>>456281
Middle-class career academics on suicide watch at long last.

>>456290
What? How? Why?

>>456271
Further melding of man and machine.
Cyberpunk universe stuff.

>>456291

A lot of academic guff nowadays is already gibberish that sounds like it was written by GPT3. They won't be able to compete.

>>456294
Lorem ipsum generators didn't put Greek translators out of business I think they'll cope.

>>456160
Weirdly enough Hinge -- a dating app that markets itself as trying to promote itself as being the app where folks actually talk to one another before shagging -- has become more the place for casual sex over Tinder, at least in the experience of me and my pals.

>>456158
I think 70s are underrated because they were tacky and unstable, even though much of that tackiness is largely a sign of the rising living standards and increased social liberalism which we associate with the 1960s actually arriving on the doorsteps of ordinary people. The economic situation was far more mixed than it might seem - it was unstable and unsightly to have the bin men go on strike or for the power to cut out because the miners had the audacity to expect wages in line with the government's own pay policy, but living standards went up through the decade. That's a stark contrast to life since 2008, where things have stagnated but done so in a stable fashion.

But then, history is written and tastes are set by the people who did alright out of the 2010s and the 2020s, and a good chunk of them were there to remember the 70s, where they personally - or their parents - ran into such intolerable inconveniences as the government saying you can't take what would today be thousands of pounds out of the country for your holiday abroad. They've no reason to care about the real terms pay of a bin man, but the image of rubbish piling up in the street is so unsightly...

>>456171

I guess you could say that even though the 70s were a bit of a rubbish decade, there still wasn't all this craziness going on as we have today. Maybe it just seems to us like life was much more simple in a good way back then. I guess people in the 70s were probably saying that about the 1950s as well. But I'm pretty sure that the past few years have not been a time that people in the future will wish they could go back to.

>>456173

In every decade since the 1940s, things basically got better on average. Lots of shit things happened in the 1970s, but most people had a better life in 1979 than they did in 1969 - they had more money in their pocket, the stuff in the shops was better, more people had more civil rights and so on. Some people had their lives marred by deindustrialisation in that decade, but a much larger number of people saw a substantial improvement in their wages, got on the property ladder, took their first foreign holiday and so on. Pick a post-war decade and you'll see marked improvements in all sorts of areas of the lives of working people. That trend also broadly maps to the period between the start of the industrial revolution and the outbreak of the Great War, albeit on a slightly longer timespan.

The period since 2008 is the first major reversal of trend. Most people were no better off in 2019 than they were in 2009; people are definitely worse off in 2023 than they were in 2013. The reasons for that are complex and contested, but we can at least start by acknowledging that the wheels have in fact come off and this isn't just nostalgia.

Something happened in Britain at the end of the 2000s that put a hard brake on the usual march of progress; "voting in the Tories" is part of the answer, but only part. The Tories of today are unrecognisable compared to the Tories that won the election in 2010. Cameron was daft enough to call a referendum, but he campaigned to remain. I don't think anyone who voted for Cameron in 2010 imagined that we'd end up with Liz Truss in Downing Street, however briefly. The Tories didn't invent Jimmy Faragé.

The only pithy explanation I can give is that we've all gone a bit mad - like Germany's national madness of the 1930s, only in a quintessentially British way that is shit and ineffective and ultimately self-destructive. A certain section of the British public has hypnotised themselves into believing that nothing is going wrong, it definitely isn't the fault of the Tories or Brexit and actually these snowflakes could do with a bit of hardship to toughen them up. I never stole your shoes, you can't prove I stole your shoes and your shoes were uncomfortable.

In the 1990s, there was a magazine called Continuum that denied the existence of HIV. It ceased publication in 2001, because all of the staff had died of AIDS. I'm reminded of that magazine every time I see the front cover of The Daily Express.

>>456174

I don't think it's as much to do with our mass psychology as it is just the prevailing global headwinds and some rather unwise decisions in how to deal with the obstacles as they came up.

At the very fundamental level, I think we sort of bet on the wrong horse in becoming a more or less entirely service based economy. That was all well and good in the 80s and 90s, but what happened in the 2000s is something we, in fairness, probably couldn't have seen coming, but at the same time really should have taken steps to defend ourselves from. This might sound mad, but hear me out- The problems all started at roundabout the same time as the "on hold to someone in India who hardly speaks English" model of customer service became ubiquitous. Remember when you'd hear someone moan about that at least once a week?

We didn't account for the fact lots of services can also be imported and exported, and in the increasingly interconnected digital age we stepped into from the early 2000s and onwards, companies naturally went ahead and did just that. We are a big exporter of financial services, and we do quite well out of it; but the people in charge didn't see it coming that practically everything else can just be packed up and sent to India for much cheaper. It was one thing having the Niko Belic coming over to do the plumbing, but we were also haemorrhaging plenty of jobs to Mumbai and Delhi.

