Nick Drake. A sad story, I'm afraid.

Never made many albums, nor made much money or fame in his life, and suffered from schizophrenic depression.

But his music is a delight to listen to, last one he released was From the Morning, on Pink Moon (1972). The last recorded song he did was Black Eyed Dog a few months before his death, a reference to his failing mental health (Wikipedia has it if you want a listen, it's only 20 seconds long).

He overdosed on anti-depressants in Autumn of 1974, aged 26.

Quote from: rC on May 04, 2017, 09:39:47 AM

Oh and my cousin used to suck her thumb so her parents started dipping her thumb in something that tastes nasty and that stopped it pretty quick. Maybe you could do something similar?

My mum did try that many years ago, there was some fake-skin spray sort of thing (for burn treatment) that she put on my fingers. I think that's probably when I started biting my knuckles instead so that was a bit of a dead end unfortunately.

It's infuriating how the mind can find another thing to fuck with if you remove the primary source of distraction.

Fuck, it takes 2 weeks to break a habit, may as well go full straight-jacket and endure it for that long.

Oh man, I'm pretty sure I've hindered the development of my thumbs because of it.

Best thing I found to do is buy some industrial strength "workers plasters" that are extremely difficult to remove once put on. Fingers get time to heal, you haven't got a niggling thought to bite it because you can't see or feel "imperfections" (at least that's how I imagine it), and the plasters arouse less suspicion and questions than a red-raw/bleeding finger hastily wrapped in tissue, so there's no embarrassment associated with it which can cause a shitty repetitive cycle.

I haven't kicked the habit (and I'm starting to think it's a symptom of a broader condition than a habit), but it does at least give a chance for my fingers to heal, and usually I can stave it off for a few days. Another good idea is too find something to do, and remove yourself from a stressful/anxious environment. I notice if I'm outside reading or gardening or doing something, I won't focus my attention towards my fingers as much as when I'm revising, writing an essay, or thinking about work.

So in my attempts at procrastination I came across this little clip about Heroin in Huntingdon, and how they're combating it.

[Warning, footage of a guy OD'ing at one point, though thankfully he recovers]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-39343289/the-heroin-ravaged-city-fighting-back

Now the lawsuits began sometime in January this year, so this isn't "new" news, however it's interesting how they're tackling it. Similar stories were heard coming out of other towns in West Virginia afterwards. As quoted by the Mayor of Huntingdon;

Rather than going to the taxpayers of the community and saying 'We need to raise your taxes to fight this epidemic', we need to go to those who are complicit in causing the epidemic.

The citizens in our city, our region and our state are living a nightmare that was avoidable.Profits have been pocketed while our community has been left with the fallout and stigma of the opioid epidemic.

A majority of heroin/opiate abusers started out just taking prescribed pain relief medications for injuries, which then went to taking larger doses, bribing for forged prescriptions, and some eventually moved on to straight-up heroin. Rather than only targeting the dealers and junkies, the city (and others) have decided to take on the companies that are shipping the drugs that are being abused and oil up the slopes in the first place. Judging by what facts the Mayor shoots out, I'm inclined to agree with him:
- Huntingdon is a county of <50,000 people
-The County (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) is just around ~96,000
- In an (undisclosed) 5-year timeframe, 40 million doses of opiates were legally distributed (and assumedly, prescribed) in the County.


Then in the article linked above, there's some other distressing facts were released from the neighbouring state;

Current West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a lawsuit against San Francisco-based McKesson Corp. a year ago, saying at the time that an investigation by his office found that McKesson delivered about 99.5 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone to West Virginia between 2007 and 2012.

...

A medical practitioner in Barboursville admitted in federal court that he wrote a fraudulent prescription to illegally obtain more than 100 oxycodone pills from an employee.

Where those went exactly, you can only guess. But then it raises several difficult questions, most of which will have to be decided in the courts.

Is "Big Pharma" primarily at fault for distributing these pain relief medications and turning over massive profits without raising questions as to why such large orders are being requested, or is it the shady practitioners, GP's, pharmacists and what-have-you who are truly at fault for forging prescriptions for large doses for their "patients", or is the population under such addictions the main cause for such over-indulgence and abuse of the drugs available in the system in the first place?

I hope the news reports on the outcome of this, I want to see what happens and if the problem is ever truly resolved. Personally I think the corrupt practitioners and distribution companies are at fault for this. Not to reduce the responsibility of the people abusing the drugs themselves, but the system for acquiring such drugs so readily is what has started the problem in the first place which has since snowballed into something out of proportion and made those dose distributions so high.

TL;DR: Trump doesn't know history and believed president Jackson was still alive during the Civil War.

Trump: ‘I mean had Andrew Jackson been a little later...

Without the subsequent opinion and taking only his words into account; technically if Jackson was around those 16 years later, that what-if scenario comes into play.

I don't think he didn't know when Jackson was around, he says it right there. A little later.

I can't comment on the Jackson/Civil War topic itself because I know nothing about it, but c'mon now. Trump's a moron, but we don't need to be nitpicking at everything just to further solidify what we already know.

Not sure if rare, but definitely uncommon. Also uncertain about which if any are "rarer" then the others, but thankfully there's not much;

-Grand Theft Auto Collectors' Edition (GTA, GTA II, GTA London) for PS1
-Thick Silver PS2.
-Halo 4 Limited Edition for '360. Absolute crock of shit that was.
-Fallout 4 Pipboy Edition for PS4
-Destiny Edition PS4 Console (bought it because it was the only white PS4 available and and the same price as the standard edition at the time)

Alien Res. is shit.

