About 7 years ago we had some very expensive consultants, hired by clueless management, do a presentation to our marketing team.

When that consultants declared that, “we see the future of the web centered on blockchain”, the two of us who were developers shared a mystified and slightly horrified look.

Fortunately, the consultants went away after extracting their $200k and providing our director with some glossy reports. They did have a few useful suggestions that we implemented, but on the whole they were never mentioned again.

I got a Wii with the Wii Fit balance board for my dad to work on his balance and coordination as he aged. He never really got into it, but I think that could be an absolutely killer “game” for elderly people.

Oxygen or Equinoxe by Jean Michel Jarre. Fueling trips for more than 40 years!

“Gay panic” was actually used as a defense.

I’m surprised his defence wasn’t based on “gay panic”.

New countries typically don’t start without a significant percentage of their population dying in conflict. Certainly a place that has as many guns as the US does not have a good chance for a peaceful transition.

Not that I actually believe a new country is even remotely possible. There will be decades if not centuries of decline.

There was a time, not that long ago, when cremation was not an option for Catholics. At some point, the church changed its mind. Maybe in the seventies or eighties?

There were guardrails, but most of them are just litter on the side of the road now. The supreme Court has essentially justified any action he takes, Congress will not dare to oppose anything he wants, and he is appointing toadies and lickspittles to the highest offices of the land. Oh, and he is reclassifying all the major bureaucrats as political appointees so they can be fired at will.

It really is as bad as it seems.

You are talking as if the US is ever going to hold elections again.

They actually still do bloodletting, and even use leeches to do it.

I can understand being frustrated and angry with the Democrats for essentially being a status quo party that favors their corporate benefactors.

What boggles my mind is thinking that voting Republican would make any of that better, when in fact it seems pretty clear that it is going to make everything much, much worse.

What rights do you really have when there is a Supreme Court that will allow them to be trampled?

The problem is that nowhere is safe now. I’m Canadian, and I wish I had somewhere to go. And just imagine how the poor sods in Palestine, Ukraine, and so many other suffering countries, are feeling right now.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Vladimir Putin’s armies weren’t occupying large swaths of Eastern Europe by the end of this term.

Okay, but at the moment (3 am EST) Trump is also leading by 4% of the total votes. The electoral college may be fucked up, but the society is more fucked up.

Back when the X-Files was ruling the airwaves, in the 90s, there was a companion show called Millennium. The first season was a bit weak, focusing on serial killers and gore. Second season went completely off the rails in the best way possible. The third season was a lackluster attempt to regain a wider audience.

I would recommend watching the second season for sure. It has religious satire (you will know exactly who they are skewering when you see it), the occult, end of days, mixed in with humor and solid human drama. The season finale, when they thought that they weren’t going to be renewed, is extraordinary.

I have done pair programming with a junior partner, and I found it extremely beneficial. Taking the time to talk out my ideas and logic invariably helped make them clearer in my mind and realize pitfalls much sooner than I otherwise would have.

I had to explain things clearly and logically, and he was bright enough to ask good questions and point out typos as I was coding.

One of the teachers at my high school was a Catholic priest. He had been accused of molesting a young boy when he was in a parish so the bishop, in his wisdom, moved him to an all boys boarding school.

He was later found guilty of molesting the original boy and the parish, as well as a boy at my school. From what I know now, he was definitely grooming one of my classmates, so there were probably many more victims.

He was given 3 years probation, and died a year or two ago, more than 40 years since I had him as a teacher.

In Ontario, any organization that receives provincial money must reach a certain accessibility level on its website, or risk having its funding removed.

Even as a 13-year-old, I could see gaping holes in the plot and inconsistencies. The aliens were hardly alien.

Even more so, I could see that the writing was clumsy and the dialogue was stilted. I could see how the writer was developing the story, and so I was not pulled into it at all. I was actually thinking to myself that I could write something like this. And I was 13!

I haven’t seen the movie, but from the sounds of it many of the problems with the book are also on screen.

Note for non-Canadians that “Newfoundland and Labrador” is a single province.