News thread.

What do you think is affecting this declining rate of fertility?

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

What do you think is affecting this declining rate of fertility?

Materialism/Hedonism, people just lacking any need to have a family, greed (everything is about me. Gimme, gimme, gimme), traditions of large families being broken, men being repulsed by women due to feminism, cultural marxism, that kind of thing.

I'm going to say something controversial, but it needs to be said nonetheless. So many in the West has been so spoiled by it's freedom, it's capitalism-at least here in the United States, and it's materialism, that they have forgotten many of it's morals, culture, and stuff like that. In other words, we spent too much time enjoying freedom and not enough time respecting traditions and culture. In many ways, we've become a cross between Brave New World and Idiocracy. I know that's harsh, but it's sadly true.

I have no idea what you are on about, but I guess it's your honest viewpoint and no one can take it away. Just like with Bill Nye

Mistral wrote:

I have no idea what you are on about, but I guess it's your honest viewpoint and no one can take it away. Just like with Bill Nye

What I'm saying it that the West spoiled itself with it's freedom and that's why the fertility rate in the West has gone down. It's because 'the all about me' mindset has taken over in so much of society in general that many people just don't care about having large families.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I have no idea what you are on about, but I guess it's your honest viewpoint and no one can take it away. Just like with Bill Nye

What I'm saying it that the West spoiled itself with it's freedom and that's why the fertility rate in the West has gone down. It's because 'the all about me' mindset has taken over in so much of society in general that many people just don't care about having large families.

No I mean I get what you are saying, but I don't understand the reasoning for any of it.

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I have no idea what you are on about, but I guess it's your honest viewpoint and no one can take it away. Just like with Bill Nye

What I'm saying it that the West spoiled itself with it's freedom and that's why the fertility rate in the West has gone down. It's because 'the all about me' mindset has taken over in so much of society in general that many people just don't care about having large families.

No I mean I get what you are saying, but I don't understand the reasoning for any of it.

It's because a lot of people don't really care about traditions, norms, and culture. They think that all of that it are just obstacles for a grand utopia free from all that...except that has never worked at all.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I have no idea what you are on about, but I guess it's your honest viewpoint and no one can take it away. Just like with Bill Nye

What I'm saying it that the West spoiled itself with it's freedom and that's why the fertility rate in the West has gone down. It's because 'the all about me' mindset has taken over in so much of society in general that many people just don't care about having large families.

No I mean I get what you are saying, but I don't understand the reasoning for any of it.

It's because a lot of people don't really care about traditions, norms, and culture. They think that all of that it are just obstacles for a grand utopia free from all that...except that has never worked at all.

Funny that the exact opposite has happened in Japan. Due to traditions, and the major expectation placed on the members of Japanese society (including, but not limited to over working themselves because it is expected), the birth rates in Japan have gone down as well. It's like in both cases, few are finding the middle ground.

TheDreamMaster wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I have no idea what you are on about, but I guess it's your honest viewpoint and no one can take it away. Just like with Bill Nye

What I'm saying it that the West spoiled itself with it's freedom and that's why the fertility rate in the West has gone down. It's because 'the all about me' mindset has taken over in so much of society in general that many people just don't care about having large families.

No I mean I get what you are saying, but I don't understand the reasoning for any of it.

It's because a lot of people don't really care about traditions, norms, and culture. They think that all of that it are just obstacles for a grand utopia free from all that...except that has never worked at all.

Funny that the exact opposite has happened in Japan. Due to traditions, and the major expectation placed on the members of Japanese society (including, but not limited to over working themselves because it is expected), the birth rates in Japan have gone down as well. It's like in both cases, few are finding the middle ground.

A lot of it is also due to economic reasons. Ever since the mid-1990's, Japan's economy has been on the slump. It's nowhere near to where it was in the late-1970's, 1980's, and the early 1990's. The super recession/depression of 2009-2010 hit them really hard as well and made things worse.

It looks like Delta is challenging American Airlines for the 'worst airline company' award, now.

