Humor Random Comments Thread

[Thunder Chicken]

But the date was fairly well established well before there was anything resembling a federal holiday, and there's some fuzziness as to when Thanksgiving actually became a federal holiday. From the view of someone living in 1863, Lincoln's proclamation in that year was just another one-off, similar to others that had been made before that hadn't been repeated. From the perspective of someone living in 1864, well, that's interesting, two years in a row, but who knows if it will happen in 1865. By 1868, you have a tradition, but can you consider it a federal holiday yet? As time goes on, it becomes a very firm tradition, and there begins to be legislation that assumes the president will proclaim Thanksgiving every year, but he technically doesn't have to until 1942, when the date is fixed in law (technically in 1941, but it didn't take effect for that year's Thanksgiving).

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. Lincoln's 1863 proclamation specified it to be the last Thursday in November. It was changed to third Thursday in November by FDR.

 

[Linguofreak]

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. Lincoln's 1863 proclamation specified it to be the last Thursday in November.

First, that Lincoln didn't just pull the date out of thin air.

Second, there still wasn't actually an official date for nearly eighty years after his proclamation, as Thanksgiving each year was technically a one-off at the federal level (though his choice of date and the pre-existing traditional date it came from meant subsequent presidents weren't pulling it out of thin air either).

It was changed to third Thursday in November by FDR.

It was changed to the second-last by FDR for three years, after which Congress took it out of his hands and made it the fourth Thursday, where it remains (which is the same as the earlier traditional date unless November has five Thursdays). It was that congressional action that ended the "technically a one-off even though it happens every year" limbo and gave Thanksgiving an actual official date.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Second, there still wasn't actually an official date for nearly eighty years after his proclamation, as Thanksgiving each year was technically a one-off at the federal level (though his choice of date and the pre-existing traditional date it came from meant subsequent presidents weren't pulling it out of thin air either).

And quite of a lot of the country didn't observe it at all during that time, as they were formerly Confederates. Heck, a lot of the south didn't celebrate the 4th of July again until WWII.

 

[Arvil]

And today, many Americans don’t even think about the origins and evolution of the day, just that it’s a way of getting another holiday from work, and a method to depopulate the country of turkeys.

 

[kuddel]

[...]don’t even think about the origins and evolution of the day, just that it’s a way of getting another holiday from work[...]

...that's worldwide pretty similar I guess.

[...]and a method to depopulate the country of turkeys.

...that however seems pretty special to northern americas

 

[Linguofreak]

And quite of a lot of the country didn't observe it at all during that time, as they were formerly Confederates.

Which was an effect of Lincoln's proclamation. But Thanksgiving had been widely celebrated, on or around the last Thursday of November, throughout the nation for decades before Lincoln. It was already a well defined national cultural holiday long before then.

 

[Urwumpe]

Just gave the first Episode of "Wednesday" a try, it is really fun. Just imagine how it would look like if Tim Burton does a teenage horror movie - you won't get disappointed. If you are Addams family fan, you might be a bit disappointed, because the romantic insanity of the past installations really suffers here.

 

[steph]

Just gave the first Episode of "Wednesday" a try, it is really fun. Just imagine how it would look like if Tim Burton does a teenage horror movie - you won't get disappointed. If you are Addams family fan, you might be a bit disappointed, because the romantic insanity of the past installations really suffers here.

I'll have to add it to my list of 'stuff to watch during christmas', along some new murderous santa movie that seems to be doing the rounds these days


I'm trying hard not to stray into tinfoil territory, buut...yesterday, around 8PM, as most people were at home, celebrating the match, power went out twice. Each time, it was the 'smart counter' cutting it, as I was able to restore it by resetting it. Street lights etc were still on. Cutoff power is 9KW, and I only had the xbox on and the lights. Not even heating. I can usually get it to cut power if I have heating on, washing machine, TV , gaming console etc AND microwave, but this was cleary not the case. Now, this 'smart' counter is supposed to monitor power usage real time and even provide cutoff capability if needed, being basically online via mobile data.

