kimbers

Homeland has always been somewhat antastical, even the 1st series

Its become more of an alternate future, now in which the bannon/alex jones character didnt do enough to inlfuence the vote ( though in reality Russia did the job! )

No, they had already cast the role of President Keane six months before the show aired. They only announced Jake Weber as Brett O’Keefe on the 6th of December. Alex Gansa admitted in an interview that season 6 was written “in something like real time”. He also admits the O’Keefe character was originally supposed to be quite different (presumably more Steve Bannon/Andrew Breitbart) before appearing earlier in the series and given a more central role,  and despite trying to put a positive spin on to admit that at all speaks volumes.

They predicted an embattled female president at odds with the intelligence community and that became surprisingly irrelevant so they tacked on a horribly contrived “Alex Jones” sub plot to cover up how badly they missed the mark.

Aye she’s just a freelance spy now. She’s probably writing a blog or something and hoping that she can use clickthru ads or Amazon affiliate links to make a bit of money. Maybe become a youtube partner. The last job she had for German Harvey Weinstein was a step up from her U.S Government job but even then she was only on $40,000 a year and 25 days leave. Health plan obviously but that’s still peanuts for the level of stress she’s going through.

Anyway, they obviously wrote the last series expecting Hillary Clinton to win and it misfired horribly into little more than fan fiction.  Now they’re trying to shoe horn a social commentary subtext which just won’t fit because they were so wide of the mark. Guff. But my wife enjoys it. And I enjoy making jokes about how little money Carrie earns for all her trouble.

The obvious answer is that they are all juiced to the gills. All of them. And this Russian got caught because Grigory Rodchenkov is in Witness Protection in the USA instead of keeping the Russian athletes up to speed with the latest PED technologies.

hmmm.

What does this do?

I think it’ll be a long time before true AI, a machine intelligence that can draw logical conclusions from a variety of unconnected, seemingly illogical facts or even suppositions, basically what a human brain can do, will be in a form small enough to be mobile, it may exist in a larger, non-mobile form.

The estimates seem to suggest it’s 20-25 years away. Then again people were five years out predicting what AlphaGo could do. But your talking about general AI that can replicate human problem solving, which when it arrives will be like an alien race to us.

Ignoring that, narrow super intelligence applied to something like targeted advertising through facial recognition on your phone could be ruinous to some people.

He was posting how he had just gone out and bought a camera body and two lenses the total cost of which was around £12,500.

I was going to post that hey, so what it’s his money. It’s not the same as a fast car, powerful motorbike or indeed chainsaw but what if that guy is gullible and compulsive and he was exploited by a cynical salesman?

This seems like a Daily Mail readers issue.

Is Daily Mail just a lazy synonym for bad? Surely the DM reader would celebrate needless consumption and rampant capitalism but the average Guardian reader would be the one to tut at the wasteful expenditure and superficial consumerism even if they are townhouse dwelling, Audi driving, IT consulting road biclycling…….etc.

Anyway knowing what you need also means knowing what you don’t need. In mountain biking terms a lot of European brands were certainly very guilty of producing range topping “super” bikes that were anything but. Often built with components that were completely unsuitable for purpose but hey, look, it’s 200grams lighter than your mate’s bike.

When I used to go out for Halloween I used to love dressing up as film and tv characters, Dirty Harry, Nathan Wind/ Cochise, Tyler Durden, Magnum PI, Micheal Knight, MacGyver etc. It was always fun running into the other saddos who recognized who I was trying to be, there was copious alcohol involved too (same with cosplay I’m led to believe). So I couldn’t really be critical of Cosplayers. Just remember it’s not a religion or your traditional cultural attire, so don’t get super riled up when people (rightly) take the piss.

Someone could but where you live changes the odds. The odds would have to be so what stacked in their favour before I decided to arm my self. 

Yeah but we do loads of things that don’t make sense statistically. You put on your seat belt despite odds of a car crash being relatively small, you might smoke or drink in spite of the odds of getting some kind of associated illness.

But then again unless you know how to use it I guess it’s mostly just bringing along a weapon for the other guy to pound your head in with after you swing and he dodges.

That’s my attitude too. Also, it’s not scaleable, you’re either bashing someone with it or your not.

