Random News not worthy of own thread

[RegisterMe]

RIP Emma Chambers ./sob

[Tracker001]

Internet Personas are the New Scapegoat for Society (Moral Panic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7p5IroBGcc


^
Interesting Take .

[Morkonan]

Internet Personas are the New Scapegoat for Society (Moral Panic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7p5IroBGcc


^
Interesting Take .

Watched some of it, but he rambles around more than I do...

He's a bit self-important. "Static" isn't quality discourse. If a "fringe" youtuber or writer gets banned from somewhere because they're "edgy" it's not because there's some great conspiracy against them. They could just suck or maybe in their quest to shout their relevance they did it badly and pissed off someone who has no mandate to provide a platform for them and decided that they.. wouldn't. /banhammer

There has always been an social and cultural effect that acts against the minority supporters of unpopular opinion. In places like the US, the government will not act to silence someone, no matter how unpopular their opinion. But, private companies and private businesses may act as they like.

Not sure who that guy is, but he comes off as being pretty full of himself. He's just another youtuber, blathering on, adding static, no matter if he says something interesting, now and then, or not. The interwebz is full of the background droning of inane activists and self-proclaimed champions. Occasionally, one of them gets tired of being "just another voice" and does something stupid in some attempt to gain more attention and gets booted from the private platform that they somehow thought they had some intrinsic right to use for their own purposes. (Youtube, forums, blogs, social media, etc... )

[Hank001]

Obvoiusly "famous for being famous". youTube took a bash for allowing content like the young chap broadcasting body in Japan's " Forest of Suicides" and they've been keeping an eye on content since that media firestorm. If they start acting like the now toothless "Standards and Practices" that used to police the airwaves and cable it's only their realizing that there are some things that aren't fit for general release. If that's censorship then it's their company and should say what and cannot be posted. Just as we cannot and should not post certain things on this site. So I say bravo for youTube. You're starting to take control of you're content.

[Bishop149]

So as I mention periodically I am a academic working for a British university.

And as you may have heard it appears my pension is under threat and there is a strike in effect in response, quite a large one it being in its third day with at least 3 more planned at the current time.
I haven't had time to delve into all the nitty gitty details of the pension change but even a cursory glance at them makes it pretty clear they are BAD. So this brings me to the reason for this post, I was thinking "You know what, this is a serious issue which may actually have a substantial impact on me, I should probably join the Union!"

So I looked into it. . . . . . annnnnnd it will cost me ~£30 a month to be a member. I expected it to be about a 6th of that. £30 a month would make it my third largest monthly outgoing after my mortgage and my council tax.
This strikes me as a little excessive, i mean more than ANY other bill, internet, electricty, gas, phone, Netflix, you name it! Is the protection I'd receive really worth that much!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still thinking about it. . . . . Unions are important things but the price tag is more that a little off-putting and might be why the Union is generally not well supported. In my lab of 40-50 people there are a total of 2 members. . . . . only one of whom is striking.

[Hank001]

In the states West Virginia teachers are on strike also. They have a union. Didn't do any good. From sad experience some unions are only in existance to collect dues, put an entry on you're CV and collective bargaining is needed, cave at first opportunity. Hang in there sir. Teachers everywhere are overworked and underpaid.

[Morkonan]

...Don't get me wrong, I'm still thinking about it. . . . . Unions are important things but the price tag is more that a little off-putting and might be why the Union is generally not well supported. In my lab of 40-50 people there are a total of 2 members. . . . . only one of whom is striking.

Would being a member of the Union give you the opportunity to take advantage of some collective bargaining deal for your pension that you wouldn't otherwise have access to? I agree that the cost seems prohibitive, especially long-term.

[burger1]

I've been to colleges that striked. The next year attendance dropped very low and a lot of the teachers got laid off. No one really benefited from it.

I also belonged to a couple unions over the years and 30 pounds (~53.12 cad dollars) is cheap.

[Tracker001]

Watched some of it, but he rambles around more than I do...

He's a bit self-important. "Static" isn't quality discourse. If a "fringe"

Oh ya he came across that way to me also , but many people come across that way also but not so much as to be smug imop. Including you Mork (No dispariging Intended just my opinion) but I still read your postings because most are an interesting angle on subject "X" . Though sometimes long winded

You only watch a portain ? That's to bad you only got part of the information .
He does make the point about the so called "Main Stream Media" push back towards the On line independent news sources , as On-line is acctualy cutting into the Mains position of being the only source of information and causeing the every day Tom Dick and Mary to look at more outlets and directly Question in thier face the Big Guys .

[BugMeister]

RIP Emma Chambers ./sob

- lovely person, great actress..
- she'll be missed by millions..
- so sad..

[Morkonan]

Watched some of it, but he rambles around more than I do...

