[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

Mundane & Pointless Stuff I Must Share: The Off Topic Forum

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
Stahlseele
King
Posts: 5974
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:51 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Post by Stahlseele »

Duly noted.
Welcome, to IronHell.
Shrapnel wrote:
TFwiki wrote:Soon is the name of the region in the time-domain (familiar to all marketing departments, and to the moderators and staff of Fun Publications) which sees release of all BotCon news, club exclusives, and other fan desirables. Soon is when then will become now.

Peculiar properties of spacetime ensure that the perception of the magnitude of Soon is fluid and dependent, not on an individual's time-reference, but on spatial and cultural location. A marketer generally perceives Soon as a finite, known, yet unspeakable time-interval; to a fan, the interval appears greater, and may in fact approach the infinite, becoming Never. Once the interval has passed, however, a certain time-lensing effect seems to occur, and the time-interval becomes vanishingly small. We therefore see the strange result that the same fragment of spacetime may be observed, in quick succession, as Soon, Never, and All Too Quickly.
User avatar
deaddmwalking
Prince
Posts: 3459
Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 11:33 am

Post by deaddmwalking »

Koumei wrote:Mind you, given how said polls told us that Brexit wasn't going ahead and Trump also wasn't going to be a thing and for that matter that RMoney was going to beat Obama, they probably DO have a margin of error of something in the 60-70 range.
That's not really true. We want to believe that 70% probability means it is certain, but it really just means that 7 out of 10 times, it happens. That's still 3 times it doesn't. I'm pretty sure that if we ran Trump's election 3 times (and people knew how it went each time) he would have lost the other two. I think that people were confident enough in a Clinton victory that they overcompensated the other way - especially in trying to create a divided government.
Voss
Prince
Posts: 3912
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Voss »

Koumei wrote:Mind you, given how said polls told us that Brexit wasn't going ahead and Trump also wasn't going to be a thing and for that matter that RMoney was going to beat Obama, they probably DO have a margin of error of something in the 60-70 range.
Not really. Both of those votes were absurdly close- 2.1% more for Hillary, 3.7% for Brexit.
A 5% margin of error on the polls covers both of those results.
User avatar
Pixels
Knight
Posts: 430
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:06 pm

Post by Pixels »

In one of 538's recent podcasts, Nate Silver commented that he disliked telling people the odds when one side is in the ballpark of 85% likely. Their eyes see 85% and their brain thinks it's a sure thing, and that's intensely frustrating because it really really isn't.
User avatar
deaddmwalking
Prince
Posts: 3459
Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 11:33 am

Post by deaddmwalking »

My bosses forecast anything we call 70%+ as a sale. And that's crazy! They should forecast 70% of it (at best) but if you have three opportunities at 70% (say $100k, $50k, and $10k) odds are that you'll close two of them. If they count all three as 'sure things' you'd forecast $160k in revenue; if you forcecast at 70% you'd forcase $112k - but assuming you're equally likely to close 2 out of the three your real number is going to be either $150k; $110k; or $60k. Better hope you close the big one!
-This space intentionally left blank
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13871
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

deaddmwalking wrote:
Koumei wrote:Mind you, given how said polls told us that Brexit wasn't going ahead and Trump also wasn't going to be a thing and for that matter that RMoney was going to beat Obama, they probably DO have a margin of error of something in the 60-70 range.
That's not really true. We want to believe that 70% probability means it is certain, but it really just means that 7 out of 10 times, it happens. That's still 3 times it doesn't. I'm pretty sure that if we ran Trump's election 3 times (and people knew how it went each time) he would have lost the other two. I think that people were confident enough in a Clinton victory that they overcompensated the other way - especially in trying to create a divided government.
Pretty sure these weren't "I predict a 52% chance of X (but when I roll the percentile, we leave it in the hands of the cosmic RNG)" but were "52% of people indicated they were voting for X and as such, the further the results stray from this 52%, the worse my prediction is." Now yes, they were close enough that an acceptable margin of error is indeed "the results are flipped", but that doesn't reflect well on polls when their stats differ just enough from the final results as to not predict things.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Voss
Prince
Posts: 3912
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Voss »

So Zimbabwe seems to be suffering from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Coup.

