Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - Wordle Gummidge

[ComradeCollie]

Thoughts and 'prayers' with Lao Lao, on what is likely to be an eventful week.

[Raoul Duke III]

Was expecting it to be politicised. Tomorrow's front page from the Metro UK.

I don't read that as a politicised headline. The by-line even states 'as cases here soar by record'; which insinuates Europe is being perfectly sensible.

I'm sure you can find Mail or Express headlines to take offence at if that's what you really want to do.

[Raoul Duke III]

I feel even the French themselves don't feel that they played a vital part in those victories apart from the offering of beaches.

WW1 surely.

Verdun? The Battles of the Marne?

I feel your grasp of history may be suffering from palsy.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Thoughts and 'prayers' with Lao Lao, on what is likely to be an eventful week.

I was just about to ask him to give priority to any container that might contain a Polly Pocket Ultimate Dreamhouse.

[Lao Lao]

I was just about to ask him to give priority to any container that might contain a Polly Pocket Ultimate Dreamhouse.

I'll make sure it's the first one off the vessel tomorrow morning!

[ComradeCollie]

I don't read that as a politicised headline. The by-line even states 'as cases here soar by record'; which insinuates Europe is being perfectly sensible.

I'm sure you can find Mail or Express headlines to take offence at if that's what you really want to do.

They're not that bad tbf

Daily-Mail-16.jpg
Daily-Express-16.jpg

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

WW1 surely.

Verdun? The Battles of the Marne?

I feel your grasp of history may be suffering from palsy.

I don't really have any idea what happened in WWI to be honest, and I'm fine with that. Rich people forced poor people to die for some silly reason. Yet people seem to remember it for the countries rather than what it says about the role of ordinary people in society back then. Lets not assign the glamour of political direction to a tawdry business.

[Kayroo]

I feel even the French themselves don't feel that they played a vital part in those victories apart from the offering of beaches.

You cannot have lived in France and think this is true.

[Lao Lao]

In other news, I really don't get the Amazon hype.

I've never bought anything from Amazon and I have never needed to have to get something delivered within 24 hours of ordering. I can't see how anybody actually really needs this, unless they are ordering life saving medicine that has to be taken within 24 hours.

This year, all bar one present, was bought from Irish companies and the vast majority of them were small independent places. There was no real hassle to it.

The one I couldn't get was because no Irish retailer had it slin stock so I had to order from a UK store instead.

I never thought I'd ever say this but PSV is 100% right - Fuck Amazon!

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Thread. Any business that gets through this is doing fine.

[ComradeCollie]

I don't really have any idea what happened in WWI to be honest, and I'm fine with that. Rich people forced poor people to die for some silly reason. Yet people seem to remember it for the countries rather than what it says about the role of ordinary people in society back then. Lets not assign the glamour of political direction to a tawdry business.

Get up the yard, there's a smell of Benjy off you!

[Raoul Duke III]

You cannot have lived in France and think this is true.

Exactly. Even the smallest hamlet has a (beautifully maintained) war memorial commemorating the 'morts pour la France'.

[Kayroo]

I don't really have any idea what happened in WWI to be honest, and I'm fine with that. Rich people forced poor people to die for some silly reason. Yet people seem to remember it for the countries rather than what it says about the role of ordinary people in society back then. Lets not assign the glamour of political direction to a tawdry business.

This is the worst attempt at re-direction I've ever seen.

The French Resistance was vital to winning the Second World War too. You have absolutely no grasp of history at all.

"The French lost in both world wars"
"They won them both"
"Ah but they must feel like they lost them because they didn't play a big part in the fighting"
"In World War 1 they were a primary fighting force. Here's a number of their major engagements"
"I mean, what even is war? And who wins in such a capitalist struggle? Not the working man let me tell you. Vive la revolution!"

Watch the way the French commemorate their war dead and then come back and talk about how the French don't really see themselves as victors in the World Wars.

[Raoul Duke III]

I don't really have any idea what happened in WWI to be honest, and I'm fine with that.

Strange for somebody whose job is the dissemination of knowledge to publically proclaim their pride in their ignorance of one of the seminal events in human history.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

wha? Amazon Prime is amazing. Order it, get it. Had two parcels delivered today. Nice reassurance that everything will arrive on time. Ordered two or three last things today with a guaranteed delivery of Tuesday. If they could just open an Irish warehouse then we could just shop there guilt-free.

Maybe you organise your time better LaoLao, but we (like I'd say most people) have so little spare time in the week, that we don't want to spend it shopping for crap. Like today, rather than shopping for those last things, we just ordered them and headed off to Greystones, class lunch, then up towards the Sugar Loaf. There's no comparison to being on Henry Street. Think thats the problem with going through a few hundred small Irish websites also - just takes far too much time.

