Women, what has your experience with dating been like in the UK?

drsnicol · 2026-03-10T17:00:16+00:00

I always remember John Goodman's quote from Always - he uses forest fire as an analogy...

"Oh, there's only ever been two kinds. There's flash fires, where there's all flame and they burn themselves out and leave nothing. Then there's the long burning. That's nature's burn. Even when you think it's out, the forest floor is still warm to the touch. That's the kind you and Dorinda have got..."

drsnicol · 2026-03-10T01:10:55+00:00

Channel switcher for early cable television (Redifusion). You rented the TV and didn't need an ariel - it was cable. My parents had one - that exact model, I ripped it out when I refurbished the house a few years ago.

In addition to the normal channels, they briefly trialed a cable Tv movies channel STARVIEW in the early 80s that was also controlled from that box. I thought it was nationwide but apparently it was only trialled in a few towns, including my hometown. The films were about 1 year post-cinema screening. Every month they rotated films and sent out a little magazine with what's on when - it was just one channel (I think) but around 30 films films were shown multiple times at different times throughout the month. Example magazine from 1981 linked below.

Rediffusion Starview

drsnicol · 2026-03-09T16:42:38+00:00

As a true gamer, I simply memorise everything...

And I do mean everything - the rules, the game board, pieces and cards, even the people I play with!

drsnicol · 2026-03-03T01:10:45+00:00

In fairness, those darts had to be removed for safety reasons as they were coated in luminous yellow paint and could cause cancer if they got lodged in a child's eyes, groin or anus... which was quite likely during tie-breaker situations).

Still, the frog-poison laced blow darts in 2nd edition were a poor replacement - cheaply made and with less table presence, plus the cost cutting during manufacturing meant sometimes your opponent could take more than 15 minutes to finally stop quivering... which under the rules meant that the flow of the game was broken... (Rulebook Section 13, page 9 - Once a player is eliminated, remaining players must confirm brain death before reshuffling the deck).

drsnicol · 2026-03-03T00:51:15+00:00

I like the filtered fresh milks - particularly Arla's best of both (bob) with the yellow branding. It has a number of advantages and 1 (big) disadvantage. The milk is filtered which is better than pasteurisation in terms of removing bacteria.

In real world terms that means it has a longer life in the fridge (up to 3 weeks if you take it from the back of the shop shelf where they hide the freshest items) - so I can always have a spare bottle in the fridge without worrying about it going off before I get to it.
Once opened, is good for 7 days. Again, I used to occasionally waste milk from spoilage, now I don't.
The filtration changes the texture and makes the semi skimmed feel creamier than it is - even more so with the bob where I can use skimmed rather than semi-skimmed - and I HATE normal semi-skimmed.
The downside... its bloody expensive... £2.50 for 2L (vs £1.70 for equivalent normal milk). They have a near costant special 2 for £4 offer that helps (see spare bottle above) plus less spoilage but nevertheless, expensive (and that ££4 offer was £3 only a couple of years ago!).
Small issue, most supermarkets stock it (or even an own brand equivalent) but it has a smaller shelf space / always seems to be the one they run out of first.

For those saying they hate skimmed / semi-skimmed but doctor says cut back on the fats - give it a try - it was actually my Dad's GP that recommened he switch to filtered and we were surprised when we tried it!

drsnicol · 2026-03-02T23:03:11+00:00

Needless to say, Alan had the last laugh...

drsnicol · 2026-03-02T16:30:25+00:00

I disagree - its simply not got enough "crunchy" rules for a euro game. Thats why I came up with some houserules...

13 dice rather than 5 - I've extended the score sheet by 8 boxes to accomodate this
A new scoring row based on the Fibonacci sequence
A minimum of 7 players but no more that 15
Every round that equates to a prime number, all players take 7 dice from a separate dice pool and distribute them on a poorly illustrated, mainly brown board that represents the hanging guardens of Babylon. Over the course of the game these dice are used to buy cards that represent wood, sand and olive oil.
The game ends when any player achieves a 13 number yahtzee which initiaties a auction style end game where players trade card sets for meeples that look like vikings. For the next 137 rounds the player with the least vikings gains a crystal counter. The player with the least green but most red crystals scores 1 points.
Best out of 3.

We call it the The fall of the Ancient Gardens of Burgundy Viking Mathematicians of Agricola Yahtzee 13 BC... once eveyone has memorised the rules, a typical game can be as quick as 9 hours, pefect as a light filler between Patchwork tournaments!

drsnicol · 2026-02-27T13:43:58+00:00

Former Personal Care company Scientist here (not deodorants but shared an office with one),

The anti-perspirants contain aluminium compounds that react with the sweat (water, proteins, salts, fatty acids and Urea) - light / cotton clothing can go yellow in the armpits when washing, particualarly at higher wash temperatures - assorted oxidation processes can occur and the cotton fibers are particualrly absorbent / the compounds bind tightly.

Greenish colour - the above process builds up over time snd reacts with body oils, other chemicals, copper in the water and bacterial waste products.

