...so? Presidents and other national leaders attend a huge variety of functions, and aren't going to want to do a run-through for every single one of them. A brief overview of his role on a note card seems a very pragmatic solution. I do want to point out that it doesn't tell him what to say - the President's staff expects he'll be able to improvise something serviceable. Because he's an intelligent, capable adult human being.

Oh, and that clip of him saying something about "dropped dead unexpectedly" - that looks like stuttering to me. He seemed to be trying to say something else, and just couldn't get it out. His backup word choice was inelegant at best. Stuttering is something Biden's known to have struggled with for most of his life, and generally he handles it very well. Sometimes though he seems to still stumble on something, and this might've been a case of that. Maybe not - maybe he had a total brain fart / senior moment and we should be concerned... but it certainly didn't seem like a noteworthy incident to me.

Meanwhile, in actual important news: the J6 hearings have demonstrated the former President clearly made numerous efforts to remain in power despite having definitely lost in a fair election. (Well, fair in terms of having been run competently and without demonstrable fraud. Trump still had what I consider a significant unfair advantage in that Republicans have an inherent edge via the Electoral College. He just lost the popular vote by MORE this time around, leading to a loss of the EC as well.)

The effort to analyze the growing influence of the media maximizes the possibilities because of all functional resources involved. The certification methodologies that help us deal with the commitment between the teams, entails a process of reform and modernization information flow. Regardless of, perception of the difficulties can lead us to consider restructuring return expected long term. I would like to emphasize that the clear definition of objectives adds value to the establishment the desired indexes.

Above all, it is essential to point out that the growing influence of the media plays an essential role in shaping the desired indexes. We realized increasingly that an increased dialogue between the different productive sectors provides a better overview technique in the recycling investment.

We realized increasingly that the fair trial of eventualities provides a better overview return expected long term.

Above all, it is essential to point out that the challenging global scenario, ensures the contribution of an important group in determining postures of the governing bodies with regard to its responsibilities. We realized increasingly that an increased dialogue between the different productive sectors provides a better overview the preferred directions towards progress.

However, we must not forget that the consensus on the need for qualification promotes leverage postures of the governing bodies with regard to its responsibilities. All these questions, properly considered, raises doubts about whether an increased dialogue between the different productive sectors hinders the appreciation of the importance of all functional resources involved. The accumulated experience shows that the fair trial of eventualities encourages standardization normative rules of conduct. We can already glimpse the way the growing influence of the media adds value to the establishment the financial and administrative requirements.

It's long, but this is a really good overview. And frankly, his tone is spot-on for right now. So *promote

I like to think I rarely get triggered, but their channel name ("It's Okay To Be Smart", gee thanks for permission) really does trigger me. I assume it's targeted at children, but it still annoys me.

The video is an interesting overview, though.

The reason (traditionally) is that soccer does not have many long interruptions, like American football or Baseball. Free-Kick, Throw-In, Change-ins, even Penalty shots - everything happens quite fast and barely has influence on the game time of 90 minutes. There is only one longer break in-between. So the 3 Refs on the field usually have 1 other Ref standing on the sidelines who will give his overview input on things they may have missed. He is the only one who would be able to evaluate video material - but that would have to happen extremely fast, with barely any discussion.

I cried. Idk if I ever said anything here, but I've been only on occasionally because I had a daughter born with a rare genetic disorder that my wife and I both carried recessively.

It's called NPC which is an acronym for Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (it also makes it annoyingly difficult to search for because I get all kinds of results about non player characters).
http://nnpdf.org/overview/#NPC

The disease itself is fairly horrifying. That sounds like strong language, but click on this link to see the progression of the disease if you too want to cry: http://nnpdf.org/the-disease/the-progression-of-niemann-pick-disease/

Fortunately, we're part of an experiment that is treating people with a very promising success rate for halting the progression of symptoms.

*promote

If the second coming of Jesus happened tomorrow and it turned out it had been David Bowie all along and he was wearing a leprechaun costume I would still not give 45% chance of a unified Ireland.

Great overview, but i think the specifics are a little academic (as in not based on first hand experience).

Uhm, hold on a minute there... just remember where @JustSaying is from. Remember the Varian disaster of 89AD? The treachery of Arminius in the swamps of the Teutoberg Forest?