[Raoul Duke III]

This is the trouble with being smart. You think your (localised to one subject) smartness is extensible to all subject areas. It's not.

This is why the best leaders are those who recognise their own deficiencies and surround themselves with experts, without feeling threatened by them.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Kayroo Raoul Duke III

It seems like what you should be doing is blaming my history teacher, not me - the poor innocent victim of his inability to convey these important messages.

[Hectorjelly]

This is the trouble with being smart. You think your (localised to one subject) smartness is extensible to all subject areas. It's not.

This is why the best leaders are those who recognise their own deficiencies and surround themselves with experts, without feeling threatened by them.

Unfortunately, Hitch's current media strategy is to have strong opinion on every subject known to man. The sad thing is it's working for him!

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

This is the trouble with being smart. You think your (localised to one subject) smartness is extensible to all subject areas. It's not.

This is why the best leaders are those who recognise their own deficiencies and surround themselves with experts, without feeling threatened by them.

I think your version of smart is someone who wins university challenge. Thats a very old idea of smart in an era where all facts are instantly accessible. What's smart is an ability to take a situation and extrapolate what this means in another context. I've cancelled all exams as a result for the last few years - memory should not be the reason you get a good uni grade!

So, I simply choose not to find unimportant things important. Individual battles, political decisions 100 years ago - thats incredibly unimportant. You could not believe the amount of these stories I heard from extremely old people in Portsmouth when I worked as a waiter on their quarterly meals remembering battles. Each battalion or something like that had societies and they seemed like people who hadn't gotten over the daze of that shining thing in their youth. Not in a bad way, they always seemed nice, but not in a gloried way either.

My point made above "Rich people forced poor people to die for some silly reason. Yet people seem to remember it for the countries rather than what it says about the role of ordinary people in society back then. Lets not assign the glamour of political direction to a tawdry business." maybe sounds trite, but its a far more important point than anything you remember as you seem to have missed the whole point with your focus on facts.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Unfortunately, Hitch's current media strategy is to have strong opinion on every subject known to man. The sad thing is it's working for him!

[Wombatman]

I don't read that as a politicised headline. The by-line even states 'as cases here soar by record'; which insinuates Europe is being perfectly sensible.

I'm sure you can find Mail or Express headlines to take offence at if that's what you really want to do.

Europe, and the French in particular, will be framed for Boris's shitshow, using a backdrop of Brexit tension.

When you are walking through the station, or buying your wine gums in Spar, it's the headline that you see and absorb, often subconsciously.

Make no mistake, Europe being framed as the baddie here.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

A suggestion that UK exaggerated the new 'super-covid' in order to make it easier locking down for Christmas. Something which Germany have come out and said they think is the case - that new covid isn't actually all that new or bothersome.

[Kayroo]

My point made above "Rich people forced poor people to die for some silly reason. Yet people seem to remember it for the countries rather than what it says about the role of ordinary people in society back then. Lets not assign the glamour of political direction to a tawdry business." maybe sounds trite, but its a far more important point than anything you remember as you seem to have missed the whole point with your focus on facts.

You are struggling so hard here Hitch. Divorcing facts from opinion is the mantra of the bullshit artist.

Your opinion is a parsed opinion based on a marxist view of history from Eric Hobsbawm (for example). You're spouting the end result without understanding the underlying facts and realities. So your point is superficially intelligent but it entirely prevents you from understanding the point that you are making. It also stops you from being able to defend it. Or from understanding that your description isn't just applicable to WW1 its true of almost every war ever.

You can't tell if RDIII or I are missing the point because you clearly don't understand the point you're making or the broader point RDIII and I are making.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

You are struggling so hard here Hitch. Divorcing facts from opinion is the mantra of the bullshit artist.

Your opinion is a parsed opinion based on a marxist view of history from Eric Hobsbawm (for example). You're spouting the end result without understanding the underlying facts and realities. So your point is superficially intelligent but it entirely prevents you from understanding the point that you are making. It also stops you from being able to defend it. Or from understanding that your description isn't just applicable to WW1 its true of almost every war ever.

You can't tell if RDIII or I are missing the point because you clearly don't understand the point you're making or the broader point RDIII and I are making.

I mean, we all make choices about what we choose to learn. I feel I know about enough about a 100 year old war ('not much' is my definition of 'about enough'), while I know more than enough about e.g. the rising technological ability of China. Now my bet is that my knowledge about Chinese tech is far more relevant for the future than what got you an A for Junior Cert History. But thats just me being a lunatic.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Although maybe the purpose for you is not to accumulate knowledge for the purpose of understanding the future or the present, but rather you just want to accumulate knowledge about the past as a trophy. Every man should have a hobby. But I wouldn't overweight it as something important rather than merely interesting - and narrowly interesting at that.