Some people think you should only buy equipment similar to your current abilities, which certainly could save money in the short term, but then you might want/need to spend more on something better before the old gear has died through wear and tear.

Yeah but there’s a balance to be struck. If you wake up on Monday morning and decide to take up cycling you might be better off buying a mid/entry level bike with comfortable geometry instead of a Scott Foil Premium on Lightweight Aero wheels or whatever. You might be better off with a basic pair of SPD’s and mtb or touring shoes instead of carbon soled race shoes and Speedplay Zero ti. If you just passed your driving test a Ferrari might be a bad idea. If you’re not a professional arborist you probably don’t need a Husqvarna 395 with a 30″ bar.

Sometimes modestly priced kit will actually be designed to a certain level, or be more durable or comfortable than the most expensive, advanced or race ready stuff. If you’ve never ridden off road you’ll probably struggle to set up a a Cane Creek double barrel – climb, trail and descend might be more appropriate (and even that took some explaining for some folk).

I recently came across a terrible case of this and I’m sure most of you will agree. A grown man who by his own admission bought the biggest and most powerful chainsaw on the market…so he could have a bigger saw than his friend (who is a professional arborist). Now, I’ll just mention that he has no formal training or qualifications with chainsaws and is a driving instructor.

Upon seeing a professional arborist cut wood one handed with a top handled saw he went out and bought (you guessed it) the most expensive and powerful top-handled saw on the market. His next purchase, despite advice to the contrary, will be spurs and a climbing harness. He has been told repeatedly that it’s better to at least get trained how to climb trees with a chainsaw before just freestyling it. What could possibly go wrong. He is a mountainbiker too by the way and something about his buying habits always bugged me, now I know.

So you see, you really can have all the gear and no idea, and not necessarily because you like nice stuff. And depending on the stuff you buy, you might end up dead. I’m also reminded of the premier league footballer who lives near me who has put a long list of Ferraris and Lambos into fields.

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”>seadog101
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If your job <b><i>can</i></b> be done by a robot, it’s probably not that good a job as you think it is…

I’m not sure if that’s an attempt at humour but do you really think Tesco delivery drivers or taxi drivers are mistakenly believing they have great jobs? Regardless, hundreds of thousands of people make a living by driving something and automation poses a very real threat to that.

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What does it matter where you live? Someone could scale the fence of your rural mansion and break in so they can steal the keys of your 3.0 TDI Audi Allroad, wife’s jewellery, bitcoin wallet etc etc etc. Anyway the compulsion to have a weapon to hand if the worst does happen isn’t a rational assessment of the potential risk, it’s a way to mitigate a bad scenario turning into a horrible one.

That being said, I don’t keep any “weapon” to hand for such occasions as I prefer my chances unarmed.

Is this the thing that was a thread subject a while back and everyone concluded was bullshit?

The problem with AI is that people automatically assume the concerns around it are analogous to either Skynet or Hal, or the Terminator robot, and this is compounded by hacky journalists writing clickbait which features pictures of the Terminator, I think the author of the above article points this out.

AlphaGo beat all of the best human Go players and all of the best man made AI go machines by learning from scratch how to play go by playing against itself, and it did so five years before experts considered it possible. There’s a misconception that only Super General AI is a threat to us and that we are somehow above or better than artificial narrow intelligence, but, there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that narrow ai applied through social media may well have influenced the outcome of Brexit and the US presidential election. So a “narrow” intelligence in the wrong hands can change the world, change election results, perhaps even start a nuclear war but there’s really no point worrying about general intelligence or super intelligence . Right??

The companies who are racing to create AGI are doing so in order to be first to create a lucrative killer app – they aren’t considering the moral or ethical concerns around creating a machine, or app which can literally change the world to suit the whims or needs of the highest bidder. There are many experts in this field (who you have to assume are smarter and than the average STW member) who are terrified of the world ending potential of AI but no one seems to care. People seem to have unlimited capacity for debating brexit or Trump but have zero ****s to give when it comes to the very real possibility of people creating an amoral god in a box.

Jimjam, that is a pretty sad story.

Yeah, I guess all I can say is if you have elderly neighbours who aren’t complete arseholes, talk to them and try to help them with manual tasks. It depresses me how often I see it.