MisterMetokur has started an expose on Channel Awesome on his You Tube page and many people there, or used to work there are quite scared.

Spoiler:

He started out with Doug Walker, but there wasn't anything really bad about him. Just how he failed to move past his nostalgia critic gig. From what I've heard, many people there are really bad people. I remember how Angry Joe threw his fanbase under the bus and defended Anita Sarkeesian.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

MisterMetokur has started an expose on Channel Awesome on his You Tube page and many people there, or used to work there are quite scared.

Spoiler:

He started out with Doug Walker, but there wasn't anything really bad about him. Just how he failed to move past his nostalgia critic gig. From what I've heard, many people there are really bad people. I remember how Angry Joe threw his fanbase under the bus and defended Anita Sarkeesian.

Demo Reel was the biggest failure of all time, I don't think anyone except the blind fanboys ever thought the reason for going back to NC was anything other than the plain obvious.

I don't care what anyone in CA does really, and haven't for years and years now. It's a sad house of unfunny people and money makers as far as I'm concerned. But there's so much background drama with most of those drama queens, even with ones that are/were semi-good like Brad Jones and (ooooooold) Spoony, that tears will be shed here.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Bill Nye pushes eugenics.

First, he had that one transgender person sing about gay sex on his Netflix show (No, I'm not kidding. This actually happened.) and now this...It's really really sad what he's become. And to think I used to watch him on a constant basis when I was a kid. What the #$%@ happened to him?!

Its what happens when you get a fat enough paycheck. Youll say anything. (And technically he isnt a scientist but an engineer).

New research has found that the octopus family has an alien genome.

That's a terrible sensationalist name for it, 'alien', even the article says it's just something in the structure they haven't seen before.

I don't get how anyone can prove direct links between product X and cancer in court. But I guess in US anything goes
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39816799

Also, all hail Fox News!
http://www.businessinsider.com/fda-fox-news-cnn-tv-2017-5?r=US&IR=T&IR=T

The FDA has approved a new drug to fight ALS for the first time in 22 years.

Scientists use 3D printer to successfully print human cartilage.

Emmanuel Macron, a centerist, beat Marine Le Pen to be the youngest president (he's just 39 years old) of France.

Thank god the Trump effect hasn't landed to Europe quite yet after all. Netherlands rejected the populists, and now France.

Even in my country - although I don't really care of local politics - the nationalist-oriented parties have started crumbling down, certainly in the latest municipality elections.

I'm actually worried of the election outcome in my country.
French people complained about Hollande's politics during five years and what do they do ? The vote for his heir who's gonna do a similar, even worse politic because Micron (a not so nice nickname we give to this guy) is nothing else that the faithful servant of the EU, Rothschild's Bank as well as of that dirty goblin of Jacques Attali.
They sacrified their f*****g country on the altar of wild globalization and the same rotten financial who are at the source of much of the world's economic, politic, social and environnemental turmoil.
All of this for what ? In the name of "openness" to the world and the el famoso benefits of liberalism as well as for *take a whinying voice* "build a dam against the far-right" like the media and the elites have asked to the population, even if it means insinuating that a part of it was made of retarded just because they didn't vote as the elites wanted them to do so.
Sadly French are sheeps (or even Beasheegeons, a mix of sheep, pigeon and beaver due to their tendancy of making dams) since the medias propaganda seems to have worked given the results of the first and second round. I can fully understand the reluctance of some to vote for the FN (the leading far-right party) due to the scandals in which it was involved but damn, they had the occasion to vote for candidates like Nicolas Dupont-Aignan or Frexit's advocate, François Asselineau, that while they are relatively unknown, are nonetheless far more decent than the ones who get most of the votes. But because of that bullshit of "useful vote", many voted against their interests at the end by putting their trust in the polls (which can be easily manipulated), thus turing their attention the pure marketing product wrapped in a nice plastic bag that is Macron whose "Young and Dynamic" side charmed the naives (IMO people who vote for a candidate solely for his appearance, age or gender are just deplorable).
I'm sorry but just when this guy says that French art doesn't exist, I want to punch him right into his baby face because when one wants to govern France, he is supposed to acknowledge the existence of its culture, respect it and defend it.
Furthermore, he is the advocate of things that I consider to be dangerous for not only France but also for the rest of Europe as well as its population, environment and culture :
By this I mean interventionism in wars that does not concern us in any way and whose consequences are likely to turn against the French people who demanded nothing and not Mr Macron and his clique; A submission to the EU and its policies under which we suffocate (if our peasants struggles, it is mainly because of the Common Agricultural Policy that put their products in unfair competition with those from other European countries); A massive and uncontrolled extra-European immigration in the name of "living together" which will increase the ethnic-religious tensions within the territory with all the consequences that can already be observed (Before that some calls me a fascist or a nazi babies-eater, I want to clarify that I am not against immigration itself but that I am only for it at the condition that is selective and controlled as it is the case in Australia for example); An "Idontcare" policy concerning environmental issues because it impedes on the holy economic growth.
I feel that I've wrote enough on this matter and I don't know if many read all of this but I wanted to express my concerns about the future of my country, my civilization and my planet because it is not by being sheeps that we can face the wolves that threaten us and defeat them. If things went south, I am even afraid that we should become ourselves wolves to ensure a future. I would have liked to say that I am too old for this crap but unfortunately it is quite the opposite.

