argue against the point that Hitch makes. Likewise, it seems that a certain sense of existential boredom has crept into many of our lives when the most we can find interesting is Facebook, diet and exercise plans, and the lives of vacuous 'celebrities'.

Life may have been harder in the old days but it certainly had more fundamental challenges to master. How can we comprehend WW2 or life under Stalin?

[Raoul Duke III]

Luckily, if you want to restore a sense of order and inner meaning to your life, there's always the IPB Tipping Comp.

Mending broken souls since 2015. Crushed a few too.

[Hectorjelly]

There are major news stories happening either right now on every topic that he listed. Trump's tweets aren't news stories because there aren't other stories happening, it just happens to be what drives clicks. If JFK was on twitter his tweets would have the same impact.

I was responding to his first argument, that we are light on major news stories theses days. This is not true. As for the world being better off, that's a different argument. There are many cities in the world which have higher murder rates than during medieval Europe. As a whole we might be slightly better off than before, but a lot of the world lives in awful conditions that rival our dark past and all that ignores the terrible spectre of global warming.

[Guest]

There are major news stories happening either right now on every topic that he listed. Trump's tweets aren't news stories because there aren't other stories happening, it just happens to be what drives clicks. If JFK was on twitter his tweets would have the same impact.

I was responding to his first argument, that we are light on major news stories theses days. This is not true. As for the world being better off, that's a different argument. There are many cities in the world which have higher murder rates than during medieval Europe. As a whole we might be slightly better off than before, but a lot of the world lives in awful conditions that rival our dark past and all that ignores the terrible spectre of global warming.

Obviously Hitch didn't mean absolutely none. It's quite clear he referred to relatively none. I think that was clear to anyone reading his comment.

Have you any data to back up the bolded?

Yes there are news stories but even that alone has altered significantly. I believe Pinker refers to the trajectory of the coverage by media via some type of thematic analysis. He highlights the media narrative has become ever more negative in light of the ever reducing atrocities to report on.

I referred to Pinker in the following;
As far as famine goes, figures for famine related deaths peaked around 1870 at 1,400 per 100,000 and currently sits in the single digits even though the population has grown 7 fold.
Genocide and battle related deaths peaked in the 1970s and 1950s respectively and are both <5% of their peak figures and trending downwards.

I could probably add the PDF of the graphs for you to look yourself but it's quite clear that although the existence of tragedies is not non-zero, there relative impact has diminished greatly.
The only exception I have come across is Climate Change which everyone of these positivists believe is the most pressing issue.

[Hectorjelly]

He said we were noticeably light on these stories, so I got a list of recent major stories on the EXACT topics he mentioned all in the last couple of month.
I was responding to his first post where he says that these things aren't happening, they are. The fact they don't dominate the news headlines tells us more about what we as a population find newsworthy than giving us a sense of what is actually happening in the world.

Ioan Grillo mentions this several times in his recent podcast with Joe Rogan. I don't know what his sources are but a quick google gives me this:

https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/life-violence-murder-crime-middle-ages/

Oxford uk medieval times: around 110 per 100,000.

This was extraordinarily high for the time period. A figure of around 50/100,000 is more normal.

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/23/us/historical-study-of-homicide-and-cities-surprises-the-experts.html

Currently:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_murder_rate

Playa de carmen Mexico 910 853,646 106.63

I just picked this place because I was there a few months ago. Its no 3.

[6starpool]

A ship sinking from 6 weeks ago and a plane crash 5 weeks ago with 2 people on board (which was very widely reported) are hardly the sinking of the titanic or disappearance of MH370.

[eoghan104]

I am looking to do up my office and put a TV in it. I don't want to buy Sky Multiroom so figure I can...

1/ Get a HDMI splitter for my Sky Box and run a HDMI up through the attic and back down into my office. Seems easy enough.

1B/ Presume I can get some sort of a bouncer or booster so that my Sky Remote Control will work in the office despite the sky box being in the sitting room?

2/ Is there another option to No.1 above? Like is there some sort of signal bouncer that plugs into sky box and plugs into the back of the TV that does all this for me without needing to run a HDMI cable around the house?

Thought about doing this in the new gaff but then after looking at it decided to pay the 15 a month. The mini boxes are great to be honest with pausing TV and moving rooms etc. Netflix on it too for ease of use.

[Solksjaer!]

Two nuclear powers shooting at each other is pretty scary No? On going famine should always be news .

[Solksjaer!]

We have become comfortably numb .

[Tar.Aldarion]

There's plenty of wars, slave trade, all that jazz, they're just happening in countries people don't care about. We're getting a netflix 8 part maddie mccann documentary soon, meanwhile there's 50k of her every year in India.
Not disputing that things are way better, they are, but we are light on western news stories more than there being no stories.