At least it fell naturally but yes, sad to see. (I get really riled by totally unnecesarry fellings, 2 lovely old scots pines near me were just cut down because they were “blocking the view” of the person who chose to move into the house with 2 old scots pines outside their window.

Trees don’t get much respect, which is a shame I think as they can make the landscape so much more interesting.

Working with a tree surgeon I think I have a slightly different perspective on this. Often a lot of the trees we fell are the cause of considerable annoyance, irritation and acrimony between neighbours. Rarely do we fell a tree without a neighbour coming over to tell us how glad they are to see it gone. Now I should add this saddens me as I like trees and I don’t like to see people miserable but it’s so common it’s laughably tragic.

I have an ancient woodland behind my house and I’m very protective of it, and I would have loved to have seen the oak in the link above in person before it fell but in towns and cities the hedges and trees of others seem to be little more than an annoyance to others. One particular old lady really sticks in my mind, her name is Ann and she had a big ash tree in her garden. It created considerable mess during autumn and winter and when her husband was alive he would go around to her neighbours and sweep up all the leafs, but when he died she wasn’t able to continue doing this so she asked us to cut the tree down as her (much younger) neighbours constantly complained to her about the mess caused by the tree. I felt really sorry for her cutting down the tree and thinking that she had no one. Then on the second day of the clear up her daughter and her body builder husband who lived a couple of miles away arrived to cast careful scrutiny over our work.

For **** sake I thought. The poor woman paid big money to have a tree she liked cut down because she felt that she had no one who would sweep the street and the drive and yet here were 40 something daughter and son in law with sun bed tans and steroid bodies but they clearly couldn’t be arsed lifting a finger to help her, especially ironic watching this 18 stone body builder in a singlet flexing pouting while he watched two relatively small men struggle to move some big pieces of timber. I’ve often thought of starting a PSA thread of sorts on the subject but obviously there’s no point since STW knows better.

Anyway, carry on.

Judging by the OP a maul would be complete overkill, horrible things to use generally. Aldi were selling a splitting axe which looked almost identical to the Fiskars for about £20 so keep an eye out for that. The Fiskars works but I prefer wooden handles. For me the Husqvarna splitting axe is the best compromise between performance and price, it’s infinitely tuneable and recyclable too.

If you want better fit and finish look at the Hults Bruk, or if you want the best get Gransfors Bruks.

You’ll put on a little bit of water weight. Buy micronized creatine, far easier on the stomach and I found it to be very helpful when training hard several times a week. Apparently it helps increase your testosterone slightly too which is good.

PT recommends taking “something extra”. Does bit that seem a bit dark to you, a slippery slope ?

No. It’s one of the most common workout supplements on the market, very innocuous and if you knew where to look you can buy legal alternatives to steroids. Creatine is not that.

Can I be a cynic and ask does he or a friend have a supplier ? A little extra cash on the side for him ?

You can get it Tescos, Asda, Lidl, Aldi etc etc etc etc etc

Really should have a V6 that revs like a bastard!

You can trace the origins of the F430 V8 in that “Stratos” right back to the Ferrari Dino V6 in the Stratos. The 308 GT4 Dino which replaced the 206 Dino used Farrari’s first production V8 which ultimately evolved into that engine so it’s pretty appropriate. Besides, it revs to 8500rpm.  All a bit moot though since you could buy a 458 Speciale which revs to 9000, sounds even better and will probably worth about £1million in ten years time. It would be interesting to see if that Stratos tribute will hold its value,

Government’s what?

26: What can we do to improve your experience with Hermes customer service?

Nothing. Your customer service is so far gone and so far removed from anything resembling helpful or useful that you would be better served doubling down on your useless frustrating practices in the hope that ultimately your sheer incompetence combined with the terrible amount of frustration you are generating somehow creates a perpetual engine of evil which tears a hole through space and time opening a gateway to hell. Prospective customers wishing to have parcels delivered can simply fling their parcels into hell, and instead of using your customer services recipients can venture into the depraved depths of Hades and hoke around in a never ending void of agony and psychic misery which would be a huge improvement on the current situation.

Thank you and have a nice day :)

In green with an LS swap please.