I think failing to put the brakes on, or at least install some kind of crumple zones and air bags, to deal with the impacts of globalisation when it really started to ramp up in the early 00's is what put us where we are today. The public could see and feel all this happening, and especially after 2008, they felt angry and cheated, but didn't know exactly where to direct that anger. Jim'll seized on that and directed it at Brexit; and meanwhile the establishment flopped around like a level 5 Magikarp, seemingly unable to muster any response other than "B-but th-that's racist! You're a big meanie!", which in retrospect it's amazing didn't work. But here we are.

Lads I've just had a BRILLIANT IDEA. I get a job as some form of tutor, teaching French or piano or something. The specifics aren't essential right now. It doesn't matter that I don't know these subjects myself. See, what I'd do is I would for example start taking piano lessons myself and what I'd do is I'd spend the next week teaching my pupils exactly what I was taught during my lesson. Pay for it once. Replicate it about six or seven times. The best investment out there.

>>455995

Not really a good idea. How are you going to handle sudden in-depth questions by pupils that go beyond that week's lesson, in a way that only somebody with profound knowledge could answer.

>>455996
They'll be small children, they probably won't know any better. I don't have to be good at piano, I just need to be a good teacher.

>>455997

You're sounding like a pound shop Jimmy Saville right there.

>>455995

Simpsons did it.

>>455936
Etsy is appraoching the way of ebay and amazon to being a general store front to all comers, and sod the buyer.

They've fast turned from a craft seller to allowing all and sundry. In some cases that's OK, someone who hires 2-3 people to make stuff should still fit in, I think. But it's also rife with drop-shippers and re-sellers now, people who would be right at home on ebay or amazon (and often are).

With some sluicing you can often work out if the seller is legit, but good luck ith that.

>>455936
I bought some wall hangings from Etsy, page said made in UK. Then a couple of days later I get an email saying they've been shipped from China, so it lied to me.

>>455939
I bought a gift for my cousin's bain that said it would be made and shipped from Portugal, but the seller immediately messaged and said "please don't cancel your order but I'm from Ukraine so it'll take a bit longer than Etsy said". I have noticed a few Ebay parcels being fulfilled by Amazon recently, which is disappointing.

I can go years without seeing Mark Bonnar in anything and then he seems to be in everything I watch for a while.

I've just put on Babestation for the first time since I was a teenlad to find some of the same women still working the late night chat circuit. That's a little bit off-putting.

>>455859

I'll see your Vorderman and raise you a Riley.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is it sexist to worry that ARE Rachel won't age well?

>>455861

Fuckssake. I need to stop drunk posting.

I was going to post the question "Is it sexy to worry that ARE Rachel won't age well?", and instead of using the spoiler tags for it, I used the yt tags.

So yeah. Honest question. I guess.

Rachel > Voiderman

2023 - No more Voidermans. Stop voiding yourselves.

Hope you all had a good new year lads.

I took a bit of sidenfadil, sidenfadil, whatever its called. The knock off viagra, because we'd been drinking and snorting all night, which usually puts me out of action as far as sex is concerned. Only had about a quarter of one pill, but I shagged the missus into a coma for about an hour and still woke up with a raging hard on this morning.

It's quite good.

Maybe I'll change my name to James James this year.

>>455632
Ah looks like one of them has crawled out of the woodwork. Calm down mate there aren't any fisherperson evangelist christian korean youtubers here to hurt you.

>>455632

He's not wrong though in that there are certain people in the Atheist movement who are blessed with a similar kind of zealotry as proselytising Christians or eskimos.

The problem is when people feel superior to everybody else because they think they are in possession of the only real truth. It's bad enough that some religious fanatics think that way, but outspoken atheists can be just as much insufferable cunts about it.

You lot need to have words with yourselves.

Am I doing it right?

>>455634

Being insufferable isn't the problem though. The human rights abuses and just general cultural regressiveness religion proselytises is a much greater evil than just being an edgelord who quotes Richard Dawkins. It's like with the environment lot. They're often tossers but that doesn't stop them being unequivocally right.

It annoys me that there's so much apologism for religion now, particularly in liberal and lefty circles, which appears to have come about purely and entirely as a contrarian response to the BRILLIANT fedora atheist stereotype, when it flagrantlyflies in the face of what their values should be. You see some real displays of cognitive dissonance where they're are banging the drum for women and LGBT rights and what have you, until Shamanism comes along and goes "but it's our culture lol, can't criticise us we're brown" and then they just have to shut up and look nervously at the floor.

>>455636

On the one hand you've got ISIS and Boko Haram, on the other you've got people being a bit snotty and arrogant on the internet. Swings and roundabouts innit.

>>455240
If only there was a way to shrink the size of the legs. Or to get one designed with an adjustable height.

>>455240
I have a standing desk - the lowest it goes is 58cm, my normal seating position. Anything sitting down can be difficult ergonomically, but I can totally recommend a height-adjustable/standing desk.

If you lack the mechanical aptitude to cut down a desk, Ikea do adjustable legs for their modular desk system that go down to 60cm. They're available for home delivery if you don't live near a store.