Sure, the military has taken over and imprisoned the leader of the country, but apparently it can't officially be called a coup yet.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42004816
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

Just found out that my local water company openly admits to having sorcerers on staff.

Dowsing in 2017.

-Username17
User avatar
deaddmwalking
Prince
Posts: 3459
Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 11:33 am

Post by deaddmwalking »

Obviously magic isn't real, but if she's better than blind luck and claims it's due to magic that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't use her. Wasn't there a detective series where the guy pretended to be a psychic but he was just a normal detective - it was just a schtick to avoid making police feel like they were doing their job poorly?
hyzmarca
Prince
Posts: 3909
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

Post by hyzmarca »

deaddmwalking wrote:Obviously magic isn't real, but if she's better than blind luck and claims it's due to magic that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't use her. Wasn't there a detective series where the guy pretended to be a psychic but he was just a normal detective - it was just a schtick to avoid making police feel like they were doing their job poorly?
Psyche.

He was trained to notice small detailed his entire life by his obsessive cop father. When he called the police and told them who committed a high profile crime, which he deduced only from clues that were shown on television, they assumed that he was an accomplice and wouldn't belive him when he claimed that he had extremely astute observational skills. Then he claimed to have psychic powers in order to avoid prison, and got a consultant job out of it.
User avatar
Maj
Prince
Posts: 4705
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Shelton, Washington, USA

Post by Maj »

Minor correction: Psych. Because he was being honest about fooling people.
My son makes me laugh. Maybe he'll make you laugh, too.
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

Here we go again.

Russia's denials are basically like Nixon's denials. When Nixon went on TV to deny that the US was bombing Cambodia, you knew that the US was bombing Cambodia. When Russia denies that there was a nuclear accident, you know there was a nuclear accident.

-Username17
User avatar
erik
King
Posts: 5861
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by erik »

FrankTrollman wrote:Just found out that my local water company openly admits to having sorcerers on staff.

Dowsing in 2017.
Man, they're gonna get in trouble for breaking the masquerade.
hyzmarca
Prince
Posts: 3909
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

Post by hyzmarca »

erik wrote:
FrankTrollman wrote:Just found out that my local water company openly admits to having sorcerers on staff.

Dowsing in 2017.
Man, they're gonna get in trouble for breaking the masquerade.
It's linear magic, so there's no paradox.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13871
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

FrankTrollman wrote:When Russia denies that there was a nuclear accident, you know there was a nuclear accident.
To be fair, there might not have been an accident - Putin could have just had a whole heap of people he needed to assassinate.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Starmaker
Duke
Posts: 2402
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Redmonton
Contact:

Post by Starmaker »

The Russian Orthodox Church and the Investigative Committee (the top prosecution office) have launched an investigation into whether the execution of the royal family in 1918 was a Jewish ritual blood sacrifice sealing the Bolsheviks' deal with Satan. (They're convinced it was.)
Voss
Prince
Posts: 3912
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Voss »

What in the actual fuck?
More details, please. That kind of insanity needs more information
User avatar
Pixels
Knight
Posts: 430
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:06 pm

Post by Pixels »

Telegraph article on the subject. Or more directly from the horse's mouth, an RT article.
User avatar
tussock
Prince
Posts: 2937
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:28 am
Location: Online
Contact:

Post by tussock »

So the government is reviewing the known history of the deaths based on the bodies having been recently recovered, and is pointedly not looking into the "jews did it" theory while doing so.

And thus a branch of the church has decided to check the "jews did it" theory anyway, by another name so as not to be saying that shit out loud, on account of them Bolsheviks are totally into funny shaped buildings, which is totally spooky. Church people are ultimately very credulous, in that they happily believe stupid shit without evidence.