So, I asked a buddy of mine, who literally works at the electrical company if there's a possibility that they lower the threshold or even cut users off during peak power consumption, to decrease the strain on the network. He said no, as any rolling blackouts would be area-based, due to smart counters being relatively rare. , so they wouldn't be able to implement it wide-scale. But the pessimist in me just thinks they're cutting off the homes with a connected counter in order to avoid a wider blackout

 

[Urwumpe]

So, I asked a buddy of mine, who literally works at the electrical company if there's a possibility that they lower the threshold or even cut users off during peak power consumption, to decrease the strain on the network. He said no, as any rolling blackouts would be area-based, due to smart counters being relatively rare. , so they wouldn't be able to implement it wide-scale. But the pessimist in me just thinks they're cutting off the homes with a connected counter in order to avoid a wider blackout

Technically this is actually possible and done via the power lines, the communication standard is from the 1960s or so. Some smart meters really include the ability to handle such communication, which is usually used if you produce electricity by photovoltaics, not if you are a small consumer.

I would expect three possible causes there then, should this feature be in your smart meter at all:

1. Your smart meter is defect or configured wrong.
2. Somebody in your local network is playing with such communication messages.
3. Your power supply company is using the wrong codes to communicate with an industrial consumer nearby.
4. ALIENS!

But so far, I don't see much reason yet for forcing you to save energy the hard way. France only imported 12 GW electricity last night, so even regional brownouts should not occur yet. In 2012, the power lines across the country borders managed to import a maximum of 35 GW without any brownouts anywhere. In that February, the rare unicorn called bavarian photovoltaics saved the day, all other power sources had been unavailable or unable to react to the increased demand. Would the temperatures in France drop further by about 5°C, power consumption would reach the maximum import capacity. So, better pray for "climate change".

 

[steph]

Technically this is actually possible and done via the power lines, the communication standard is from the 1960s or so. Some smart meters really include the ability to handle such communication, which is usually used if you produce electricity by photovoltaics, not if you are a small consumer.

I would expect three possible causes there then, should this feature be in your smart meter at all:

1. Your smart meter is defect or configured wrong.
2. Somebody in your local network is playing with such communication messages.
3. Your power supply company is using the wrong codes to communicate with an industrial consumer nearby.
4. ALIENS!

But so far, I don't see much reason yet for forcing you to save energy the hard way. France only imported 12 GW electricity last night, so even regional brownouts should not occur yet. In 2012, the power lines across the country borders managed to import a maximum of 35 GW without any brownouts anywhere. In that February, the rare unicorn called bavarian photovoltaics saved the day, all other power sources had been unavailable or unable to react to the increased demand. Would the temperatures in France drop further by about 5°C, power consumption would reach the maximum import capacity. So, better pray for "climate change".

Well, there is a big-ish factory ,around two fields away. Another street, sure, but powerlines routinely cross fields. Then it could be the counter malfunctioning, apparently replacements are quite common. But I don't know if they can switch it off and on at will for the ones with classical counters, or, at the very least, a physical visit from a technician is required for ' decoupling'. Those can get surprisingly ugly, so the company has an informal policy to allow the employees to opt-out or refuse if the client is a personal acquaintance or lives close by.

I'd say it's rather unlikely for any sentient being to cross the vastness of time and space just to get a kick out of watching me fumble around in phone light, but perhaps their ship needed recharging . I don't know what to say about aliens, buuut...if we're in the off-topic zone anyway..., tl;dr warning.,the only time I've been somewhat concerned that 'something' weird was going on was during the horse kiillings of late 2020. As in, it was at best the govt going in ultra mode to try to find a cause, and, at worst, something else, although I can't quite be sure what since even the scifi explanations don't make much sense either. In a way, the fact that some of the people concerned actually wantined to just forget asap about the whole thing instead of retelling their story to the media somehow makes it a bit more unnerving for me., but I guess they were afraid of being ridiculed.

Buut...the army locking down a town and its nearby forest for a missing person? Nope, that doesn't happen normally, it's usually cops/gendarmes, with the gendarmerie heli etc. People disappear relatively often around here, especially since there are care homes for people with Alzheimer etc, and whenever that happens, their photos get shared everywhere and cops even stop cars to ask etc. It was the only case of a 'missing person' where nobody knew who the missing person was.