Have a nice day.

The Geeky Zoologist wrote:

I'm actually worried of the election outcome in my country.
French people complained about Hollande's politics during five years and what do they do ? The vote for his heir who's gonna do a similar, even worse politic because Micron (a not so nice nickname we give to this guy) is nothing else that the faithful servant of the EU, Rothschild's Bank as well as of that dirty goblin of Jacques Attali.
They sacrified their f*****g country on the altar of wild globalization and the same rotten financial who are at the source of much of the world's economic, politic, social and environnemental turmoil.
All of this for what ? In the name of "openness" to the world and the el famoso benefits of liberalism as well as for *take a whinying voice* "build a dam against the far-right" like the media and the elites have asked to the population, even if it means insinuating that a part of it was made of retarded just because they didn't vote as the elites wanted them to do so.
Sadly French are sheeps (or even Beasheegeons, a mix of sheep, pigeon and beaver due to their tendancy of making dams) since the medias propaganda seems to have worked given the results of the first and second round. I can fully understand the reluctance of some to vote for the FN (the leading far-right party) due to the scandals in which it was involved but damn, they had the occasion to vote for candidates like Nicolas Dupont-Aignan or Frexit's advocate, François Asselineau, that while they are relatively unknown, are nonetheless far more decent than the ones who get most of the votes. But because of that bullshit of "useful vote", many voted against their interests at the end by putting their trust in the polls (which can be easily manipulated), thus turing their attention the pure marketing product wrapped in a nice plastic bag that is Macron whose "Young and Dynamic" side charmed the naives (IMO people who vote for a candidate solely for his appearance, age or gender are just deplorable).
I'm sorry but just when this guy says that French art doesn't exist, I want to punch him right into his baby face because when one wants to govern France, he is supposed to acknowledge the existence of its culture, respect it and defend it.
Furthermore, he is the advocate of things that I consider to be dangerous for not only France but also for the rest of Europe as well as its population, environment and culture :
By this I mean interventionism in wars that does not concern us in any way and whose consequences are likely to turn against the French people who demanded nothing and not Mr Macron and his clique; A submission to the EU and its policies under which we suffocate (if our peasants struggles, it is mainly because of the Common Agricultural Policy that put their products in unfair competition with those from other European countries); A massive and uncontrolled extra-European immigration in the name of "living together" which will increase the ethnic-religious tensions within the territory with all the consequences that can already be observed (Before that some calls me a fascist or a nazi babies-eater, I want to clarify that I am not against immigration itself but that I am only for it at the condition that is selective and controlled as it is the case in Australia for example); An "Idontcare" policy concerning environmental issues because it impedes on the holy economic growth.
I feel that I've wrote enough on this matter and I don't know if many read all of this but I wanted to express my concerns about the future of my country, my civilization and my planet because it is not by being sheeps that we can face the wolves that threaten us and defeat them. If things went south, I am even afraid that we should become ourselves wolves to ensure a future. I would have liked to say that I am too old for this crap but unfortunately it is quite the opposite.

