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Topic: Today's Good News (Read 156735 times)

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #500 –
The country is not doing so well in economics and much else and not a great background either for him is it? However in a broader sense it will be interesting to see how things are handled.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #502 –
Interesting comment from a land that is an economic disaster and depends of EU handouts. Rattle the bowl louder boy things are not improving!
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #504 –
I guess it means we've somehow returned to good news, or something similar.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #505 –
Hhhm jimbro. I can remember house phones with no dials......
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #506 –
You mean the one where you say "Operator, please..." ???

Is this you?


Re: Today's Good News

Reply #507 –
No: You'd say "Bessie, please connect me with Floyd…" and she would!
I well remember the dial phones (…I'm a city boy); and I confess I miss area codes, where -when caller identification became standardized- you knew from the prefix where the call was coming from…
BTW: "The" phone was usually in the kitchen, on the wall. Only teenagers appreciated 40-foot extensions… :)
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #508 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
BTW: "The" phone was usually in the kitchen, on the wall. Only teenagers appreciated 40-foot extensions...  :)
Interesting. We tend to put those things in the living room. The kitchen perhaps has a certain lesser intrusiveness to it.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #509 –
Quote from: Frenzie on
We tend to put those things in the living room.
Not in the time Oakdale refers to. The phone was never at the living room but at the entrance hall, so it will not perturb the family's life.
Then, the phone started conquering the entire house, then people's brains.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #510 –
Sure, but that would be similar to how I grew up in a house from the '50s with a matching rotary phone. That doesn't mean things were still being built quite the same in the '80s. :P (Don't live in anything pre-'80s if you can help it; they had no concept of insulation in the past.) I'll ask my dad where their phone was back in the '40s.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #511 –
When/Where I grew up, the entrance hall, just next to the house/apartment door, was *the* place for *the* phone. This applied to everyone who had a phone. A phone in the living room, next to the TV, was a later development. Just like TV itself was a later development. Before this development, there was radio.

I remember times when there was no TV and then my uncle acquired it for my grandmother (i.e. to his mother, to celebrate her birthday and his own successful job). It took more years until my own parents could afford a TV of their own. In my later life I have skipped possessing a TV of my own. I was happy enough with radio for a long while.

My grandmother never had a telephone in her house.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #512 –
I, too, liked radio… (Still do!) But we're not so far apart, age-wise; which means that the Soviets kept your economy hobbled… Was it to control information? Or to prevent competition?
(These may not be distinct propositions…)
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #513 –
Oh, I've wandered into the nostalgia thread. The farm in North Norway had a dial-less bakelite wall phone, functional until the 70's. Then in a couple of decades in succession went through analog pulse exchanges, digital exchanges, and state-of-the-art AXE exchanges (really fancy in those days).

Then shortly after that a couple of enterprising Poles and an Australian decided that there was copper in them thar cables, stole a km or such of copper cables. They were caught of course, but the phone line was gone. As a replacement the phone company handed the bereaved customers a mobile phone each, and that was the end of landline to parts of the village). 

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #514 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
I, too, liked radio… (Still do!) But we're not so far apart, age-wise; which means that the Soviets kept your economy hobbled… Was it to control information? Or to prevent competition?
(These may not be distinct propositions…)
The Soviet/eastern economy wasn't doing that badly yet in the '50s. It's more that most of Europe was still rebuilding. And part of it is just your American perspective. I don't think TV has ever been quite as entrenched elsewhere as in America, see e.g. here for recent statistics. I can't even comprehend how one could possibly watch 282 minutes of TV per day, regardless whether that means "real" TV or stuff like YouTube and Netflix.

And anyway, Edward Bernays was much better at population control than the Soviets. :P

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #515 –
Quote from: Frenzie on
I can't even comprehend how one could possibly watch 282 minutes of TV per day, regardless whether that means "real" TV or stuff like YouTube and Netflix.
282 minutes is just two movies. Or perhaps one with a whole lotta commercials all over it. But yeah, every day...

Quote from: Frenzie on
And anyway, Edward Bernays was much better at population control than the Soviets. :P
Correct. Soviets overdid it so grossly that it was quite transparent what they did and how. The brainwashing worked only on Russians with the right emotional predispositions. Not all Russians are predisposed that way.

Brainwashing works much better in America, where the manipulation is subtle, with appearance of choice and freedom, and by normalising loose ethics. Soviet propaganda always touted just causes, moral justice, which is why the mask of totalitarianism was easily revealed for anyone perceptive enough to notice the discrepancies in the society. It didn't take much perceptiveness. Even children understood it.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #516 –
Quote from: ersi on
282 minutes is just two movies. Or perhaps one with a whole lotta commercials all over it. But yeah, every day...
Sure, I've certainly watched two movies in a row, or binge watched a series. Sometimes I put on e.g. Karambolage while doing some exercises or something and where I sometimes listen to podcasts while washing the dishes you could put on the TV instead. But completely setting aside the fact that 4 hours of watching TV isn't something I want to do on a regular basis, I just can't comprehend how it's possible. All the stuff I just mentioned takes you from 1 to 2 hours, not to 4. Basically that would mean your regular day is work, eat, TV, sleep. I'm not sure I can even comprehend reading a (good) book for four hours every day and that's something I might actually want to do.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #520 –
Mossul is under attack.
Thanks to Syria and Russia the Islamic State is going to be defeated.
Americans are out. Irrelevant Americans. The times they are a changing....
A matter of attitude.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #521 –
Quote from: Belfrager on
Thanks to Syria and Russia the Islamic State is going to be defeated.
Russia only means to keep Assad in power… It could care less about ISIS; and has shown that repeatedly. :( Their priorities are not ours. (Of course, with Obama -and, presumably, Clinton next- it's hard to say what "our" priorities are! :) )
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #522 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Russia only means to keep Assad in power... It could care less about ISIS;
Keeping Assad in power is the way to erradicate ISIS. Remember what happened with Saddam and Kadafi.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #523 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Quote from: Belfrager on
Thanks to Syria and Russia the Islamic State is going to be defeated.
Russia only means to keep Assad in power… It could care less about ISIS; and has shown that repeatedly. :( Their priorities are not ours. (Of course, with Obama -and, presumably, Clinton next- it's hard to say what "our" priorities are! :) )
Prior to Obama, what were the priorities? What were W's priorities? To defeat Saddam in the particular way he did it meant creating ISIS. Now you say your priority is or should be to eradicate ISIS? Doesn't pass the laughing test.

You never had any priorities. You simply love regime-building in Middle East as a sweeping social experiment just for the fun of it. Repubs adore social experiments. Trump's candidacy is another social experiment to see how much absolute direct BS can the electorate swallow without thinking. Looks like they swallow pretty much all of it. Successful experiment. Mission accomplished. And lots of fun generated in the process. Celebrate that great country.

Re: Today's Good News

Reply #524 –
Quote from: ersi on
What were W's priorities? To defeat Saddam in the particular way he did it meant creating ISIS.
The Obama administration's failure to negotiate a status of forces agreement and our subsequent withdrawal led to ISIS…
"Repubs adore social experiments"! ersi, you seem to know next to nothing about American politics.

But I'll remind you of something: Saddam attempted to assassinate GHW Bush during the Clinton administration… More than enough reason for taking out the guy, eh? The Neocon nation-building stuff was botched, if it ever had a chance. But it was always a liberal (Democrat) notion.

If you want to know about our history of demagogues, you can go as far back as Andrew Jackson…
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)