I was quite sure there was a video here on the subject, but haven't been able to find it. Here is a very brief overview of the way the battle went (although it doesn't describe the treachery involved in Arminius leading the trusting Romans into the trap):

Does it really matter? Trump has already accomplished the goal conservatives needed him to. The best way to keep the country divided, with more faith in corporations and churches than in the government, is to devalue the democratic process, and make it look ridiculous.

The reasonable part of the country is disgusted that a Trump, or a Palin, or a Carson, or a Cain, was ever treated as a serious contender for leading the country, and will lose a little of their faith in democracy. The true believers on the other hand, who buy into these idiots, will also be disgusted and confused when their candidates inevitably fail, and lose a little of their faith in democracy.

No matter who wins the actual election, the fact that the next president will have been up on the national stage debating with a reality show host who called them dumb, already tarnishes them and their office. Even if the Republicans lose, they'll have strengthened the American belief that politics are dumb and petty and need to be reined in, which is the Republican agenda. A Republican president would just be icing on that cake.

Francis Fukuyama does an interesting overview in his Political Order and Political Decay on how trust in governmental institutions is one pillar of any functioning democracy. Putting Trump and the other clowns on stage seems like a textbook action to undermine that trust.

Really really good vid, certainly gives a very good overview of the chain of events that cause global warming to be life ending.

From what he's explained, it seems to be - less ice at the poles -> less difference in temperature between hot and cold areas -> less ocean currents -> ocean anoxia -> hydrogen sulfide.

Many of the other issues would cause local crises, but living on a planet with no ocean life and with poisonous gas everywhere seems pretty nasty.

@Asmo

Don't really want to get a more general argument about the history of US foreign policy, I was talking more about the present day. The US's rationale for intervention during the Cold War was an exaggerated sense of the spread of communism and later to prevent anything that might precipitate an oil price spike like in the 1973-74/79. Nowadays with greatly expanded US shale oil supply and no Cold War I simply don't see any real incentive, if anything with the furore over debt, quite the opposite.

@enoch

Successful US intervention in the previous century generally involved large sums of money, whether it be propping up a government (Zaire/Congo) or funding an insurgent militia (Guatemala). Same thing with the USSR (North Korea). The ability to influence public opinion or mount credible propaganda campaigns in my opinion is generally exaggerated especially in a large, modern and educated country like Iran. It's also the conspiratorial myth that repressive regimes (like Iran, Russia) frequently turn to when they need to discredit dissent. A good example is:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/11/arab-conspiracy-theories

I mention Russia because this is the line pushed aggressively to both his domestic audience by it's wholly state controlled television media and to a mix of foreign and expatriate audiences (of which Russia Today is most successful) through a web of shadowy funding and home grown sounding organisations (see link below for a nice overview, e.g. http://www.globalresearch.ca/). It's pretty important to view what he says as part of a narrative to vastly exaggerate US and western intervention in Ukraine and previously Georgia, because that allows him to construct his myth of being a counterbalance to present day western imperialism.

https://criticusnixalsverdruss.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/propagramm3.jpg

Here's a decent overview:

http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=33328

Orange means drought, dark red indicates sandworm populations.

Hell, I thought facing down a haka from 15 year old rugby players (used to play school Rugby Union when I was in NZ for a couple of years) was powerful.

For more information/context on haka's in general, this page gives a pretty good overview.

https://mysendoff.com/2014/04/funeral-haka-a-powerful-dance-from-the-soul/

There's a video of NZ defense force personal performing a haka for troops killed in action attached for those that are interested.

Yes, that's right. The 16mm projector shown here has mono sound and a single audio track. The 35mm cinema films had two tracks for stereo or dolby encoded surround sound.

Jimbo's big bag'o'trivia has a quite good overview here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound-on-film

See also http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-sound.htm for lots more detail.

There are 100 issues to this EU mess, and 100 different angles to each issue. To stay on top of things or even just to keep a somewhat comprehensive overview is impossible at this point.

It's too complicated, charged with too much emotion, too blurred with power politics. A clusterfuck if there has ever been one.

And you can't even counter any single argument in a meaningful manner, because it would take a deconstruction of the whole thing to present a pursuasive case. The helplessness is infuriating.