We're just back after seeing The Book of Mormon in Prince of Wales.
It was my first musical so I have nothing to compare it to but I thought it was brilliant.
Well worth a visit for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

You'll be disappointed by any musical after!

[RichieM]

I don't think anyone can argue against the point that Hitch makes. Likewise, it seems that a certain sense of existential boredom has crept into many of our lives when the most we can find interesting is Facebook, diet and exercise plans, and the lives of vacuous 'celebrities'.

Life may have been harder in the old days but it certainly had more fundamental challenges to master. How can we comprehend WW2 or life under Stalin?

According to reports from parts of the British media ww2 was amazing, everyone got on so well and despite the huge debt figures, destruction and loss of life the world was much better

[Guest]

He said we were noticeably light on these stories, so I got a list of recent major stories on the EXACT topics he mentioned all in the last couple of month.
I was responding to his first post where he says that these things aren't happening, they are. The fact they don't dominate the news headlines tells us more about what we as a population find newsworthy than giving us a sense of what is actually happening in the world.

Ioan Grillo mentions this several times in his recent podcast with Joe Rogan. I don't know what his sources are but a quick google gives me this:

Yes, you did do that. Notwithstanding those stories, it is clear that wer are relatively light on news stories that represent atrocities.
It is quite clear by a wide range of objective measures that the type of stories Hitch mentioned "don't exist" and you refuted do exist make up a far smaller proportion of media coverage for a variety of reasons.

Nobody is actually claiming that they're not happening but in relative terms they impact a much smaller proportion of the globe than ever.
In part, they don't dominate news headlines because they are relatively infrequent which was Hitch's primary point.
This is true even in light of sentiment analysis suggesting that news coverage is becoming increasingly more morbid in light of improving circumstances.
This in turn has led to media covering situations which previously would not have warranted little if any coverage ie celebs etc.

There is absolutely nowhere to stand for someone who claims that global circumstances have not improved significantly and that the type of events you mentioned impact people far less frequently.
It's not extinct but they are greatly reduced. The murder rates in places you mentioned may be higher than medieval times but that is obviously the exception rather than the rule.

Of course continued efforts need to happen to improve the circumstances of people but to pretend that significant improvements have not occurred for almost everyone in the world is ridiculous.

@Mike I think we're numb to events now in some respects but I also think that we must be objective is assessing the state of the world. It's continuing to improve. That doesn't mean improvement should stop but ignoring the improvements does nobody any good imo.

[Strewelpeter]

You even see it in music. Anodyne (this word may not mean what I think it means) crap, with no cause, no purpose.

No that's exactly what it means and yeah its true however there is also lots of significant amazing music out there you just have to dig deep to find it and it mostly seems to be just about the music itself rather than trying to link it explicitly to any political cause.
In a way like HJ's point about news, poverty famine and war are all decreasing on a huge scale relative to population but at the same time you turn on BBC World service and listen to the news for an hour and what they report on feels like a different planet.

[Hectorjelly]

Of course continued efforts need to happen to improve the circumstances of people but to pretend that significant improvements have not occurred for almost everyone in the world is ridiculous.

You are having an argument with yourself.

[Silver-Tiger]

Yeah a sky q mini box that you can move around easily and is neat.

Upgrade to Sky Q if you haven't yet.
Take the multi room hit if you have.

[Raoul Duke III]

According to reports from parts of the British media ww2 was amazing, everyone got on so well and despite the huge debt figures, destruction and loss of life the world was much better

And we trounced the Jerries while drinking tea and playing cricket on village greens! By Jove!!
And then you get Brexit.

Objectively, this is by far the best time in the history of the world to be alive. Look at Europe - no major war in our lifetime or our parent's lifetimes.
No other European generation can say that.

[NuckChorris]

...We're getting a netflix 8 part maddie mccann documentary soon, meanwhile there's 50k of her every year in India.
...

Saw that and it mentioned that the total bill for her search has hit £11.25m and Scotland Yard have requested more to keep the search ongoing. It's tragic what happened but the money and resources wasted seems incredible.

[Guest]

You are having an argument with yourself.

If you can't observe that significant progress has taken place while also acknowledging we must continue to make improvements for people then that's on you.

[shrapnel]

No that's exactly what it means and yeah its true however there is also lots of significant amazing music out there you just have to dig deep to find it and it mostly seems to be just about the music itself rather than trying to link it explicitly to any political cause.
In a way like HJ's point about news, poverty famine and war are all decreasing on a huge scale relative to population but at the same time you turn on BBC World service and listen to the news for an hour and what they report on feels like a different planet.

speaking of good music, tickets going on sale tomorrow for Max Richter at the barbican (Feb 2020).

[Hectorjelly]

If you can't observe that significant progress has taken place while also acknowledging we must continue to make improvements for people then that's on you.

I can observe that you have recently read a Stephen Pinker book and are proudly regurgitating the contents in a different discussion on a different topic.

