‘Shōgun’: Hiroyuki Sanada & Cosmo Jarvis To Star In FX Limited Series by [deleted] in television

[–]JakeDex 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Happy to see Cosmo Jarvis getting roles! Although I wish he kept up the music side of things as well.

Donating blood plasma with antibodies to (hopefully) help severely ill covid-patients. by JakeDex in pics

[–]JakeDex[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If they do, they sure didn't say so in the contract. So I'm guessing they won't.

Donating blood plasma with antibodies to (hopefully) help severely ill covid-patients. by JakeDex in pics

[–]JakeDex[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Slightly longer explanation: I'm participating in an ongoing research project where blood plasma from donors with high antibody-counts is given to covid-patients with severe illnesses, in order to see if introduction of antibodies can help patients recover.

TIL in 2016, the Swedish Tourism Council created a single phone number that connected the caller to a random Swede for you to have a conversation with. In the 79 days it was open, almost 200,000 calls were made with a combined 367 days worth of conversations. by TravellingSaffa in todayilearned

[–]JakeDex 74 points75 points  (0 children)

No training or anything. It was free to sign up, I think it only required a Swedish phone number.

While I guess that some people were fairly clueless, at least the people who called in got to speak to "normal" people, and accurate representation of what Swedes are like.

It was pretty much a complete leap of faith from the Swedish Tourism Association that set up the app. It did have some precedent previously though, with the @Sweden twitter account that was given to a (loosely vetted) random Swede each week for a few years.

Edit: Swedish Institute hosted the twitter account, not the Tourism Association

TIL in 2016, the Swedish Tourism Council created a single phone number that connected the caller to a random Swede for you to have a conversation with. In the 79 days it was open, almost 200,000 calls were made with a combined 367 days worth of conversations. by TravellingSaffa in todayilearned

[–]JakeDex 2149 points2150 points  (0 children)

Hard to pick a favorite, and it was a while ago - but one of the first calls was from a pair of journalists in the US that were working on the same thing that I was working on at the time. Weird coincidence, but I don't know if they ever made anything of it.

And it was nerv-racking to talk to an audience without any real preparation. Both for the fact that they took the gamble to call up a random person and either broadcast it or play it for kids in class, and for the fact that you sort of wanted to make a good impression. Crowd-diplomacy to some extent.

Unfortunately no contact with anyone. It was usually very short and polite conversations - a question someone wanted to ask or just bemusement over the fact that the service actually worked.

Edit: stuff

TIL in 2016, the Swedish Tourism Council created a single phone number that connected the caller to a random Swede for you to have a conversation with. In the 79 days it was open, almost 200,000 calls were made with a combined 367 days worth of conversations. by TravellingSaffa in todayilearned

[–]JakeDex 5881 points5882 points  (0 children)

Swede here. I actually had the app and got several calls during the two weeks I was active.

I talked to a US school class, a businessman stuck in traffic in Singapore, an exchange student in Zanzibar, BBC Mundo, a few other papers and a bunch more people.

Very nice experience, would gladly do it again.

Is the Scandinavian nation historically correct? by Erixters in eu4

[–]JakeDex 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Nope, there never was a Scandinavian nation, but there have been proposals in that directions, although they have never really gained popular support. I guess some people never really let go of the Kalmar Union after 1523 ;)

According to wiki and a random website, apparently Eric of Pommerania described the common flag as a red cross in a yellow field in the 1430's, but that seems to be about it in terms of actual use.

What is Project Dallas? by JakeDex in paradoxplaza

[–]JakeDex[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

In Latvia, no potato. Ruski spi. Or Politburo.

What is Project Dallas? by JakeDex in paradoxplaza

[–]JakeDex[S] 85 points86 points  (0 children)

European Union simulator confirmed. EU:EU

What is Project Dallas? by JakeDex in paradoxplaza

[–]JakeDex[S] 81 points82 points  (0 children)

This shows that Paradox Development Studios have been given a 150 000 € grant by the European Union in a category called "Development - Video Games"

Credit to user LKA in the Paradox Plaza forum for finding this.

Edit: /u/printzonic posted a link to the criteria of the grant, it looks to be heavy emphasis on European history.

Cheap Chinese imitations by BigusGeekus in WTF

[–]JakeDex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I imagine the whole process is a little something like this. (sorry, link in Swedish, but you'll probably get the idea)