He's a bit self-important. "Static" isn't quality discourse. If a "fringe"

Oh ya he came across that way to me also , but many people come across that way also but not so much as to be smug imop. Including you Mork (No dispariging Intended just my opinion) but I still read your postings because most are an interesting angle on subject "X" . Though sometimes long winded

LOL! Of course I do! It's just my style of writing, which is generally forceful and argumentative. No "argumentative" in trying to provoke an "argument," but in that it seeks to present a point and to aggressively support it. Why? If something knocks down a strong argument, then it's better... and shows that I need to adopt a different opinion! An unchallenged opinion is worth nothing. So, if I present a strong case and it gets shot down, then I adopt the winning case. (I'm really pretty unassuming IRL and one of those "nice guys" you always hear about, but rarely see anywhere. )

.. He does make the point about the so called "Main Stream Media" push back towards the On line independent news sources , as On-line is acctualy cutting into the Mains position of being the only source of information and causeing the every day Tom Dick and Mary to look at more outlets and directly Question in thier face the Big Guys .

I saw that bit. (I skipped about, listening to key points, moving to another bit, listening for new arguments, moving on if there weren't any, trying to skip past the "I am part of those free-thinking edgy people that THE MAN feels threatened by" junk.)

Everyone wants as much revenue from their target audience as possible, including "The Man." When that revenue isn't threatened, most of those looking for it won't care. For those attempting political influence, they want as broad of a market as possible. In fact, they're going to treat their target audience exactly like someone who was only interested in gaining some revenue, sales, or pagehits from them. IOW - They will cater to that audience and seek to attract the widest possible audience.

If someone is looking to gain an audience for their "edgy" commentary, then they need to choose the appropriate platform. If their host doesn't like their content, they should expect to no longer be hosted by that host.

Big Media doesn't care what popular, edgy, neckbeards have to say unless it effects their earnings. And, if the confrontational neckbeards want to get in a war with Big Media, they had better pick the battleground. (ie: One that supports their sort of content.)

I'm often surprised that some "personalities" feel they have some sort of exclusive privilege to say and do as they wish on media and social sites that they, themselves, do not own. It doesn't matter if they're saying things that are agreeable, like "save the puppies" or things that are controversial, like "stomp on kittens" - If it's someone else's house, they don't have a right to yell in it.

All in all, people make a bit much out of social-media personalities. Most of the time, they're saying stupid crap and the only insight they have is how to gain pagehits, which their hosts love, since it increases their ad revenue...

"Valuable" personalities aren't censored or banned. Logan Paul is still jabbering away inane crap, like he's "somebody", even though he purposefully filmed a corpse and did quite a few other things of questionable morality. He didn't get banned for "being edgy" because he makes $$$ by dancing in front of crowds of mouthbreathers who love his quircky antics. Fifty-years from now, nobody will be quoting a darn thing he ever said about anything.

[Santi]

@Bishop149

Depends, if you want to go on strike for your pensions rights, then join the Union, as legal support for £30 a month is a steal, handy if your employer gets funny about it. On the other hand, because only 2 people is in the Union, the leverage is way down, so the company is calling the shots.

Way to go is to get more people into joining the Union. Strength in numbers.

[Morkonan]

The hierarchy of conspiracy theorists...

https://imgur.com/gallery/iKxSd

(Long ago, I used to run around the 'net, jumping into various conspiracy theory circles, debunking (where warranted) and having delightful arguments with certain notables and proponents. Why? I dunno, was bored I guess. BUT THIS has stuff I've never heard of! ZOMGZ! I gotta look some of these things up! TO TEH BAT CAVE!)

[felter]

Never know where to post these type of things, so I'm just going to throw it in here even though it is not news.

Anyway it's not when Harry met Sally but more, when Patrick Stewart met Sting.

[Morkonan]

Never know where to post these type of things, so I'm just going to throw it in here even though it is not news.

Anyway it's not when Harry met Sally but more, when Patrick Stewart met Sting.

That was awesome! LOL Thanks!

[Tracker001]

Cern Project Puma

...Antimatter vanishes instantly when it meets matter. But researchers have developed ways to trap it and increase its lifespan in order to use it to study matter. A new project called PUMA (antiProton Unstable Matter Annihilation) aims to trap a record one billion antiprotons at CERN’s GBAR experiment at the ELENA facility and keep them for several weeks.
..Such a long storage time would allow the trapped antiprotons to be loaded into a van and transported to the neighbouring ISOLDE ion-beam facility located a few hundred metres away. At ISOLDE, the antiprotons would then be collided with radioactive ions so that exotic nuclear phenomena could be studied.

https://home.cern/about/updates/2018/03 ... nsportable

If the area where the LHC is located suddenly goes poof ,we'll know why .

PS: I wonder if computer operating systems have an auto reset for time dialation like they have for Day-Light savings ?

[Hank001]

Hey, with all the negitivity in the world why would anyone want anti-protons? Makes me wonder if they'll set there in their magnetic bottle holding up little picket signs; Annihilate Protons Now!

[brucewarren]

You don't like Aunty's Proton?



Well maybe it does have too many miles on the clock. She drives everywhere in that thing

Interesting article. A billion of them is both a very big number and a very small number at the same time. It's big in the sense that those things are notoriously hard to collect, but it's small when you consider how many atoms you would expect to find in a bad of sugar.

[Hank001]

Ouch! Okay...thanks I needed that. No I'd say your dear Aunty's Proton is safe from annihilation for the moment...(usually measured in picoseconds).

[Morkonan]

You don't like Aunty's Proton?

...

Whoever decided "baby-puke" green should be a "color".... Well, they should be fired.