[Guest]

I can observe that you have recently read a Stephen Pinker book and are proudly regurgitating the contents in a different discussion on a different topic.

Yes I read a Steven Pinker book and found the contents very interesting.
How are my comments related to a different topic?
You quite literally responded to Hitchs comment about the book I'm referencing so clearly what I'm referring to is relevant to the discussion.

[ArmaniJeans]

Prodigy singer Keith Flint dead.

[Solksjaer!]

Prodigy singer Keith Flint dead.

Wow not yet 50.

Now that's news.

[6starpool]

So how does the Sky Multiscreen box work? Do I need to wire it with another coax cable? or how does it make the magic happen? At that price think Id go for it rather than the alternative.

Sky q mini box needs a cable to connect to the telly and a power cable that's all. As long as you have WiFi that is.

[Mellor]

Oxford uk medieval times: around 110 per 100,000.

This was extraordinarily high for the time period. A figure of around 50/100,000 is more normal.

Currently:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_murder_rate

Playa de carmen Mexico 910 853,646 106.63

The problem with per 100k rates, is that they are for assessing large populations, like cities. Medieval oxford was probably 5,000 people, a village. A murder rate of 100+ is 5 people in a year. Which is high if it's a consistent rate. But in a single year, it's easy for one or two incidents to spike the murder rate.
There was a riot in Oxford in the mid 1300s. 50 were people were killed.

Maybe they discounted those kinds of incidents. I just don't think it's accurate to use per/100k sats from small populations. I'm sure we can find a town of 200 people, with a murder rate of 1000/100,000 in a random years.

[Denny Crane]

Edinburgh is well worth a couple of days poking about in.

Enjoyed a couple of nights here a few years back...

http://monachylemhor.net

If in Edinburgh this is a nice place to eat

https://castleterracerestaurant.com

If in the vicinity of Gleneagles Restaurant Andrew Fairlie is well worth a visit

https://andrewfairlie.co.uk

Going to Edinburgh for a stag in a couple of months, any more recommendations?

[KevIRL]

Prodigy singer Keith Flint dead.

Aaron Ramsey does it again

[SatNav]

BBV works.....

Get a call from SatNav wondering why I wasn't using her as my point of reference. Told her I presumed she'd be still drunk at this time on a Monday morning so didn't want to disturb her...

Anyway, Got my sky bill significantly reduced and have signed up for Sky Multiscreen. Total cost is still less than what i was already paying...

As an aside, can anybody recommend a really cheap gin, one level about paint thinner?

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Strewelpeter]

BBV works.....

Get a call from SatNav wondering why I wasn't using her as my point of reference. Told her I presumed she'd be still drunk at this time on a Monday morning so didn't want to disturb her...

Anyway, Got my sky bill significantly reduced and have signed up for Sky Multiscreen. Total cost is still less than what i was already paying...
?

You must be a pleb then. When i called her recently she told me I was a VIP and she's not allowed deal with VIP's (obv)

[Guest]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

It wasn't the provider you suggested to me but the idea of mobile broadband modem was a great recommendation btw. Thanks.

Vodafone's Huaweii modem is giving 20mb consistently with the option to switch to FTTH when it becomes available.
They gave me a lend of a box for 2 days to use, slight issue at the start with a faulty SIM but it's been perfect otherwise.

[SatNav]

It wasn't the provider you suggested to me but the idea of mobile broadband modem was a great recommendation btw. Thanks.

Vodafone's Huaweii modem is giving 20mb consistently with the option to switch to FTTH when it becomes available.
They gave me a lend of a box for 2 days to use, slight issue at the start with a faulty SIM but it's been perfect otherwise.

I'd wait a while before taking FTTH, alot of complaints coming in my end about it . We actually provide now.

Ya those modems are dead handy!

@strewl I meant OAP not VIP your loosing it

@GAB I'm liking this one ta

https://cambridgedistillery.co.uk/products/watenshi

[6starpool]

I'd wait a while before taking FTTH, alot of complaints coming in my end about it . We actually provide now.

Ya those modems are dead handy!

@strewl I meant OAP not VIP your loosing it

@GAB I'm liking this one ta

https://cambridgedistillery.co.uk/products/watenshi

I have the Vodafone ftth. Zero complaints here, Rock solid, blazing fast service

[tylerdurden94]

For the Dems? No-one has yet really captured the imagination in a positive sense for me.

The ideal candidate should be male, white and 45-55. From a swing state or a southern one. Ideally a State Governor. He should have good hair and a pretty, silent wife and some photogenic kids. Some military service would help.

(Yes^^, this is all pretty antediluvian but that's what will play in the places that decide the election).

