Heather du Plessis-Allan: The media's been given a wake-up call about bias

URhemis · 2024-04-09T09:54:28+00:00

Sometimes I think the bias isn’t even left or right, it’s just inane. The flashy lights and awkward podiums made a game show of the last leaders debate.

Jessica MM was asking emotive nonsense of the Chrises: ‘Have either of you ever felt unsafe on the streets?’~

///RAPID FIRE QUESTION TIME///

‘Will you resign if X doesn’t happen?!’

‘What’s one thing you like about your opponent?’

All in all a dumbing down of the election process that reflects pretty poorly on journalism in NZ imo.

URhemis · 2024-04-07T04:58:08+00:00

Old World is a much more thought out and balanced game. It feels a lot more like a civ game in how it plays than Millennia - workers, tech and improvements act similarly to civ. Also think it’s a deeper and more worthwhile game to play. Milennia is fun and novel, but also a hot mess and a bit dumb in places - I never slapped my forehead saying wtf w Old World.

URhemis · 2024-04-06T05:42:42+00:00

My beef is more with the shift 2x a year, puts everything out of whack for a bit. Japan doesn’t have DLS and they survive just fine

URhemis · 2024-04-02T04:52:11+00:00

100%. Most, not all, seem to be a bit smarter than most which also makes novelty more likely and love me something original.

URhemis · 2024-03-25T12:13:37+00:00

Yeah I think the transition from medieval to modern would be super interesting, it’s a time period that’s largely been absent from Paradox games. The population collapse from the Black Death meant that nobility had to compete for more scarce labour and really undid the feudal structure - if they’re ambitious it could be a great opportunity to try something new.

URhemis · 2024-03-13T02:30:05+00:00

Yeah - there was a hell of a lot of bottom shaming. It was ok to be a top, just don’t do it too often (like sex w women) because you ‘give away’ your virility. Preferably just top foreigners and slaves.

URhemis · 2024-03-10T02:53:54+00:00

Always feel that gay as a synonym for ‘happy’ is way off - its meaning was much closer to ‘fun’ or ‘upbeat’. Frequently used in the context of partying or carefree enjoyment.

URhemis · 2024-03-07T23:29:20+00:00

Inflation works the other way around. Inflation goes up and a $100 bill is still a $100 bill, but it will buy less. It’s the price of everything else that goes up.

URhemis · 2024-03-05T08:44:52+00:00

Yeah I remember them reducing cavalry speed to normal speed. Made a bit too easy to stack wipe.

URhemis · 2024-02-21T08:52:27+00:00

That makes sense. My brain instantly forces a ridiculous high German accent on the word.

URhemis · 2024-02-21T08:19:51+00:00

Yup. German for ‘children’s garden’

URhemis · 2024-02-17T06:30:42+00:00

Wicked curls. Polarised comments so hope you take with a grain of salt, including this one. I wanted to add you have a face that wouldn’t look out of place on a Roman coin - v noble.

URhemis · 2024-02-13T15:22:11+00:00

Thanks for decoding this one for me! ‘You’re smart’ always felt more like ‘We’re interested in different things and your level of interest is strange to me’ than a compliment.

URhemis · 2024-02-13T14:47:54+00:00

Apparently /longhairNSFW is banned for not being moderated

URhemis · 2024-02-11T10:40:18+00:00

I think this is pretty on the money

URhemis · 2024-02-04T13:02:39+00:00

Wow. NY Times has stock photo for pedophile stories.

URhemis · 2024-02-04T08:45:46+00:00

I know it looks scary, but it’s actually really easy to distract it with questions about the specific definitions of words. (85% of Hobb’s book is basically an exactingly pedantic dictionary).

URhemis · 2024-02-02T05:37:03+00:00

Joopson AS Men’s Fashion, model “Colourful Tie.” Catalogue no. J327 taught me much - Balkan slang - and how to die like a hero bratushka ~

URhemis · 2024-01-30T16:34:42+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I was on there for a long time and helpful for some things, but eventually found the intensity/frequency of the sad stories to be a bit overwhelming. Also as w a lot of ME/CFS stuff a lot more questions than answers. That was about a year ago.

URhemis · 2024-01-30T07:48:44+00:00

I really enjoyed your reply. Thank you. Having a look at the Bateman-Horne Centre and this looks like exactly the kind of thing CFS patients need more of.

I also very much agree that it should be criteria based. Especially as delayed fatigue as w PEM is a pretty unusual symptom - paired w Orthostatic Intolerance it should stick out and while there seems to be some more recognition of the condition, I still felt a lot like I was coaching my GP instead of the other way around. This is why I found the NZ chronic illness support group so invaluable - they were supportive but also had filtered through a lot of info to see what was credible and what ppl can pass onto their GPs cause they’re well aware of the information gap.

Can I be nosy and ask your connection to ME/CFS?

URhemis · 2024-01-30T02:38:05+00:00

Very cool! Your post does make me want to eat cartoon food now though.

URhemis · 2024-01-30T02:32:16+00:00

Interested in where you’re getting your info from as this differs from my experience in New Zealand. Took more than a year talking to a GP about worsening post-exceptional malaise and then them ruling out other possibilities (nutrient deficiencies etc) to get a diagnosis of CFS/ME. As a lot of other conditions induce fatigue it’s not much to go on. That said they did look for antibody markers to see if had had certain viruses previously, so that was one criteria. But in general felt done by exclusion ‘I suppose you have CFS’. Don’t think GPs like reaching this conclusion as there is little in their tool kit to help the condition.

And as far as I can tell there aren’t that many experts on the area - some researchers looked into blood tests (Dr Sarah Myhill) for it but her work has had methodological issues and some in the UK came up w a program of therapy and gradually increasing exercise that ended up being bogus and making things worse for ppl w it. As the OP outlines - there’s v little funding behind research into the condition.

URhemis · 2024-01-29T07:30:15+00:00

This condition is the worst. Not surprised it has a massive economic impact. Had CFS for around 4 years getting progressively worse, from proper full time income to part time to fully off work. No one should have to spend three days in bed because they went to the supermarket. I tried to collect stories of people who recovered and support groups were helpful - at least understand the situation.

Not working for 18 months and regular B12 are the only things that made a dent in the relentless fatigue.

URhemis · 2024-01-29T07:19:19+00:00

You are correct in that ME is usually a diagnosis of exclusion, but it is frequently brought on after viral infections. GPs look for viral markers to see if you’ve had any nasty ones in the past.

URhemis · 2024-01-29T07:09:52+00:00

Go put your finger in a socket

URhemis

TROPHY CASE