
DW seems a reasonable news 'station' generally.
Fiona Hill warns of renewed Russian assault on Kyiv | Conflict Zone

( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 2:33, Reply)

but who here hasn't had a Tikka Masala?
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 22:35, Reply)

Timmy and Terry on the radio. Sorry for the Facebook link
Bei Facebook anmelden
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:36, Reply)

— Link to tweet
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 19:29, Reply)

And think about leaving the... cardboard box
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 8:16, Reply)

( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:34, Reply)

I'm the kind of cyclist blokes iike Clarksn go on about. I go through red lights, up one way streets the wrong way, on the footpath if necessary. Road rules don't apply to me. Though I got more occasional abuse from other cyclists than drivers, at least in the uk and australia, brazil they dont give a fuck.
But I almost never block cars, and if I'm forced to i'll make damn sure they know what I'm doing in advance . To me, cyclist who do it when they could easily cycle on the left and let cars pass are the bigger pricks, though this bloke might have had one cone too many
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 0:40, Reply)

I'm seldom in a rush when I drive and I know I'll pass eventually. The problem is that I'm wary of cyclists and like any dumb ape I end up disliking things that frighten me, like the prospect of running over a cyclist who just happens to fall over in front of me.
As for red lights that's a dick move; if/when you end up killed it will be small consolation to the driver that you were in the wrong.
One-way streets? If you must. You're coming at me head on so I can easily see you and the right of way is never in question.
Footpaths are a no-brainer. I don't live in the city any more so the roads lack cycle lanes and the footpaths lack pedestrians. That's good for both of us.
As regards Clarkson I would say that uninsured drivers are bad enough, but every cyclist is an uninsured rider. If someone rides into the side of my car and caves in one of the doors I'll be lucky to get them to pay for it even if they don't scarper immediately. I find that inequality, compounded by the whole it-wasn't-my-fault-but-I-still-just-killed-someone thing a little... irksome.
tl;dr Cyclists: I'm sorry, but even with the best intentions bike never beats car. Consider that before you get on one.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 2:11, Reply)

But I'd contend that the amount of risk and riding within the rules can be mutually exclusive. I've ridden all my life through traffic in busy cities, and I consider myself a defensive aware rider who minimises risks where I can. Part of that "not impeding cars" means less reliance on them having to see you and adjust. As you are wary of bikes, likewise I treat cars as capable of unpredictable behaviour. It's that unpredictability that often results in accidents. As you said, car beats bike, so you can be within the rules and have the right of way, but if they car doesn't see it that way you'll be right and dead. I don't sail through reds oblivious. that would be stupid, but I read the traffic and if I can go I will, I don't feel bound by them.
As a philosophical argument. I don't think bikes enjoy the full protections of the highway code in the way cars do. And we probably wouldn't want to, as it's kind of cuntish to assert car like privileges. We travel at slower speeds (in theory), and cars can pass us without changing lanes. we don't have indicators, break lights, horns, don't pay road tax or pass a licence. So I don't feel bound by those rules like waiting at traffic lights with no other traffic.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 3:30, Reply)

Thinking you're at the arse end of some inequality because you drive a car really is quite odd.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 5:36, Reply)

like he's only blocking when it's not particularly safe to overtake (crossroad ahead, thin road & cars coming the other way), and comes a cropper when he moves in and signals that he car can overtake because there are no cars coming the other way.
The big swerve to the right is just before signalling - he's checking it is clear to overtake.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 12:56, Reply)

This guy though…
youtube.com/shorts/ORH4ttUKPZk
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 18:57, Reply)

Predictably, much drooling in the comments.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 20:37, Reply)

But I still want to know what magic has stopped all those cats from scratching his eyes out.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 2:22, Reply)

enhanced....
enhanced...
enhanced...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 22:11, Reply)

I just don't understand. You'd think it HAS to be a piss take,, but she's really playing the long game
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 17:46, Reply)

Joe Lycett defends himself after Qatar hypocrisy charge

( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 13:37, Reply)

I do hope he used his platform while there to stridently criticise their human rights abuses. I’m sure he did.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 14:27, Reply)

From Lycettt’s 2016 autobiography, Parsnips Buttered:
"I was performing stand-up in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Friends of mine had warned me about travelling to these countries, claiming that ‘they don’t like’, as one friend put it, ‘your lot’. The punishment for homosexuality in these countries is oft jail, the logic of which I’ve never understood. Oh, you like men? We’ll put you in a box with some’. Not exactly a punishment, lads!”
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 14:54, Reply)

It means someone can be a hypocrite and still right.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 15:03, Reply)

He is capable of being funny, but this particular whiny little bitch routine got very stale, very quickly.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 15:43, Reply)