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/olov-leg-adjustable-white-10264302/

>>455244
Thanks this is really helpful

There is no one-size-fits-all table height. Nor does any chair fit every person, though [i]that[/[i] Hermann Milller model tries. Ikea does some really nice hand crank models to let you adjust yout height and posture, if you work at a desk from home get one. If your employer requries you to work from a desk and doesn't have any accommodation? Oof. Going up, sheafs of A4 under the table legs can help. But if they're hostile to you having a reasonable work environment, you'll have to weigh staying employed v.s. getting this fixed :(

Fat Stewart Lee, as acknowledged in his new iPlayer show Tornado, looks exactly like fat Jim Davidson. He doesn't acknowledge that but it's true.

I started crying because I love Rocco Botte so much just now.

>>454567

Fuck, now he's going to take twice as long to get to the joke because of his COPD. I can't wait 40 minutes.

There's a play on Radio 4 which is actually quite funny. Most unexpected.

>>454567
Stewart Lee and Jim Davidson are the same person.

Look, I'm not going to do it, but one of us needs to step up and make a new weekday thread, first thing Monday. Unless, I suppose, if Putin does use a nuclear device in Ukraine, then it's bang on point again.

>>454613
I'll do it if nobody else does. I'm thinking either hedgehogs, badgers, something else autumnal or Bamber Boozler.

>>454614
Might I suggest a photo of an antique radiator? It would look old and unused, but it would also be a radiator. Or you can use a different picture; van Gogh wasn't appreciated in his own time either.

>>454615

What if we make all our new thread pictures by AI generation.

>>454617

https://creator.nightcafe.studio

Today's pack of mozzarella sticks contained 13. Let the good times roll.

McDonald's missed a large fries off, so they re-did the entire order plus the fries they missed first time round. I am stuffed.

I went to Morrisons and someone had left their 5p off a litre of fuel voucher at the till, so thanks to that I've saved £1.05 when filling up my car.

I got two packs of Gruyère for the price of one because one of the labels stuck the packs together, and the packers presumably didn't have the time or the fucks to separate them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoFT2t5frWo

>>454404
What I wanna know is why you'd give the corgis to Andrew. Might as well give them to Rolf Harris. I'm going to call the RSPCA.

>>454405
Corgis are small dogs, and they say Andrew has a way with the little 'uns.

>>454406

>and they say Andrew has a way with the little 'uns

Maybe he likes dogging, too.




I'll get my coat.

>>454407

They'll be well groomed, at any rate.

>>454408

Let's just hope he won't screw the pooch then.

>>453160
That looks like a leaking over-oiled bit, but I don't your particular gun.

>>453161
Your local RFD will not ship you an air gun that way, but private sales you're only limited by what your chosen delivery services ToS are.

The RFD requirements say that it must be done in person, hence you get a rather bespoke service by those who do delivery (it's how I got pic attached) but outside of Scotland at least person to person you can do what you like.

>>453162
As far as I can tell PCPs are "don't ask don't tell". Most carriers have a ban on ammunition, but air gun pellets are tacitly permitted. Lead's heavy, so order in bulk if you can.

For lead free, I've had absolutely rubbish results with the plastic jacket excite pellets (H&N Sport's budget line) Apollo/Prometheus (wild fliers were the norm, more than 2" at 10m), but RWS was decent. YMMV, of course. For everyday plinking I still use exxcite econ :).

>>453162 you need to send pcp empty or they wont take and was private sale not rfd. could of been worse.

(A good day to you Sir!)

You know what's weird is you can buy a proper air rifle, you can buy a crossbow, you can buy a massive fuck off ninja sword, without any form of real legal barrier. But as soon as you want an airsoft rifle, it has to come in bright orange. Makes no sense.

The requirements to get one in normal colours are that you actually have to go and play 3 games at an airsoft game place for them to verify you. Fuck that, I can't be arsed. Nobody had to verify that I'm shooting rabbits or whatever when I bought my air rifle. Is there any way around it?

I ask because I fancy getting an airsoft replica AS VAL, for no other reason than because it's my favourite gun in Stalker. I'd also like to imagine that one day I'll get arrested for having a henry's of weed on me and the police will search my flat, then post my dangerous collection of offensive weapons on Facebook to make it look like they stopped some kind of super daft militant wog.

>>453176
Thank fuck for that, I was about to have an aneurysm reading these atrocious posts.

>>454230

>ITV rarely do anything besides forgettable fluff.

They occasionally commission a competent drama mini-series with some combination of actors you remember from other ITV drama mini-series.

>>454213
Harmony is a Therapist now.

https://www.oxfordhousetherapy.com/our-therapists-in-west-london/victoria-shalet

>>454243

We've definitely discussed this before. I think we came to the conclusion that booking a course of therapy just to gawp at someone you used to have a crush on is unethical.

If I remember rightly, Jet off of Gladiators now does something called "desk analysis", whatever that is.

>>454249
It's at least the fourth time we've discussed what Harmony is up to these days, to the best of my knowledge.

>>454250
It shows the level of attachment from back then I suppose.