Not to mention an account of someone whom I consider sane and even uninterested in scifi, of a shift in the ER where they received a couple with skin lesions . Dude was literally reddish, while she had some skin rashes. At first, substance abuse gone wrong was suspected, due to the lady seeming somewhat off. Turned out she was just in shock. It later also turned out they didn't seem to have any history of substance abuse. Apparently they had a farm, and horses. Upon hearing noises at the stables, dude went out and saw 'a monkey' near the horses. Tried to hit it, some sort of bright flash happened that left them startled, and it ran away, not being seen again. They realised something was wrong and drove to the nearest hospital. Yeah, it sounds almost funny, but not during that particular time, especially since they seemed legit and not lying.
There's a police report about it that puts the total unsolved cases at close to 20%, which is obviously low, but kinda enough to be statistically significant. I'm sure mass hysteria also played a role, but I'm not sure if it was all that. Cryptid from South America sounds unlikely, especially since this isn't the jungle and it would eventually be seen. Then again, the same can be said about the alien hypothesis...

 

[Linguofreak]

Cryptid from South America sounds unlikely, especially since this isn't the jungle and it would eventually be seen.

Well, there's a particular cryptid that's been sighted millions of times in Europe in the past few thousand years (as far back, in fact, as we have written records). It broadly fits the description of "a monkey".

IOW, might it not just be a ne'er-do-well specimen of h. sapiens robbing the place, with some sort of gas grenade on hand to provide a distraction if he got caught (thus the flash and the skin lesions, maybe something like CR gas or one of the nastier smoke grenade formulations)?

And if it was a human with a gas/smoke grenade, consider who would be most likely to have access to that sort of thing: a cop or a soldier. So let's say that the authorities catch word of a crime spree in the area, and find evidence that an AWOL soldier accessed the base armory before he went missing, and that several items are unaccounted for. At this point, the army is going to be quite keen to apprehend him, but might find it embarrassing if the specifics of the case made the news. So they start a big "missing person" manhunt and say absolutely nothing about who is missing. And, to make extra sure that the real embarrassing details don't make the news, make sure that everything released to the media sounds as spooky as possible, to make sure the public thinks:

 

[jedidia]

Remember, today is strike-the-earth-day!

Dwarf Fortress on Steam

The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created. The legendary Dwarf Fortress is now on Steam. Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world.

store.steampowered.com

6 more hours to go...

Won't have the time to participate unfortunately, since I'll be spending my evening striking friends instead, but I should still get around to throwing my money at toady...
Unfortunately, no adventure mode yet in this version. I was expecting that, given that figuring out how to streamline that particular lack of UI would probably have delayed the release by at least another 6 months I'd guess...

 

[steph]

Remember, today is strike-the-earth-day!

Dwarf Fortress on Steam

The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created. The legendary Dwarf Fortress is now on Steam. Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world.

store.steampowered.com

6 more hours to go...

Won't have the time to participate unfortunately, since I'll be spending my evening striking friends instead, but I should still get around to throwing my money at toady...
Unfortunately, no adventure mode yet in this version. I was expecting that, given that figuring out how to streamline that particular lack of UI would probably have delayed the release by at least another 6 months I'd guess...

Damn. I used to play that, or something very similar, way back in the 90's. Pentium 2, I think.I didn't realise it still has such a follwing nowadays .

Well, there's a particular cryptid that's been sighted millions of times in Europe in the past few thousand years (as far back, in fact, as we have written records). It broadly fits the description of "a monkey".

IOW, might it not just be a ne'er-do-well specimen of h. sapiens robbing the place, with some sort of gas grenade on hand to provide a distraction if he got caught (thus the flash and the skin lesions, maybe something like CR gas or one of the nastier smoke grenade formulations)?

