Not new, but here is James O’Brien going so far down the trans rights rabbit hole that he’s berating a woman for not wanting men to be getting changed in the next cubicle to her
He is a raving lunatic
James O'Brien criticises female caller and says she should feel comfortable getting changed in the same changing room as him.
When we go to Centerparcs we use the mixed sex "family" changing rooms. We go into a cubicle to get changed, someone else male and/or female or typically both will be in the neighbouring cubicles.
So long as the cubicles are private, what difference does it make?
I would have thought quite a few women would feel uncomfortable half naked being separated only by a curtain in a changing room from some random bloke. The Center Parcs changing rooms have locks on them
I went to Center Parcs with an extended family group of my inlaws ast week. "Welcome to Center parc's!" the chalkboard in the villa cheerily announced. My wife quietly removed the apostrophe. But I was delighted that during the first night other anonymous hands had reverased the fifth and sixth letters of 'Center', and, later, changed the "c" of 'parcs' to a k. Never felt more at home in the family I married into.
What deal did you get on the mortgage you took out to pay for it?
My mother-in-law was paying for it. At least, paying for it for her children and their families. In a you-can't-take-it-with-you gesture.
Now, I have multiple issues with Centerparcs beyond the spelling. It is a) horribly expensive to stay there, and then b) you are further gouged for activities at every opportunity, c) it is crowded, and most of all d) you are largely restricted to a plot of about one square mile for the duration of your holiday, without even views of the outside world (though here I subverted the system by taking my hire bike for a tour of North Nottinghamshire - I felt like Patrick McGoohan in the Prisoner as I left, half expecting large white globes to come bouncing after me to take me back.) Oh, and e) what sort of maniac plans their holiday in day-by-day activities two months in advance? But you have to, because otherwise everything is booked up. BUT it was a great few days. An extended family of 27 - three siblings and their respective spouses and children and children-in-law and grandchildren, plus one unrelated interloper. Had we tried to arrange that, we'd have failed - we'd have never found a house for 28 and a weekend we could all do. But my M-i-L arranged it for her bit of the family, and others just opted in - and because it was in Nottinghamshire it was as accessible to the Northumberland contingent as it was to the North London contingent and to everyone in between. It was wonderful - our extended family has essentially produced a child every 18 months for the last 14 years; and kids slotted in happily with half-remembered second cousins. I grew up without siblings or cousins and never met my second cousins until well into adulthood. It was fine - I was in no way deprived - but I always felt popular images of family were lying to me somewhat. So being part of this massive family was brilliant. We played crazy golf. We did the table tennis game where you run round the table in a big circle. We had quizzes. We did badminton tournaments. Brilliant, it was. Challenging to feed a group of 28 in a lodge designed for 6, mind you.
Our family always say creating memories was one of their most special parts of being young
Some families believe creating nightmares was one of the most special parts of being young
Zerohedge. Oh that takes me back to the GFC where some of the end of the world scenarios came close to coming true. More than a decade of complete nonsense since, of course.
This is being reported SEVERALLY
I suspect a widening of the war is imminent. Greetings, by the way
"#Israel is facing the threat of imminent attack, directly from Iran and in combination with coordinated attacks by Hezbollah, Houthis & Iranian proxies in Syria & Iraq
Biden must stop the harsh criticism of the only pro-American democracy in the region & make clear the U.S.…"
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq seems to be giving it some too, including by attacking Israeli installations in Haifa with drones.
I don't understand why this isn't reported more widely. This infernal war is about to expand
It is odd. I posted about this a couple of hours ago. The US President tonight has warned of an impending attack by Iran on Israel and has warned them against. This has been briefed to intelligence correspondents for several days. “Sources” to the White House say they don’t rule out joining any retaliatory strike on Iran.
It reminds me of autumn 2021 when Americans at work were asking me incredulously why I thought Russia was about to invade Ukraine. “Errrr…. Because your president (and the British foreign office) have said so?”.
Why would the Israeli's target an embassy? No doubt Iran's been up to no good in the region but embassies are national territory and almost forces the Iranians to respond.
I'm not sure Netanyahu is acting in good sense in maybe trying to drag America into another middle eastern war. And one with such global consequences.
I speak not of who started what and who has good sense. It’s just striking dipping in and out of this place that no one seems to have mentioned what the US President and other Gang of 8 have said tonight, nor noted the reports that Tehran’s airspace has been effectively closed to civilian traffic.
I believe the air space stuff is not true, at least planes are still landing in Tehran. But yes it seems like everyone either believes the Iranians are going to do it or that they can stop them by proclaiming preparedness, 'iron clad support' and so on.
In the 21st century watching civil air traffic online is a about as good a signal as the average Joe can get that something is up.
Completely normal air traffic over Iran, according to flightradar24
If Iran is stupid enough to attack Israel, then Israel should utterly destroy them.