D&D was, after all, totally a satanic ritual, amirite? :rofl:
PC, SJW, anti-fascist, not being a dick, or working on it, he/him.
User avatar
Longes
Prince
Posts: 2867
Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2013 4:02 pm

Post by Longes »

This is actually the third time this investigation is happening, because ROC refuses to accept the results since they haven't been invited to participate in the investigation before. The first two times were in the 90s, when the USSR fell and it became possible to investigate the murder, and in 2007, when new remains were found.

Ritual murder theory is more or less Sympathetic Magic 101 with the idea that the evil bolshevik homojews killed the head of the state to destroy the state. It appeared among the monarchists almost immediately after the murder and has been bouncing around ever since. It is like the Kennedy Assassination of Russian conspiracy theorists (and some foreign ones) and crazy shit gets invented all the time. I don't much care what ROC is doing, but it's a shame that the investigative committee gets dragged into this.
Last edited by Longes on Thu Nov 30, 2017 9:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Starmaker
Duke
Posts: 2402
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Redmonton
Contact:

Post by Starmaker »

tussock wrote:So the government is reviewing the known history of the deaths based on the bodies having been recently recovered, and is pointedly not looking into the "jews did it" theory while doing so.
The Investigative Committee is. Putin may be a run of the mill kleptocrat, but there are plenty of full-blown Nazis. Off the top of my head: Mikhalkov (the movie and copyright parasite), Yakunin (former railway boss), Rogozin (DoD / aerospace leech), Kolokoltsev (Minister of the Interior, chief cop), Milov (head of security), Tokarev of Transneft, a bunch of them in the parliament including Milonov the ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-gay and Poklonskaya the tsar's heavenly bride, a number of pet oligarchs, Belykh (the ex-governor of the Kirov region, currently under investigation), Tkachyov (the ex-governor of the Krasnodar region who turned it into a Nazi state over 15 years), Kirienko (vice-head of the Presidential Administration, oversees two Nazi paramilitary orgs), Utkin (leader of Putin's private army) and of course Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee.

The church has been a Nazi org since its post-Soviet revival. It has no power of its own and is fully and illegally funded with tax and extortion money, so everything the church does has been pre-approved by Putin.

tl;dr tussock, you're a fucking idiot as always.
User avatar
nockermensch
Duke
Posts: 1898
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:11 pm
Location: Rio: the Janeiro

Post by nockermensch »

Starmaker wrote:The Russian Orthodox Church and the Investigative Committee (the top prosecution office) have launched an investigation into whether the execution of the royal family in 1918 was a Jewish ritual blood sacrifice sealing the Bolsheviks' deal with Satan. (They're convinced it was.)
That's it, guys: They're onto us. Contact your demon handler for further instructions.

On a more serious and somber note, in this current political climate a full rehabilitation of Nazism is quickly becoming "a terryfing possibility" instead of "Stormfront's wildest pipe dream". I already had Internet fights against morons calling FDR "the President who almost destroyed USA with Communism" and it's despairing that this bullshit can simply become an accepted "alternative fact" in a few more years of this massacring of Truth. Here's a proposed timeline:

a) Communism is LITERALLY SATAN (being pushed right now, as demonstrated)
b) Therefore, Fascists are like modern crusaders
c) The allies were tainted by evil (Keynes in England, FDR in America, RussiaLITERAL SATAN)
d) Decades of post-war prosperity and progress brought by equalitarian politics erased from public consciousness thanks to people who were alive them dying.
e) We need Nazism back because Jews Muslims Jews!

Fuck this bullshit.
@ @ Nockermensch
Koumei wrote:After all, in Firefox you keep tabs in your browser, but in SovietPutin's Russia, browser keeps tabs on you.
Mord wrote:Chromatic Wolves are massively under-CRed. Its "Dood to stone" spell-like is a TPK waiting to happen if you run into it before anyone in the party has Dance of Sack or Shield of Farts.
Voss
Prince
Posts: 3912
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Voss »

Pixels wrote:Telegraph article on the subject. Or more directly from the horse's mouth, an RT article.
Huh, thanks. That's both more and less weird than I expected.

It always gets me right here when churches are dismissing DNA evidence.
Post Reply