And if it was a human with a gas/smoke grenade, consider who would be most likely to have access to that sort of thing: a cop or a soldier. So let's say that the authorities catch word of a crime spree in the area, and find evidence that an AWOL soldier accessed the base armory before he went missing, and that several items are unaccounted for. At this point, the army is going to be quite keen to apprehend him, but might find it embarrassing if the specifics of the case made the news. So they start a big "missing person" manhunt and say absolutely nothing about who is missing. And, to make extra sure that the real embarrassing details don't make the news, make sure that everything released to the media sounds as spooky as possible, to make sure the public thinks:

Well, there was a case in Germany or Belgium, in the same timeframe. Some special ops dude basically went to the armory, grabbed guns and went awol. Too far down the rabbit hole of conspiracy, he wanted to kill some pandemic experts etc. Same mode of 'locking down the area', except they told everyone who he is and to avoid him if spotted. In a way, it might even have been the govt fueling it in order to distract people. It was right around the time that it was becoming clear immunity was not long-lasting,2nd wave was coming and we wouldn't get vacccines for it yet. And yeah, I guess any small human could pass as a monkey. Not sure what to say about the flash, but there are some pretty powerful peppersprays on sale, so there's that too.

 

[Revan]

wow, there are quite some depths to this forum

(posting on the request of a long-time user and a moderator to attempt to solve an issue with my OF account)

 

[jedidia]

Damn. I used to play that, or something very similar, way back in the 90's.

The game has been in development for a long time now, but the 90ies is definitely too far back. Must have been something different.

 

[Urwumpe]

Damn. I used to play that, or something very similar, way back in the 90's. Pentium 2, I think.I didn't realise it still has such a follwing nowadays .


Well, there was a case in Germany or Belgium, in the same timeframe. Some special ops dude basically went to the armory, grabbed guns and went awol. Too far down the rabbit hole of conspiracy, he wanted to kill some pandemic experts etc. Same mode of 'locking down the area', except they told everyone who he is and to avoid him if spotted. In a way, it might even have been the govt fueling it in order to distract people. It was right around the time that it was becoming clear immunity was not long-lasting,2nd wave was coming and we wouldn't get vacccines for it yet. And yeah, I guess any small human could pass as a monkey. Not sure what to say about the flash, but there are some pretty powerful peppersprays on sale, so there's that too.

And in the news today: Big razzia of the police in all over Germany, 130 houses searched, 51 suspects, 25 arrests.... Seems a larger alt-right group planned a coup, including the prince of Reuß, a known former member of parliament, some industrials and a handful of former KSK soldier and parachuters. The investigation and observation already started in the beginning of the year.

NDR, WDR, SZ: BKA-Razzia wegen möglicher Umsturzpläne

Köln (ots) - Der Generalbundesanwalt ist am frühen Morgen gegen eine mutmaßliche terroristische Vereinigung vorgegangen, die unter anderem einen bewaffneten Angriff auf den...

www.presseportal.de

 

[Notebook]

Shades of the Red Army Faction?

UK news:

Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting coup

A far-right group is suspected of planning to storm parliament and install an aristocrat as leader.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Urwumpe]

Shades of the Red Army Faction?

UK news:

Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting coup

A far-right group is suspected of planning to storm parliament and install an aristocrat as leader.

www.bbc.co.uk

No, the sad remains of the last generation of the Red Army Faction robs money transports.

This is more the opposite camp. The former member of parliament involved is also judge and still has an access card to the parliament (no idea why), her role was to let the armed fighters of the group into the building. They even already selected the people to head a new government. Of course, mostly members of their group.

 

[jedidia]

I don't quite get what their plan was... clean out the parliament, apparently, and then... just sit in parliament, declare yourself the new government and expect everybody to do nothing? That kind of coup only works if you have the support of military and police...

 

[Urwumpe]

I don't quite get what their plan was... clean out the parliament, apparently, and then... just sit in parliament, declare yourself the new government and expect everybody to do nothing? That kind of coup only works if you have the support of military and police...

Thats what they had been trying to get. They started recruiting in army and police. Here is a bit more detail in German by the federal general attorney.

Homepage - Festnahmen von 25 mutmaßlichen Mitgliedern und Unterstützern einer terroristischen Vereinigung sowie Durchsuchungsmaßnahmen in elf Bundesländern bei insgesamt 52 Beschuldigten

Festnahmen von 25 mutmaßlichen Mitgliedern und Unterstützern einer terroristischen Vereinigung sowie Durchsuchungsmaßnahmen in elf Bundesländern bei insgesamt 52 Beschuldigten

www.generalbundesanwalt.de

They also tried to get support by Russia, but I doubt they can expect much from there in the future....