But shredding £10,000* on social media during the height of a cost of living crisis was never going to go down well with anybody.
*He claims that he didn't actually shred the £10K and the wads of cash he filmed himself shredding were fakes. But it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this was more utterly short-sighted backtracking.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 16:07, Reply)

But then I swear the first time I saw Sarah Millican do a routine I thought she was funny. That must have been a dream though.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 16:20, Reply)

Apart from Eddie Izzard, and I'm not certain that he counts.
I also used to think that Joe Lycett was funny, but that's when I was confusing him with his less-smug doppelganger, Joe Cornish.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 16:26, Reply)

( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 17:03, Reply)

There's an ignore button if you find my contributions overly triggering.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 17:15, Reply)

He did go off the boil after that.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 19:21, Reply)

I say 'contemporary', must be 20+ years old now. Christ.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 19:31, Reply)

( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 19:49, Reply)

And if they call him out on it he says ".... doesnt mean I'm not right!"
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:10, Reply)

If he did that, they'd both be right.
Though, to do so, Beckham would have to address Qatar's homophobia directly rather than ignore it for money.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:56, Reply)

You can be a hypocrite in your actions without invalidating your ideas.
...and back to square 1.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 9:16, Reply)

Actions are more important, but the original point seemed to be suggesting that being a hypocrite on any level (in this case, 7 years ago) somehow invalidates what someone is saying.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 10:36, Reply)

I feel that the hypocrisy is problematic in this case due to the context of Lycett's 'ultimatum'.
Lycett wasn't saying "Qatar is bad, you shouldn't go there." after being there himself. He was telling Beckham that his standing as a gay icon (?) in the LGTB community would be tarnished by his support of the Qatar World Cup and that his involvement would ultimately prove damaging for the LGBT community.
Basically "If you care at all about LGBT rights, you shouldn't travel to Qatar for personal gain". Despite Lycett being a queer man that has travelled to Qatar for personal gain.
Mind you, I'm not really fussed that he's being a hypocrite. The whole stunt was a "LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME" routine, just like most of the boring cunt's output over the last few months.
It's a bit of a shame, really. I watched him in a Jonathan Ross interview last night and he (mostly) came across as charming and relatively likeable. It's just this low effort slacktivism that turns me off. 'Oh, look. You're a somewhat recognisable, left-leaning TV personality appearing on Sunday with LK pretending to be a right-wing Tory supporter'. Genius
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 10:54, Reply)

sold his liberal image (which he has built off the back of things like promotions in gay magazines) to help the government with the "sportswashing" of Qatar, via a ten year ambassadorship deal, not that people shouldn't travel there for any-old work.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 11:23, Reply)

That meme that says something like, "ahhh, but do you yourself not PARTICIPATE in the society to which you criticise?"
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 17:52, Reply)

"Socialists do not accept the idea that iPhones, notebooks and other modern amenities are products of “capitalism”."
Well socialists are just wrong then, at least on that one point. Those products (iPhones, notebooks), out of the many used in everyday modern life, are the exact sort of product produced by companies that operate under the structure of limited liability, shareholder funding, and many of the other structures that epitomise capitalism.
But anyway, that's nothing to do with Joe Lycett so carry on, eh.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 22:21, Reply)

( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 13:59, Reply)

but give him his due, one look at this place shows that he's clearly upsetting exactly the type of people he set out to wind up.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 19:06, Reply)

I could certainly see his absolutely hilarious appearance as a 'Truss Supporter' on Sunday with LK as an attempt at trolling, but I'm not exactly sure who his intended targets were with this one. FIFA? The Qataris?
TPFP is suggesting that the reaction to his stunt on b3ta shows that it was a success. In what way? Was this all just a ruse to make middle aged white blokes grumble about how much of a smug, sanctimonious cunt he is? Seems a bit of an odd demographic to target.
I had (wrongly, it seems) assumed that he was just joining the anti-Qatar bandwagon for a bit of attention or 'clout' as the young 'uns call it these days.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:10, Reply)

Like, who was he hoping to get a rise from (other than the folks like me that already thought he was a bit of a dull cunt, obvs)?
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:11, Reply)

as around about 70 countries where it's criminalised do, including most muslim countries. And mamy more don't allow gay marriage.
But it aint the only issue in town, and unless you want to hold the world cup in denmark every time, you're going to find something about the host countries laws, culture and recent history that you find wrong or objectionable. Though who knows? Probably PETA would call for a boycott of denmark because of their pork industry
So though I don't begrudge a gay bloke like lycett arcing up, I personally thinks its all a bit churlish and tokenistic to make all this fuss for a two week footy tournament, just while it's qatars brief time on the world stage, as the tea-towel heads don't often get many opportunities as they live in a sandblown wasteland.
And I also tend to think these kind of protests are mostly counterproductive, countries react to foreign protest by becoming more intransigent, rather than less. And cynical leaders the world over exploit this.
It's engagement, not protest that proves the moral superiority of our glorious western ways. The cold war didn't bring down the soviet union, it was blue jeans, rocknroll and openness and finally seeing how shit and backward they were in comparison that made their population fed up and undermined the once untouchable authority of the cunts in charge. Thats what's happening in Iran at the moment, and place like tunisia. it wasn't foriegner protest. That's my waffle
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 22:14, Reply)