Trump will always have his base but those people who swung to him would hopefully say "nah fuck it I'll vote somebody else" for 2020, the administration has been an absolute calamity since the start. Still has aways to go, with supposed new investigations popping up and Cohen once again testifying this week it's gonna be another tornado of a news week.

What do you make of Sherrod Brown?

[tylerdurden94]

I have the Vodafone ftth. Zero complaints here, Rock solid, blazing fast service

Details?

[Raoul Duke III]

Trump will always have his base but those people who swung to him would hopefully say "nah fuck it I'll vote somebody else" for 2020, the administration has been an absolute calamity since the start. Still has aways to go, with supposed new investigations popping up and Cohen once again testifying this week it's gonna be another tornado of a news week.

What do you make of Sherrod Brown?

John Hickenlooper just declared. I quite like his profile although too old for my liking.

'Another looper' I hear you say.

[Guest]

I have the Vodafone ftth. Zero complaints here, Rock solid, blazing fast service

We're hopeful that it will be installed relatively soon. It's entirely dependent on OpenEir/FibreRollout.

There is a few houses on our row which weren't occupied but now people have begun to move in.
The area was cordoned off so OpenEir/FibreRollout weren't willing/able to install the infrastructure until all houses were occupied.

I'm locked into the 2 year contract either way so fingers crossed it works out the same as yours.

[tylerdurden94]

John Hickenlooper just declared. I quite like his profile although too old for my liking.

'Another looper' I hear you say.

This was a decent skit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp8kFqycfFM

[Guest]

Rugby Journalist AMA on boards for those interested:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057961437#

[DeadParrot]

John Hickenlooper just declared. I quite like his profile although too old for my liking.

'Another looper' I hear you say.

both the faves, Biden and Bernie are too old imo.
Beto has serious potential but it's telling how quickly his star has waned.
Warren, Gabbard and Harris are actually pretty decent but will be tarred by their sex as a Hillary wannabe by fucking idiots.
My dark horse? Julian Castro. If he gets the nod, and texas goes blue you have a pretty guaranteed win.

The left will undoubtedly eat itself as its internal struggles with an aging centrist power base, young progressives and the shadow of Bernie eschewing what might have been.
Their inability to get "on message" together is going to make what should be a slam dunk a much closer thing.

[Solksjaer!]

Trabolgen mid April . 2 kids 5 and 2 . Worth it ?

Opinions?

[Strewelpeter]

John Hickenlooper just declared. I quite like his profile although too old for my liking.

'Another looper' I hear you say.

This was a good watch, Reich points out a framework for the next democrat to follow .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvCtwDAQta0

[Raoul Duke III]

Trabolgen mid April . 2 kids 5 and 2 . Worth it ?

Opinions?

Sounds relaxing.

[Solksjaer!]

Sounds relaxing.

If you think of the kids as actual monkeys you'd be surprised how it changes the stress levels.

[Raoul Duke III]

If you think of the kids as actual monkeys you'd be surprised how it changes the stress levels.

When using the animal analogy I usually refer to them as pigs, toads or hippos. Depending on what they have just trashed\broken\failed to do.

[Denny Crane]

[QUOTE]The paper, by leading pensions actuaries Tony Gilhawley and Roma Burke, found that the State's contribution to the pension of an average public servant recruited before 2013 is 29pc of their salary, rising to 53pc for gardaí./QUOTE] Jaysus.

[Raoul Duke III]

[QUOTE=Denny Crane;1092678]

The paper, by leading pensions actuaries Tony Gilhawley and Roma Burke, found that the State's contribution to the pension of an average public servant recruited before 2013 is 29pc of their salary, rising to 53pc for gardaí./QUOTE] Jaysus.

Surprised it's not more tbh

[DeadParrot]

Trabolgen mid April . 2 kids 5 and 2 . Worth it ?

Opinions?

it has a bowling alley with the pins on strings.
I think you know the answer

[6starpool]

Details?

Not much details to give really. I have gigabit fibre with siro from Vodafone, although most of my devices aren't capable of taking advantage fully yet. Some mad low ping rate like 3ms, which if you're a gamer (which I'm not) is great. No contention to deal with either.

[Guest]

Rugby Journalist AMA on boards for those interested:
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/show...?t=2057961437#

It’s not living legend Gerry Thornley just to save people the clock

[DeadParrot]

Luke Perry, Eusebio and Keith Flint.
Ramsay has a lot to answer for

[Dice75]

Eusabio from Portugal? He died a few years ago. Didn't he? Or am I going mad.

Quick look says he dies in 2014, unless there's another famous one i don't know about.

[Guest]

Pic below is why Pinkers book is so popular. That and it gives a rubber stamp to the Davos elite to carry on as normal. For a board that prides itself on critical thinking the fawning over his book is dissapointing tbh there’s plenty of well argued counterpoints out there if you have a look but if you’re reading it for comfort reasons it probably won’t suit. Yeah science ! etc etc

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

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