[Wombatman]

A suggestion that UK exaggerated the new 'super-covid' in order to make it easier locking down for Christmas. Something which Germany have come out and said they think is the case - that new covid isn't actually all that new or bothersome.

Something going on there alright. Wouldn't put it bast Johnson's No. 10 to spin this for some kind of Brexit advantage.

From the independent

"A senior Government source said they expect the new strain has already arrived in Ireland. The source said cases of the new strain have been identified in Northern Ireland.

However, it is understood public health experts in Ireland are not as concerned about the new strain as their British counterparts.

“I wouldn’t second guess Public Health England but our people seem to be more of the view that there are lots of strains of the virus,” a source said..

[Kayroo]

I mean, we all make choices about what we choose to learn. I feel I know about enough about a 100 year old war ('not much' is my definition of 'about enough'), while I know more than enough about e.g. the rising technological ability of China. Now my bet is that my knowledge about Chinese tech is far more relevant for the future than what got you an A for Junior Cert History. But thats just me being a lunatic.

The First World War ended the long 19th century, destroying the imperial system that had dominated the world for 5 centuries. It precipitated the rise of the Soviet Union and the mass spread of marxism including inspiring the foundation of the Chinese Communist party in 1921. Mao's takeover of the party in 1927 thus lead to the revolution post WW2. The ideology and history of the party in China gives you a strong understanding of the developing chinese economic system, long term foreign policy objectives and strategies as well as likely responses to other major players. For example, I'd be surprised if you had much of an understanding of China's approach to naval development and why they see it as a strategic imperative. But if you'd read and understood naval history you'd be well placed to look into investment strategies based on the markets related to naval expansion in China.

But, you know, history isn't important. Just being able to rattle off a half-remembered quote from an article you skimmed once is enough. Probably good enough for an academic economist.

One of my undergraduate degrees is in history by the way. Junior Cert history is more your speed though.

[Hectorjelly]

I mean, we all make choices about what we choose to learn. I feel I know about enough about a 100 year old war ('not much' is my definition of 'about enough'), while I know more than enough about e.g. the rising technological ability of China. Now my bet is that my knowledge about Chinese tech is far more relevant for the future than what got you an A for Junior Cert History. But thats just me being a lunatic.

There's no problem with you not knowing much about WW1 - the problem is making a claim that is completely incorrect, and then instead of backing down and accepting you were wrong attempting to turn the discussion onto two or three completely unrelated areas.

[Kayroo]

Although maybe the purpose for you is not to accumulate knowledge for the purpose of understanding the future or the present, but rather you just want to accumulate knowledge about the past as a trophy. Every man should have a hobby. But I wouldn't overweight it as something important rather than merely interesting - and narrowly interesting at that.

You made a statement that was totally incorrect. Just flat out wrong. And you don't need to have read history books to know it was wrong, just have watched a movie in the last 20 years. But when that was pointed out you decide to have a pop at the study of history before humblebragging about your expertise on the developing technologies in China.

As it happens I know next to nothing about Chinese R&D but I don't go around making grand pronouncements about it either.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

You made a statement that was totally incorrect. Just flat out wrong. And you don't need to have read history books to know it was wrong, just have watched a movie in the last 20 years. But when that was pointed out you decide to have a pop at the study of history before humblebragging about your expertise on the developing technologies in China.

As it happens I know next to nothing about Chinese R&D but I don't go around making grand pronouncements about it either.

I hate to bring up our old friend Mrs Merrium and Mr Webster, but thats not what humblebragging is. Bragging maybe if you wish to view it as such, but humblebragging means something different.

[Wombatman]

I hate to bring up our old friend Mrs Merrium and Mr Webster, but thats not what humblebragging is. Bragging maybe if you wish to view it as such, but humblebragging means something different.

Merriam, not Merrium

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

There's no problem with you not knowing much about WW1 - the problem is making a claim that is completely incorrect, and then instead of backing down and accepting you were wrong attempting to turn the discussion onto two or three completely unrelated areas.

My opening post was:

We're keeping the youngest at home next week so as to minimise the potential for disease carrying. The eldest was already staying at home as there is distance learning for them to facilitate half the school wanting to go to France for the Christmas vacations. Something which seems so monumentally stupid that only the french could think of doing it. I have mental images of the french jumping into german bullets during the world wars and then wondering how they lost.