But hey, at least you can feel smug about paying for premium, or premier or whatever it is to turn off the ads. I’m sure that makes it way better.

Nah. I don’t think it looks great tbh and if you fancied something Italian that goes vroom £600,000 would buy you a 458 Speciale, an F12 and change left over for Stratos replica.

Ive barely bothered coming here in the last couple of weeks.

I’m sure there are plenty of others that are the same. Hardly worth bothering with it the way it is at the moment.

edit. Yup, quote works great

Yeah the forum does seem to be dying a death. But hey, at least there aren’t avatars. Avatars really ruin a forum.

🤔 If we’re going to lambast a sci fi series or film for lack of originality can we start with Star Wars ?

Meat. Beer.

Having suffered with anxiety for 30 yrs or more and being quite a sensitive individual

I struggle to not give a **** about things and I’m a quite an insensitive individual who doesn’t struggle with anxiety. However, I do struggle with an excessively noisy, chattery internal brain noise. All the time. And yes a beer or two of an evening damps it down a bit. In an effort to kick that habit I looked into CBD oil (not into cannabis or pot culture in any way) and while I didn’t notice any effect sticking to the stated doses  a larger dose seemed to help me sleep. Apparently it can help people who suffer with anxiety too, ymmv.

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”>CaptainFlashheart
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Quite.

What am I doing wrong?

Expecting functionality from a forum where you get random pop ups warning you that your system has a virus forcing you to close tabs, a wall of adverts and users who would leave the forum if it had avatars but seem to think  paying to make these things go away is a badge of honour.

Saxon Rider

I have never watched any downhilly-type stuff before.

I watched the first episode last night and I thought it was fine actually. I haven’t read the books and have nothing invested in it….nicely shot, competently acted, good VFX apart from the bit with the car above the clouds. Any clunky dialogue seems directly as a result of using terms which I assume are grounded in the books which probably seem fine in print but don’t roll off the tongue.

Counties Meath, Louth, Armagh are really steeped in ancient Irish history and indeed relatively modern histroy. Newgrange, The Hill of Tara, The Tain Trail and site of the Battle of the Boyne are all within close distance of North Dublin with the added benefit of not having to go into Dublin.

If you do go into Dublin be sure to take a look at the GPO, one of the main sites of the Easter Rising, as well as Dublin Castle and Kilmainham Gaol.

Failing that, as Saccades points out, go to Wicklow. A good route map to follow would be the Excalibur trail (locations for the film). Whether you like the film or not it takes you to some truly stunning places, and if you want the Irish pub experience you’ll probably find a slightly more authentic version of it than you would in Dublin, although to be honest, much like an authentic Scottish or English pub experience it’s probably better to have some touristy gloss on it. You don’t want to go into a bar and have everyone stare at you in awkward silence apart from one oul boy who decides to interrogate you  then shites himself mid way through his inquisition.

Is Hoofing the **** in the slats still frowned upon?

Just so long as you’re not misgendering the Hoofee.

theres another thread a bit lower down with dublin info…..

Hey there’s a great a idea. Two STW members in the same city…they should meet up and discuss Brexit, Trump, Woodburners, whether or not to buy another diesel and discuss the subtle legalities of speeding on mud covered country roads.

Why not shoot him in the face with Glock 9mm ?

Well depending on the range and the round a 9mm bullet might not have sufficient power to kill. Point blank, back of the head, sure, but 25 yards away…in the face…..might just get stuck in his skull, blow his teeth out, that’s if you can even hit him at any kind of range. Right?

I think what jimjam is saying is if the idiot doesn’t know the person is gay, then is shouting a homophobic remark still a hate crime? Not dismissing the fact that he shouldn’t be using any kind of homophobic terms anyway so is clearly an idiot but to be classed as a hate crime does it need to have intent?

Yeah more or less. The OP did state that he doubts this abusive dog owner knows that his partner is gay so it could just be coincidence and homophobic slurs are his “go to” insults. I’m not excusing that, but calling it a hate crime, or reporting it as such in order to expedite the process doesn’t seem right.

It raises a lot of interesting ethical and political issues, alas none of them will help the OP or his partner. I’d probably caution against openly recording him too. That gives him the excuse/need to actually close the distance turn verbal abuse into an assault.