Have a nice day.

I still think that it's only a matter of time before France leaves the EU. After all, Britain had a pro-EU Prime Minister when the people voted to leave the EU. It's been delayed, but I don't think it will stop it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/08/europe/french-voters-spoiled-ballots-abstained/index.html

-- The so-called "ballot blanc," or white ballot, has a long history as a protest vote in France, going all the way back to the French Revolution. This time around, nearly 9% of voters cast blank or spoiled ballots -- the highest ever since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.

For now, the votes, which are counted towards the turnout, are largely symbolic. But there is a movement underway for the blank ballots to count as a share of the overall election vote. According to a recent Ifop poll, 40% of French voters said they would cast a blank vote if it were recognized under French law. --

That's quite interesting

Mistral wrote:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/08/europe/french-voters-spoiled-ballots-abstained/index.html

-- The so-called "ballot blanc," or white ballot, has a long history as a protest vote in France, going all the way back to the French Revolution. This time around, nearly 9% of voters cast blank or spoiled ballots -- the highest ever since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.

For now, the votes, which are counted towards the turnout, are largely symbolic. But there is a movement underway for the blank ballots to count as a share of the overall election vote. According to a recent Ifop poll, 40% of French voters said they would cast a blank vote if it were recognized under French law. --

That's quite interesting

Le Pen didn't have the charisma or media savvy that Trump did. And the fact that she was saddled with scandals of her party was not help. That one socialist that was in the race wasn't going to win either because of how mainy in France are starting to get sick of it. Macron is your typical internationalist corporatist. Somebody who sees the world as one big marketplace where cultures don't/shouldn't matter. It's basically a corporatized version of how Marx saw free trade/globalization as a means to promote communism. The French really didn't have a good candidate here.

Sultan Erdogan is mad that we're arming the Kurds against ISIS. Boo hoo. Those people have been through enough bullcrap as it is. They need all the help they can get.

The Rock is considering a run for the presidency. I would actually vote for him, simply because I want to see Kim Jong Un get Rock Bottomed through a table. Besides, if Donald Trump can become our president, so can The Rock.

"Attention in the water, this is the Orange County Sheriff's Department. You are paddle-boarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks," warned Deputy Brian Stockbridge in an announcement to the swimmers. "Exit the water in a calm manner."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/shark-sightings-population-on-the-rise-southern-california/

3,5 years of prison for playing Pokemon in Russian church
http://mashable.com/2017/05/11/russian-blogger-pokemon-go-sentence-jail

Microsoft brags 141 million people supposedly now use Cortana on Win 10, but actually that accounts for less than 30% of the 500 million user base
https://bgr.com/2017/05/10/microsoft-build-2017-announcements-recap-top-9/

A scorpion was seen on an United Airlines flight for the second time in a month.

Former president of Finland (1981/2-1994) Mauno Koivisto dies at 93
http://www.dailyfinland.fi/national/725/Former-President-Koivisto-passes-away

Former moonwalker says ISS should be retired in order to get to Mars
http://www.space.com/36787-buzz-aldrin-retire-international-space-station-for-mars.html

Hezbollah threatens to invade Israel.

I thought they were too busy helping their old friend Assad in Syria by fighting ISIS. They have too be too depleted in ranks to pull off something like that now.

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile that flew for 435 miles.

Drone footage of male narwhals (females rarely have tusks) shows that they use their tusks to stun fish before eating them. They basically bat fish with their horns and then eat them.

Rogue Ivory Coast soldiers reject a deal to end their mutiny.

Moors Murderer Ian Brady dies aged 79.

About fucking time, too.