News Thread 2

Another thread about the terrible planet we live on and the things that happen within it.

Post about the news below!

I'd rather we just didn't.

Also, I never bit my tongue which used to get me in trouble on the reg, so y'all are cowards

JayMoyles wrote:

Another thread about the terrible planet we live on

See! This is why we're justified destroying it! PRAISE GLOBAL WARMING!

Snow and storms in March are becoming a common thing over in my neck of the woods, alarmingly.

So the news got bad at the back end of last week. News so bad it made Brexit look good, for crying out loud. Fortunately there was Egg Boy.

Athrun will be familiar with Fraser Anning. He blamed Muslims for the attack in New Zealand on Muslims and that pretty much tells you all you need to know about him. Will Connolly egged the back of his head. Memes happened.

The bad news (because we needed more) is that Anning clouted the boy. The good news is that Will seems okay, and Australia's PM is suggesting legal action against Anning.

The world's a sorry mess. Let's at least enjoy it when idiots end up with literal egg on their faces.

Going out to vote for the European elections today - the only sign outside my polling station was an SNP sign. Now, I don't know if that's indicative of how little the general populace are deemed to care about these elections or if that's more that the SNP have a lock on my area but considering there's usually signs up for each of the major parties, I was a bit surprised. I suspect it could be the former though as the polling station was dead beyond the person handing out the ballots.

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That image isn't working for me, although I did find this:



I take no particular joy in her crying, or in her leaving.  Odds are we'll get someone even worse in her place.

We'll never see her and her party face any actual justice so I can at least enjoy that she isn't happy about it.

Today's tagline does of course ignore the subtleties of First Past The Post, a system about as subtle, effective, and well-directed as dropping an elephant on your house to squash the spider in your bath. Vote for whoever's most likely to beat the Tories in your area.

If you're actually voting for the Tories... well you don't get to make jokes about Trump lying for one thing.

If it's any consolation having a preference-based voting system doesn't stop the loonies from taking power. Heard about the fires in New South Wales? Over 600 homes destroyed, fires so insane it's actually crazy no firefighters have died fighting them (modern-day heroes those firefighters are), and smoke hazes in Sydney so bad the air is worse than China's. All at the start of the fire season (so basically this could all get worse, and there could be fires just as bad in other states over the next few months).

Our religious-loony prime ministers response? "I'm praying for you" and "everyone needs to calm down".

It's taken weeks for them to grudgingly give financial aid in the form of a paltry 11million dollars to keep the fire-planes in the air. Not bolster their forces, just maintain the measly eight planes already being used.

I don't even live in New South Wales (Australia's a big place, NSW might as well be another country with how far away it is from Adelaide), but seeing those comments left me absolutely furious. So much destruction, damage to public health, and that's what the arsewipe has to say? A pity we just had an election.

Honestly can we just dump democracy already and get Samaritan or the Sybil System to run everything? At this point a supercomputer AI optimising the planet is preferable.

Oh yes, it's amazing but true that you still have a worse PM than us. My condolences boss.

This might help take the edge off the recent news a tad.

I particularly like the discovery of a mushroom that recycles plastics!

Aw, that's good! I like that lots, good stuff Muss. The two positive stories about the Amazon are particularly welcome given Brazil at the moment.

Hey everyone! So they're moving the Coronavirus Plague Village to somewhere in Milton Keynes. It was nice knowing you all!

Yikes. Stay safe and healthy Jim!

Mind you, it could be worse. You could have to live in this world for a long time. Ha ha ha...

Milton Keynes, AKA Raccoon City, seemingly!

In all fairness all the straight lines would make it easy to program. Plus we have the delivery robots also. Suddenly everything is making sense...

It's honestly concerning seeing how world governments and the media are downplaying Coronavirus right now. "Stop panic buying!" they say as shelves get cleared out of essentials because, shockingly, shops don't generally keep stock for when every person in the nation decides to get a few extra supplies. "Keep going about in densely packed social settings!" they say, as if that isn't the single best way for viruses to spread.

China did this same nonsense, and the results speak for themselves.

I was going to say that Britain's media is being a bit more realistic, but... I don't really know! I've sort-of stopped paying attention to the news after the last election. Are we doomed or not? I watched a thing from 2 doctors that said "it's bad but it's not the apocalypse" if it helps (*record scratch* it didn't).

I think the government here will move to cancel large events and encourage working form home, but there's been good news in amongst the constant infection rate updates.

Here's a Guardian article about progress on a vaccine. The TL:Dr, we've mapped the virus genome and therefore labs across the world are experimenting with putting the genes for the spiky bits that latch onto human cells into inert viruses, allowing us to safely build up resistance to the virus. In theory, this is a new anti-viral technique.

The other thing I read today is that the virus is becoming less deadly. There are two strains of it according to Chinese researchers. 70% of people infected to date have the more severe one, but almost all of these people are in Wuhan. This strain is less transmissible because symptoms are more acute, and therefore you're not going to be out on the town spreading it around.

30% of cases are the milder strain, and this is the strain that is increasing in numbers. So if we do get widespread transmission of the disease in the west, ours will quite possibly be milder. And it's always worth remembering that even in Wuhan, the vast majority of people only had mild symptoms.

Jimbob wrote:

I was going to say that Britain's media is being a bit more realistic, but... I don't really know!

This doesn't sound right.

I'm torn on this one. I don't want to belittle the fears of anyone who's justifiably worried by a global pandemic, but I can't help comparing its relative severity to 'flu. Muss' post is a better take, I reckon.

The panic buying phenomenon has hit up here now - the toilet roll aisle was barren when I popped into the supermarket yesterday.

Countries are calling off their cricket matches. This is feeling real.

I'm only half-joking. I'm also working from home today as my company tests Coronavirus operational capabilities, so that might have something to do with it.

The company director has just emailed contingency plans that's basically said 'business as usual'! Which, for someone who works in a school, is just a bit dodgy. Day by day, I think there's a bit of inevitability that things will change though.