Good riddance to the Iranian leadership if they do. Regime change in Iran would be a good thing.
I don't think even the Mullahs are that stupid though.
There's no problem in the world that can't be solved by either extreme violence or economic deregulation is there?
Of course there is, but when it comes to standing up to bullies and the violent then yes violence back is often necessary.
If you read my line carefully you'd have noticed the first word which is critical, I didn't advocate attacking Iran unprovoked (others might), but rather if Iran does attack then they should be destroyed.
Washington needs to take out Netanyahu. Not Tehran
The world is close to being immolated for the career of one Israeli politician. Enough
Amazing how it's always the fault of the Jew, isn't it?
Yes, Netanyahu is doing the wrong things and making the situation worse: but he is not doing so in a vacuum. He is responding to an horrific attack on his country.
Others share as much, if not more, blame for the current situation as Netanyahu. Some of those are in Iran.
This story is pretty wild. I’m disappointed PB’s roving correspondent missed it entirely in his recent visit.
Truong My Lan: Vietnamese billionaire accused in multi-billion dollar bank fraud https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68778636 It is the most spectacular trial ever held in Vietnam, befitting one of the greatest bank frauds the world has ever seen. Behind the stately yellow portico of the colonial-era courthouse in Ho Chi Minh City, a 67-year-old property developer stands accused of looting one of Vietnam's largest banks over a period of 11 years. The numbers involved are dizzying. Truong My Lan is charged with taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. Prosecutors say $27bn may never be recovered. The habitually secretive communist authorities have been uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They say they have summoned 2,700 people to testify. There are 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers involved. The evidence is in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes. Eighty-five defendants are on trial with Truong My Lan, who denies the charges. She and 13 others face a possible death sentence. "There has never been a show trial like this, I think, in the communist era," says David Brown, a retired US State Department official with long experience in Vietnam. "There has certainly been nothing on this scale." The trial is the most dramatic chapter so far in the "Blazing Furnaces" anti-corruption campaign led by the Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong...
… The mass of officially-sanctioned publicity about the case has channelled public anger over corruption against Truong My Lan, whose haggard, unmade-up appearance in court has been in stark contrast to the glamorous publicity photos people have seen of her in the past. But questions are also being asked about why she was able to keep on with the alleged fraud for so long.
"I am puzzled," says Le Hong Hiep who runs the Vietnam Studies Programme at the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. "Because it wasn't a secret. It was well known in the market that Truong My Lan and her Van Thinh Phat group were using SCB as their own piggy bank to fund the mass acquisition of real estate in the most prime locations. "It was obvious that she had to get the money from somewhere. But then it is such a common practice. SCB is not the only bank that is used like this. So perhaps the government lost sight because there are so many similar cases in the market."..
If Iran is stupid enough to attack Israel, then Israel should utterly destroy them.
Good riddance to the Iranian leadership if they do. Regime change in Iran would be a good thing.
I don't think even the Mullahs are that stupid though.
There's no problem in the world that can't be solved by either extreme violence or economic deregulation is there?
Of course there is, but when it comes to standing up to bullies and the violent then yes violence back is often necessary.
If you read my line carefully you'd have noticed the first word which is critical, I didn't advocate attacking Iran unprovoked (others might), but rather if Iran does attack then they should be destroyed.
How will they destroy Iran given they have still not destroyed Hamas after six months of occupation of a small strip of land a few miles wide and a few miles long ?
Zerohedge. Oh that takes me back to the GFC where some of the end of the world scenarios came close to coming true. More than a decade of complete nonsense since, of course.
This is being reported SEVERALLY
I suspect a widening of the war is imminent. Greetings, by the way
"#Israel is facing the threat of imminent attack, directly from Iran and in combination with coordinated attacks by Hezbollah, Houthis & Iranian proxies in Syria & Iraq
Biden must stop the harsh criticism of the only pro-American democracy in the region & make clear the U.S.…"
Zerohedge. Oh that takes me back to the GFC where some of the end of the world scenarios came close to coming true. More than a decade of complete nonsense since, of course.
Zero hedge is a joke site. There were plenty of reports about an imminent strike last week from such sites. However now mainstream sites like the Telegraph are giving it credence too so it cannot be ruled out.
Check this one, it is even better. This is pretty much the end of human music as we know it. Live music will survive, but much of the rest will now be automated by AI. And this tech is only in Beta mode - you can only "make" 1200 songs a month
But only briefly, I'll be off again soon. I have been enjoying a significant boost in productivity since flouncing off and I want to continue with that. I also accept that I was indeed boring the tits off everyone with AI talk - apologies to the site (tho AI is the most interesting thing in the world right now, by miles). I've found my tribe on AI Reddit, there I can talk about it endlessly...