If the key takeaway ye both took from that is that the intent of that post is to make a wrong claim about how the french acted during world war 1, then consider me chastened. I'll ignore all those doubting voices in my head that are telling me that wasn't the point of the post at all. viva la revolution as the French used to say during the war.

[Kayroo]

I hate to bring up our old friend Mrs Merrium and Mr Webster, but thats not what humblebragging is. Bragging maybe if you wish to view it as such, but humblebragging means something different.

This is not the zinger you wanted it to be. Also, I don't use American dictionaries and certainly not ones where you misgender both Merriams and mis-spell their surname. The plural of Mr. is Messrs.

[Solksjaer!]

We interrupt this pissing competition to bring you something EPIC

[Kayroo]

My opening post was:

If the key takeaway ye both took from that is that the intent of that post is to make a wrong claim about how the french acted during world war 1, then consider me chastened. I'll ignore all those doubting voices in my head that are telling me that wasn't the point of the post at all. viva la revolution as the French used to say during the war.

You also claimed French people don't rate their involvement in the 2 wars "apart from the offering of beaches". Which ignores basically all of one war and most, if not all, of the more recent one. That's actually the more insane claim you made.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

The plural of Mr. is Messrs.

I doubt that very much.

I mean I don't doubt that your dictionary told you that, but I doubt that anyone except legal folk when addressing multiple men use the form of Messrs anymore.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

You also claimed French people don't rate their involvement in the 2 wars "apart from the offering of beaches". Which ignores basically all of one war and most, if not all, of the more recent one. That's actually the more insane claim you made.

This is just getting pedantic now. 'offering of beaches' is well-known in French society to be a humblebragging phrase for their much more comprehensive involvement in winning whichever war we are talking about. Its now even entered common usage. You see it when you call around to people's houses and they serve you an eight course meal and they bat off your compliments with 'ah zuut alors, i just offer you ze beeaches'

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I doubt that very much.

I mean I don't doubt that your dictionary told you that, but I doubt that anyone except legal folk when addressing multiple men use the form of Messrs anymore.

Kayroos silence, for the interested reader, is probably due to him going off to google for evidence that Messrs is used and finding he is sadly the last user of the form of address.

[Kayroo]

Calm down Hitch. You were wrong. It’s ok to be wrong. Chill the f*ck out.

[Guest]

[ArmaniJeans]

Disappointing none of the UK papers went with a 'continent cut off' headline.

[DeadParrot]

Dig up Hitch.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Messrs Maguires. That was one. Did that turn into the Porterhouse business, or they were unrelated?

[DeadParrot]

Some scenes on sky news atm.
Sainsburys warning of fruit and veg shortages
Miles of traffic in Dover
£33bn dropped off FTSE

Brexit is going to run through them like a knife through butter.
The geopolitical ramifications are pretty far reaching.

This Hitch, is history in the making.
If it doesn't repeat itself, it certainly rhymes.

[oleras]

We interrupt this pissing competition to bring you something EPIC

You should look for Ma Raineys Black Bottom on Netflix, very good film, a bit about her life but more focused on her band, very enjoyable watch.

[Raoul Duke III]

There are seven magpies in the tree outside the back door, all watching me with unnerving intent.

Feels like a metaphor for 2020.

[Raoul Duke III]

This Hitch, is history in the making.
If it doesn't repeat itself, it certainly rhymes.

As a wise person once said when asked why history is important:

"If you don't know where you came from, then how can you know where you're going?"

History is the story of humanity.

[Wombatman]

There are seven magpies in the tree outside the back door, all watching me with unnerving intent.

Feels like a metaphor for 2020.

The only thing I'm superstitious about.......

One for sorrow, Two for joy,
Three for a girl, Four for a boy,
Five for silver, Six for gold,

Seven for a story yet to be told.

[DeadParrot]

The only thing I'm superstitious about.......

One for sorrow, Two for joy,
Three for a girl, Four for a boy,
Five for silver, Six for gold,

Seven for a story yet to be told.

congratulations Mrs RDIII

[ArmaniJeans]

"Seven for a secret never to be told", shirley?

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

This Hitch, is history in the making.
If it doesn't repeat itself, it certainly rhymes.

I just think these old wars tend to be a fetish that leads to odd archaic views (witness how RDIII views Russia as a living Le Carre novel and how Kayroo likes rattling off old battle names) of the world rather than act a useful input. The strokes are so broad that any lessons that can be learnt can be easily upsurped by just talking to people. Like I don't agree that an in depth study of 1916 would inform you more about Ireland compared to talking to actual Irish people right now. And it would also give you some pretty wrong takes. So its of very limited usefulness.

