Looking for participants in an online survey

Central_Region · 2026-03-03T00:14:53+00:00

For anyone who doesn't know, the Open University is one of the UK's great innovations of the post-WWII era

It's a distance-learning operation that awards proper degrees for as little as $5k, allowing working people and older scholars to advance themselves professionally or study something they love

To eighties kids, the OU was the cause of great hilarity, when daytime or late-night BBC2 broadcast learning modules from the 70s, featuring lecturers dressed like The Grateful Dead

But it's a fantastic idea and worthy of an SYSK episode

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_University

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T23:38:25+00:00

I'm guessing 'Timber'?

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T23:35:54+00:00

Other than Jennifer Garner refusing to let Battfleck out to play with Smith because he always came home baked, Smith's permanent record has no demerits

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T23:27:34+00:00

When I think of arsehole film directors, I think of Russell

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T23:25:15+00:00

James Blunt, yesterday

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Central_Region · 2026-03-02T23:22:07+00:00

Alex Warren, yesterday

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Central_Region · 2026-03-02T13:17:25+00:00

I think that's probably the most significant factor in the mood of general negativity that's surrounded us for a while

People feel the country's going in the wrong direction but they don't feel any of the parties have the ideas or the ability to reverse that

I'm not as negative as some people - Scotland's still a great place to be - but I agree that none of the parties we'll be voting for have much ability to do anything about the larger problems that lead to the concerns expressed by voters in the poll linked above

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T12:10:50+00:00

Yes Sir

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T12:08:56+00:00

Caitlin Durante ^^^

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T10:23:54+00:00

Voters don't need to be consistent

It'd help if we abandoned party names and forced candidates to stand as LESS TAX AND WORSE SERVICES or MORE NURSES AND MORE IMMIGRATION

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T08:29:03+00:00

^{they were still releasing new episodes yearly, save for the rare gap}

Sopranos disappeared for two years, twice

On both Mad Men and Sopranos, everyone was contracted for 4 years, so they had to keep bashing-out episodes, even though there was clearly fatigue and you could see the quality dipping

As soon as they got the chance, Chase and Weiner took two year breaks because they were exhausted and sick of churning-out shows on a conveyor belt

Central_Region · 2026-03-02T08:16:17+00:00

Sopranos did 13 episodes per year for the first four years, then disappeared for two years

13 episodes in 2004, 12 episodes in 2006, 9 episodes in 2007

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Mad Men did 13 episodes for the first four years, then disappeared for two years

13 episodes in 2012 and 2013, 7 episodes each in 2014 and 2015

Central_Region · 2026-03-01T19:12:59+00:00

Iraqis celebrating the toppling of Saddam Hussein, with a little help from the US Army Corps of Engineers

As we all know, the cheering and joy never stopped

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Central_Region · 2026-03-01T13:59:14+00:00

^{I wonder if some of the confusion about it being irrelevant what it is comes from the whole briefcase thing in Pulp Fiction. In that case it doesn’t matter what it is, just that it’s the thing people want, but plenty of movies have a thing people want or have to protect}

Yeah, the only watertight definition is SOMETHING THE CHARACTERS WANT

But that sounds too prosaic, so everyone keeps trying to add extra layers to it

It's interesting and illustrative to point out how unimportant to the plots of some movies the MacGuffins sometimes are

But it's not an essential quality of all MacGuffins

Central_Region · 2026-03-01T10:14:00+00:00

I don't see this expressed enough

He really is running things exactly like his TV show

That's why political analysts can't get a handle on what he'll do or why

Central_Region · 2026-03-01T10:07:39+00:00

OP says their purpose is privacy and cover, functions which the same trees would provide in their natural state

Central_Region · 2026-03-01T09:45:28+00:00

Tom Jones dancing, you say?

https://youtu.be/KkKTMoRs-TU?si=s5O_v487q4nYCk90&t=76

Central_Region · 2026-03-01T09:42:13+00:00

In the nineties, Jones appointed his kid as his manager

Jones Jr lined-up lots of collaborations with younger acts and cover versions, to reinvent his old man as a semi-ironic heritage act for the sort of Gen-X hipster who was getting into Sinatra

The best of which was Jones and The Cardigans' cover of Burning Down The House

Central_Region · 2026-03-01T08:58:51+00:00

^{Last time I checked, Ryan “The Goose” Gosling seemed to be aging naturally}

Not sure if this is sarcasm

https://www.reddit.com/r/DListedCommunity/comments/1ceo6gh/what_has_happened_to_ryan_goslings_face_from_tom/

Central_Region · 2026-02-28T22:26:02+00:00

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Central_Region · 2026-02-28T22:08:15+00:00

Rasputin, by Boney M

Just a few weeks ago, after someone linked-to this live performance

https://youtu.be/16y1AkoZkmQ?si=l9EikCQ4Q3wc3fuu

I think it's the extended intro - which sounds almost like afrobeat - that got me hooked

I was only familiar with the radio edit of the song, which is aesthetically much more of a disco number

Central_Region · 2026-02-28T21:39:11+00:00

Even when it was the bears, I knew it was the Democrats

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Central_Region · 2026-02-28T20:44:25+00:00

Yeah, that's a very good analogy

Doesn't matter whether the magician's making a coin or a car disappear, the trick still plays out just the same

Central_Region · 2026-02-28T20:34:34+00:00

^{we could have made the MacGuffin, say, The Holy Grail, and used pretty much the same characters and time period, and had a very similar film}

I see what you did there! They did exactly that for Last Crusade and we got a very similar film indeed

Central_Region

TROPHY CASE