But look at the new music site. It is.... mind blowing. Imagine you are in the music industry, and then you see that. This is going to happen to all the arts, and indeed most professions. I was absolutely right to bang on, even if I was really really boring
Some sort of AI type breakthrough to do with 'reasoning' was mentioned on R4 this morning. Can't quite recall the details.
The 'details' are that someone wants to make a lot of money, and journalists don't ask hard questions.
My sense as a 63 year old retired Chartered Accountant is if you park the babble about the coming of a "new and superior lifeform" what you're left with is a leap in technology that will (eventually) make the world a better place.
It is going to destroy the creative sector. Imagine an infinite variety of excellent iif not perfect music, novels, poetry, show tunes, dramas, movies, operas, everything. All available at the touch of a button, and for pennies (if anything), and in billions of varieties
How can they have an Oscar category for Best Music Score when we now know that machines can create superb soundtracks? What if AI MAKES the best soundtrack?
Why will kids learn to play musical instruments if AI means their chances of making it pay are reduced to near zero? Ditto novels, composing, designing, almost anything creative
How are you so unable to extrapolate this?
People will still do creativity for the same reason they do it now.
Creating stuff makes people happy.
Same reason people bake cakes when Waitrose can provide better, cheaper, more reliable cakes.
Same reason I grow a risibly small number of tomatoes.
Same reason my daughters play the trumpet. (You get exactly one payday a year from that.)
There is a small, fortunate niche of people who have been able to turn creativity into a career. That fortunate few is becoming fewer, but that's been happening since at least the invention of recorded music. And it sucks bigtime for those affected by the cull.
But the act of human creation will still be there. And if everything is cheap, everyone will be rich. In the grand scheme of things, we already are.
Gentleman scholar-artists. It's the way forward.
It’s already happening. Music and comedy, to give just two examples, are now ubiquitous thanks to the internet, with no scarcity but also no revenue stream from selling pieces of plastic to millions of people any more. Rather the recorded works are now simply advertisements for the live performances that actually pay the bills of the artists.
Yousaf is the worst SNP leader since Swinney and doesn't have the charisma and broad appeal Salmond and Sturgeon had when they led the party. Looks like Labour will be first party in Scotland again for the first time since Starmer's protege, Gordon Brown, won Scotland in 2010.
If the LDs get 40-50 seats they may well overtake the SNP as third party too at Westminster
Comments
It slightly hides the important fact that Iran has been attacking Israel - and others - for years using proxies.
Yes, Netanyahu is doing the wrong things and making the situation worse: but he is not doing so in a vacuum. He is responding to an horrific attack on his country.
Others share as much, if not more, blame for the current situation as Netanyahu. Some of those are in Iran.
I’m disappointed PB’s roving correspondent missed it entirely in his recent visit.
Truong My Lan: Vietnamese billionaire accused in multi-billion dollar bank fraud
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68778636
It is the most spectacular trial ever held in Vietnam, befitting one of the greatest bank frauds the world has ever seen.
Behind the stately yellow portico of the colonial-era courthouse in Ho Chi Minh City, a 67-year-old property developer stands accused of looting one of Vietnam's largest banks over a period of 11 years.
The numbers involved are dizzying. Truong My Lan is charged with taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. Prosecutors say $27bn may never be recovered.
The habitually secretive communist authorities have been uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They say they have summoned 2,700 people to testify. There are 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers involved.
The evidence is in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes. Eighty-five defendants are on trial with Truong My Lan, who denies the charges. She and 13 others face a possible death sentence.
"There has never been a show trial like this, I think, in the communist era," says David Brown, a retired US State Department official with long experience in Vietnam. "There has certainly been nothing on this scale."
The trial is the most dramatic chapter so far in the "Blazing Furnaces" anti-corruption campaign led by the Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong...
… The mass of officially-sanctioned publicity about the case has channelled public anger over corruption against Truong My Lan, whose haggard, unmade-up appearance in court has been in stark contrast to the glamorous publicity photos people have seen of her in the past.
But questions are also being asked about why she was able to keep on with the alleged fraud for so long.
"I am puzzled," says Le Hong Hiep who runs the Vietnam Studies Programme at the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
"Because it wasn't a secret. It was well known in the market that Truong My Lan and her Van Thinh Phat group were using SCB as their own piggy bank to fund the mass acquisition of real estate in the most prime locations.
"It was obvious that she had to get the money from somewhere. But then it is such a common practice. SCB is not the only bank that is used like this. So perhaps the government lost sight because there are so many similar cases in the market."..
Whether it works or not only time will tell. Our latest Russian troll is right. We are at a cliff edge.
https://x.com/ianbremmer/status/1778167933350428698?s=61
Warmongers abound everywhere. On here it’s from the sidelines from the comfort of their armchair.