Left of the Dial

Good news: If you would like to watch Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants on YouTube I have done a painstaking 4k upscale of this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gW...

The many ways the original Wakefield 'study' is flawed are too extensive to get into, but they could mention that Wakefield - the first to propose breaking up the MMR jab into 3, had also filed a patent for a standalone measles vaccine months earlier. Corrupt, rather than simply bad at science

A three panel comic: First panel - a worried character holding a map proclaims, "Help! I'm lost in the spoom!" Second panel - a close-up of the map. There looks to be a river, an area with lots of trees, and in the centre, text that reads 'spoom' Third panel - a second character tells the first "You're holding the map upside down" (turned the right way up, what looked like 'spoom' simply reads 'woods')

Made me think of...

I'm in a band (we play covers, just for fun) and when someone suggests we try a song it can be interesting when we break it down and see if there's anything there. Too often it's just production gloss and there's nothing underneath, but I love it when it unexpectedly goes the other way.

Wow. Listened to the album version and it's just not my thing at all, but as you say - strip it down to the bones and there's a great song there.

Even if 'Your Party' were to ideologically fit you like a glove, you'd have to be having some serious doubts about their ability to organise a proverbial piss-up in a brewery (and even more doubts that they could do it without breaking out into petty factionalism)

Nothing wrong with having a primary and a secondary (or tertiary, quarternary, quinary and more). Just know that from the snippets you've posted, wherever you rank guitar - it's pretty damn good.

I agree that arbitrarily combining the two is gimmicky, but I've also seen a few vids you've posted of your guitar playing, which, like the paintings, is also excellent. An occasional bit of guitar along the way is a treat to be savoured, and never unwelcome.

"He says the BBC committed election interference. Do you understand why he's saying that?"

Yes - it's because he's a shameless opportunist and outrageous hypocrite. Next question.

Most certainly.

For the life of me, I can't see why this Trump thing is what seems to have precipitated matters. We've all seen footage from Jan 6 and despite the fact he didn't say those two particular lines back to back, there's zero doubt that he was the driving force behind what happened that day.

"It should have been over in a week... My good buddy, Vlad, should have blitzed them all and taken Kyiv within a few days, but somehow those pesky Ukrainians are still fighting! With all these damn sanctions in place, I can't start work on a Trump tower in Moscow or get my hands on oligarch cash"

Thanks for the listening ear too 👍

Regrettably, I'm all too familiar with depression and I can rule that out. The wolf is currently in the woods - no doubt he'll return to follow me about at some point, but not today.

I clearly need to do some reading 🤔

NGL, this has been a somewhat unexpected glance of my reflection in someone else's mirror. Hadn't really considered the possibility before 🤔

oil painting of orange half with segments on white background

it's a secret so don't tell anyone, but I painted an orange last year

Very much option A

I know what I need to do,
I know that I really *need* to do it,
I can see all the benefits it would bring to do it.
So why aren't I doing it?

It's like there are two me's. One isn't doing the thing, the second is watching & tearing their hair out at the first not doing the thing

Errrr, what? This is a thing?
I've never even thought of myself as ADHD, but this is a behaviour I've had for an absurdly long time and I absolutely recognise myself in said post.
Hmmmm 🤔

Wonder why this scene looks so familiar...
#WildlifeWednesday 🐦🐕

These are fantastic 😍

A screenshot of the original post and directly beneath it, one from Mehdi Hasan ending, "We live in Idiocracy"

Sometimes, the algorithm delivers

YouTube video by Brenda Wootton - Topic The Mermaid

As I left the beach earlier, there was someone in the shallows, swimming in the moonlight. It must’ve been ice cold but I can understand the lure of the shining path out to sea.
youtu.be/z4Ig-85bZfw

What a racist little weasel.
Reform-types get very animated about VAWG when the perpetrators are non-white, and the victims are white. Anything else though and they couldn't give a shit.

Hazardous indeed (and a likely breach of legislation regarding indoor smoking).
Best avoid theatres for December/January, just to be safe.

Overall though, the nostalgia for Victoriana is something I just don't get. Especially around Christmas where I ,often feel we're trapped in some collective Dickensian, Christmas Carol-esque fantasy that refuses to ever truly die - the past as something we just can't wake up from?

I have a love/hate thing happening on this. I *loathe* all the old music hall songs, but I'm involved in a lot of Am Dram these days, and my gateway into that was playing bass for a village panto. Obviously panto is music hall through and through, but it's also great fun.

Look, the man misses his friend (who happens to be a dictator) alright?

He clearly just wants to hang, chat about the old times, and pick up tips on how to crush dissent at home even more ruthlessly. What's wrong with that?

I'm from Wolverhampton originally, but live in Surrey these days. I have to routinely insist to colleagues that the Midlands exists, and it isn't just 'the North' as soon as you go past Watford.

Same reason why there are companies pushing driverless cars I guess? People working in the service industries give the people running these companies the ick, and they'd rather not have to deal with their fellow humans. Because they think that way, they assume that all of the rest of us must do too.

That feeling when you're late for battle and have to run out the door only half armoured-up.