I do understand the importance of history. Just directly relevant history and thought about in the right way. For example here (there's a recording there, I'm about five minutes in, I accept no criticism for my awful presentation style!) was a recent talk given on new research looking at the idea of infodemics - a new idea (largely coined by WHO in February) of how news coverage can create its own form of major event. Brexit is one of the events we show to be relatively unimportant, but rather it seems to be part of a chain of related stories. With the right types of testing, the only notable news events of international significance are probably the Gulf War, Global Financial Crisis, and maybe the original bird flu and definitely new corona. In this particular case brexit just seems to be of historic importance. But to take your three specific points:

Miles of traffic in Dover

this seems more of an indication of the smartness of your average brit truckdriver that they would turn up to a shut port

£33bn dropped off FTSE

so the market has only risen 20% in the last two months rather than 23%? I cannot imagine the chaos in billionaire portfolios, the poor guys.

Sainsburys warning of fruit and veg shortages

the brits don't eat vegetables and only eat fruit in the form of Rowntree Fruit Pastilles

[DeadParrot]

this seems more of an indication of the smartness of your average brit truckdriver that they would turn up to a shut port
Not British truckdrivers, these are european drivers returning to the continent after delivering food. They can't get out and nothing can get in.
Whilst this is a covid related issue, it serves as a pretty sharp reminder to what will be the new normal for the UK in the new year.

so the market has only risen 20% in the last two months rather than 23%? I cannot imagine the chaos in billionaire portfolios, the poor guys.
I don't pretend to be an expert in the markets, far from it but my understand is that stability and trust in institutions are driving factors in prices?




the brits don't eat vegetables and only eat fruit in the form of Rowntree Fruit Pastilles
This is just lazy. Stupidly so.

Your point that Brexit just seems important strikes me as wildly inaccurate but I guess will be proven or disproven over the passage of time.
Just in time delivery and the availabiliity fresh fucking food are pretty important in the well being of an economy.

[DeadParrot]

"Seven for a secret never to be told", shirley?

Once, again congratulations Mrs RDIII

SPOILER

Cxj9Qgpl.jpg

[Solksjaer!]

You should look for Ma Raineys Black Bottom on Netflix, very good film, a bit about her life but more focused on her band, very enjoyable watch.

Thanks . I shall do this very thing

[Solksjaer!]

"Seven for a secret never to be told", shirley?

According to my childhood afternoons you are correct

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Your point that Brexit just seems important strikes me as wildly inaccurate but I guess will be proven or disproven over the passage of time.
Just in time delivery and the availabiliity fresh fucking food are pretty important in the well being of an economy.

Its an example of something rather than something itself - its an example of the global trend of deglobalisation. This brilliant report by the US National Intelligence Council summarises it well - that we are moving towards 'islands' of separated ideas away from shared agreements - on things like the merits of globalisation. for example.

Its an important perspective. When you think an event is important in and of itself - brexit, even WWI - you lose track of the underlying movement of ideologies that are causing these events. Like the difference between predicting erupting volcanos and predicting plate tectonics.

This was one of the points of Taleb. All this focus on news makes you think *it* is important - the specific thing you are watching. So therefore you think brexit is particularly important. Its just not. But the underlying trends are. But these trends have a decay function - the more recent the better. Last years trends tend to repeat quite closely this year. Last generations trends tend to repeat quite loosely this generation. The further back you go the less the relevance.

As I said in the post above this. Do you honestly think you could learn something better about current Ireland better by studying 1916 compared to actually talking to current Irish people. Thats the fallacy of these people obsessed with long fought battles.

[Guest]

I don't have much time for Taleb any more. It's a lot of superlatives and conflated language with not much substance.

That said, his underlying point of "If it's important enough, you'll hear about it" is a pretty good rule of thumb for general media consumption

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I don't have much time for Taleb any more. It's a lot of superlatives and conflated language with not much substance.

That said, his underlying point of "If it's important enough, you'll hear about it" is a pretty good rule of thumb for general media consumption

Yeah. I think we can reasonably separate his clearly flawed personality and how much sense he made in that black swans book.

[Raoul Duke III]

Hmmm, not lunch in The Greenhouse as I misheard but rather the Green Hen.

May be overdressed.

[Wombatman]

I don't have much time for Taleb any more. It's a lot of superlatives and conflated language with not much substance.

That said, his underlying point of "If it's important enough, you'll hear about it" is a pretty good rule of thumb for general media consumption

Yes, but the problem is all the other trivial, often misleading, noise. Without a decent filter, the important stuff gets lost.

A good filter, in our information age, is critical to success, health and happiness.