qatar has heavily discriminatory laws against gays. It has 0% poverty among its citizens
Britain has liberalised its laws against gays in the last few decades, allowing gay marriage 8 years ago. It has the sixth largest economy in the world. n 2022 30% of British children now live in effective poverty, parents often having to choose between heating, food or clothing.
In human terms, which country has the greatest suffering as a result of its policies?
I wouldnt want to be a gay in qatar, knowing I could go to prison just for sucking a dick. But millions of children living in poverty for a rich country is a pretty big moral obscenity. Anyway, argument referencing moral equivalence, where you need to do some thinking and compare relative harms and effectiveness of actions are even less in favour than they have been. I only make them on b3ta, because most other places people get very upset if you stand between them and the target of their sanctimony. And unlike places like twitter, where people seem to be under the illusion their opinion counts, b3ta remains a delightful waste of time
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 23:08, Reply)

I've been re-reading the Draka series recently so I have to ask: "What about the serfs?".
I don't disagree with the rest, I just think we've both been smoking the same stuff tonight.
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 2:38, Reply)

I was careful to say citizens, a cop out I know. But even the foreign workers it's little more complex than it seems. Most of the exploitation comes from labour hire firms, who are almost exclusive south Asian run. They recruit in places like pakistan, and most of the documented abuses have come from them rather than qatari managed companies, though the qataris themselves certainly do little to enforce standards. These aren't people being kidnapped and forced into prostitutions. It's a long established foreign worker trade, and most pakistani workers do it with full knowledge of conditions, knowing that theyll still take home far more pay than what they could earn in their home countries. And if you've seen old women in india carting rocks all day in the hot sun, and for some reason that escapes me a lot of the road work is done by women there, you'll know work conditions and pay are not a step down in qatar.
so it's that moral equivalence, harms and consequences point again. yes it makes you feel bad, it would be nice if they got western style pay and conditions. but they could also not hire them at all, and those workers would stay on the subcontinent where half a billion people make less than a dollar a day and live in squalor. would that make your conscience feel better, or do you stop caring when it's not a foreign villian doing the exploiting? (by you I mean people who arc up about it, rather than you personally, jonbob)
( , Thu 22 Dec 2022, 3:53, Reply)

Rymdreglage have done another Legomation video (they did it last year, I've only just spotted it).
If you've not seen the first 8 Bit Trip, check it out, there's now a 4K version at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVnzMChFvDI
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 13:12, Reply)

Quick profile pic pun job. Not done one of these for years, but the fancy took me. (With apologies for my shit singing.)
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 12:41, Reply)

aka Hairy Frog. Nightmare stuff
'Horror frog' breaks own bones to produce claws

( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 10:46, Reply)

And where is the number pad?
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 10:43, Reply)

All this kind of RGB/decorative fuckery looks great when it's in a shop display, but becomes completely redundant once the computer is in your house where the only people who are going to see it on a regular basis are the inhabitants who will most likely tire of the novelty within a week or two.
Then there's the fact that you'll need to be able to touch type in order to get along with it (which I suspect is a skill lacked by a large proportion of the tossers that buy this crap).
Then there's keeping it clean. Unless you religiously wash your hands before sitting down at the PC, the keycaps are going to get absolutely manky in no time, not to mention all the hairs/spunk/crumbs that will fall down between the caps onto the 'screen'.
Bollocks.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 10:55, Reply)

Get the manchild basement-dwellers to pay for your R&D, patent the concept, license to anyone who needs a configurable touch screen with haptic feedback.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 11:18, Reply)

Russian keyboard that appeared a few years ago that in its final form was an lcd screen under the keys that the patent for lapsed in 2016 - this is just a newer version of it that as far as I am concerned will be just another over priced toy that somebody will simply smash to bits in a fit of rage playing GTA5 with modders..... or is that just me?
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 11:22, Reply)

Was supposed to have an OLED screen in every key as I recall. I think they might have released a three key version before it evaporated completely.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 11:33, Reply)

The way he makes the “glass” parts is genius if you ask me.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 0:35, Reply)

I imagine bum gall is pretty unpleasant whatever it is
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 10:30, Reply)

but Barbi Benton was in the Dec 1985 edition of Playboy. You don't forget something like that.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 10:23, Reply)

( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 11:27, Reply)

Trouble is that when it came to contract negotiations they lacked spine.
( , Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:33, Reply)
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