I have a boxset of all the series and that one dvd case has remained unopened, and it will stay that way.

Quote from: Epsira Idari on April 23, 2017, 11:40:37 PM

Quote from: Verbatim on April 23, 2017, 11:34:25 PM

Quote from: Epsira Idari on April 23, 2017, 11:31:34 PM

Quote from: Cindy on April 23, 2017, 12:21:59 PM

Quote from: Verbatim on April 23, 2017, 12:16:52 PM

it also would've been less audacious

But what's the fun in that? :^)

I was going to admonish you for unveiling the ruse, but considering the crowd, I think it might be justified 

i thought she just meant that the title was clickbait, not that the entire thread was a ruse

Oh. Considering the apparent outlandishness of her argument and unilateral counterargument I thought the topic made the most sense as a ruse.

wow we did it Reddit thanks for the gold stranger

How are any of this fool's threads a ruse when she ends up getting pissed and leaving every time?

Is it time to pull this out?

Quote from: Cindy on April 22, 2017, 07:54:12 PM

Quote from: Môr-ladron on April 22, 2017, 03:15:43 PM

You'll get a subsequent change in the job market to accommodate the influx of automatons. More robots, more software developers, technicians for maintenance, robot designers, specialists so that a robot can do X job.

You'll get niche "human/hand-made markets" as a counter culture to generically mass produced goods. Hell, we already have that now to some extent with large brands doing quantity over some locally produced quality food, tools, decorations and furniture, etc.

If you honestly think that jobs surrounding automation will be as plentiful as jobs without automation, then you're just kinda...wrong. 20 self-checkouts at a store don't require a single person to watch over each one of them, they require a single person to watch over all of them - 1 hiring position instead of 20. Sure, jobs for people will still exist that contribute to the automation, but they will be vastly reduced.

And yeah, the "human markets" niche will probably arise, but that's not exactly enough to support an entire economy. Vinyl sales and 50's diners are both pretty popular in American culture right now, but mp3s and fast food sales still outweigh them to an absurd degree.

In my experience the less hiring in the cashier departments have led to more people being hired in other departments to lighten up schedules

Not saying thats a regular thing but its something I noticed across a few stores i was trying to work at and friends have worked at

Another thing worth noting is, they're reducing workforce in those sectors anyway regardless of automation.

Take LIDL or ALDI for example (do they have those in the US?) - Both pride themselves on having the cheapest prices because i) Most of their products are lower quality, or are unheard-of-but-decent brands, and ii) They have reduced staff counts than other major retailers, thereby reducing cost in paying staff and don't have to charge an extra few pence for things.

People always complain about the long waiting times for the tills there, but without that the prices wouldn't be cheap. Recently in a local LIDL, they've installed those DIY tills and I've seen no changes or reduction in staff. Conversely, I've seen more new workers, as the machines are crap and constantly are being worked on by some technician.

You'll get a subsequent change in the job market to accommodate the influx of automatons. More robots, more software developers, technicians for maintenance, robot designers, specialists so that a robot can do X job.

You'll get niche "human/hand-made markets" as a counter culture to generically mass produced goods. Hell, we already have that now to some extent with large brands doing quantity over some locally produced quality food, tools, decorations and furniture, etc.

"A Red Kite tried to eat my sandwich... while I was eating it"

Hope your mouth is ok man, that looks painful.

I had to google the guy to find out who he was.

Fucking crazy bloke.

Quote from: Môr-ladron on April 20, 2017, 01:14:15 PM

What would watching pokemon and yugioh as a child at least 11-12 years ago count as?

Because that's about the only japanese stuff I've seen.

non-weeb; you're good

Well that was an easy STI test.

Weeb-Negative.

Meh. I've only seen the complete opposite through my time in education up to now. Sure, >anecdotal, but I'd hardly say I'm some crazy outlier who ploughed through education radically (or came out any better or worse for it).

Primary school;
Ireland - Male Head teacher, Female teacher for two years, Male for the other 2.
UK - Male Head teacher who also taught my only year there (skipped a year because apparently Irish schooling system is different)

Secondary School;
All STEM subjects barring biology were taught by men, and had male heads of department, at least while I was there. Languages, Social studies and other "soft" subjects were female taught, History being the only exception.

University is the only one I've seen a near 50/50 split in Lecturers by gender. The difference is in the class however; 60 students, 7 female. Geology is a male-dominated course, and preference for males as Professors, Researchers, etc, with unsurprisingly few women in the subject (it's more surprising how equal my university is in teaching my subject tbh).

I wouldn't say the education system has stymied men from being "innovators" or at least leading in research. In my course there are few exceptional students, and of those ~10 who are, 1 is female. Regardless, all have contributed to ongoing research in the field and elsewhere, fuck I've even chosen to do a bit myself as part of a module.

It's really down to aptitude, and a students' entusiasm. Lecturers, for want of a better word, groom the geniuses in the class towards research-based fields, eventually going on to do MSc's or PhD's, writing papers along the way, and bring the field forward a bit. It doesn't matter what gender they are, the geniuses are the ones leading the way. Whether that's preferentially biased towards males, females, or generally equal, I don't know, but I refuse to believe it's hampering scientific progress as a whole. Measuring by changes in GDP doesn't seem reliable at all given the so many other variables that would have a larger impact on it.