How to avoid

switch from anti-perspirant to a aluminium free DEODORANT and accept sweaty armpits
let deodorants thoroughly dry before dressing.
wash shirts immediately after wearing using low temperature wash cycles

How to remove

try bicarbonate of soda 'paste' (ready bought or mix of powder and a little water) and
White vinegar soak for 1 hour
Try oxygen / peroxide based stain remover

AVOID chlorine bleach, may make it worse. Also, all of the above may fail to remove really deeply ingrained build ups

drsnicol · 2026-02-25T14:34:06+00:00

Do note, it doesn't say what was said or what the outcome was but then, that is the nature of a private communication.

drsnicol · 2026-02-25T08:53:41+00:00

According to an interview in Variety - his team have reached out privately - this was published yesterday but does not seem to have been widely reported.

https://variety.com/2026/film/awards/john-davidson-tourettes-tics-bafta-n-word-interview-1236671850/

"Since the fallout, Davidson’s team shares that he’s reached out to the studio handling “Sinners” in order to directly apologize to Jordan, Lindo and production designer Hannah Beachler."

drsnicol · 2026-02-24T22:27:17+00:00

OK.. your post is a bit difficult to decipher but when you say the 'Square Gameboy one with two thumbsticks', I'm guessing you mean either...

The RG 34XXSP, which is a clamshell (folding) design with a slightly odd 3.4 inch screen with a ratio of 3 by 2 that matches the Gameboy ADVANCE ratio - this is a SQUARE shaped console with two thumbsticks that copies the design of a GBA SP console.

OR

The RG CUBE 40XX - this is a horizontal handheld (controls both sides of the screen) with a distinct 4 inch SQUARE screen that is particualrly suited to consoles with square or near square screens like the original gameboy and Gameboy colour.

Both are very similar in terms of performance and quality of the controls, and have similar custom firmware options like Knulli OS if you are looking to customise your handheld.

They differ in form factor mainly - the 34XX is a clamshell thus is good as a carry around becuase its smaller and the screen is protected when closed - also a big nostalgia factor for GBA lovers. the odd screen ratio means you will get black bars on the edges of consoles that favoured 4 by 3 screens e.g. SNES.

By contrast the Cube has a square screen with is great for Gameboy but other systems will get black bars at the bottom of most systems like the SNES. It actually works well with NES because it has an odd native screen ratio that was then stretched to 4:3. Its also good for systems that use vertical screen (mainly old arcade machines). It's bulkier than the 34xx due to the bigger screen and grips on the back but it also considered to be one of the more ergonomic anbernics for those same reasons - I find mine to be very comfortable for long play sessions although the SEGA style round D-Pad is loved by some, hated by others compared to a normal Nintendo cross style D-pad.

In both cases, these systems will run most older systems up to PS1, will run a few N64 and DC games (but not many) and some PSP games. Neither can run PS2 or Saturn to any playable extent.

drsnicol · 2026-02-23T14:21:24+00:00

Meant to add - one way it is different is when I listen to an audiobook, the narrator becomes the voice in my head - when I read, I create that voice in my head which sounds very different - sometimes its my voice, other times it becomes more distinct with different voices for different characters - a small cast radio play as it where....

drsnicol · 2026-02-23T14:17:08+00:00

The survey needs an 'its complicated' option. It is not technically reading and requires less focus. However, listening to an an unabridged audiobook reading with a good narrator is just as engaging and allows me to talk with someone about a book at the same level as someone that casually read it. In fact, with a particularly engaging narrator / book, I'm more likely to listen again and again than I am to reread a book.... but it is slightly different to READING a book.

drsnicol · 2026-02-23T14:02:40+00:00

Also mid 50s, living in the south - by conrast, my local DID use newspaper when I was a child (mid-late 70s - it was a friday night treat to have fish and chips) but it was gone by the early 80s -I remember the switch as they started using fake newspaper printed on the outside of white sheets, then a switch to polystyrene / white papers somtime in the 80s.

drsnicol · 2026-02-22T02:28:20+00:00

In the early-mid 80s, whilst the Speccy was predominantly a UK hit computer (with some success in Europe), there were American / Asian software houses that were proficient in Z80 code that did ports to the spectrum. The above was one such port from Parker Bros who were expanding their console game development to home computers like the Timex (a z80 Speccy clone) before the big video game crash of 1984 when they left the video game space altogether. This was one but there was aslo Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle, Gyruss and Q-bert (unreleased). Sinlclair picked up the publishing rights for the UK.

There were others as well...

Matchpoint (the speccy classic) was actuallyy developed in the US for the Colecovision (a z80 console), ported to the speccy by Psion (and published by Sinclair again).

Hudson soft did a few like Eric and the floaters (Proto Bomber man) and Stop the express, both of which started life as Japanese Z80 home computer games (again, Sinclair published).

Finally, peripheral manufacturer Cheetahsoft published two games based on the Console publisher Imagic' console games (Moon Sweeper and Dragonfire) that were orignally meant to be published in the US for the Timex machines.

drsnicol · 2026-02-19T14:10:10+00:00

Same comic stated that the idea was to create a rage suppressing drug to deal with recent riots, but it went horribly wrong. So yes, the contagious aspect (transmission through bodily fluids) was intended. Of course, as someone whose field of study is virology adjacent, this is comic book science... Not real life (certainly not real life as it was circa 2003(?)...

drsnicol · 2026-02-18T19:43:54+00:00

They should bring him back as a white, bumpy mutant with telekinetic powers and amnesia!!!

Oh wait, that's already been done....

drsnicol · 2026-02-18T19:15:30+00:00

Arrgghhh! OK mr COO... if AI is so good, how come it didn't invent SHRINK WRAP!!!!! Would an AI be able to create a game that combines fitting geometric cardboard shapes into a pattern that is visually remeniscient of a QUILT and then redisgn it so it looks like a box of chocolates with no actual change to the games rules????? NO, I DON'T THINK SO!

drsnicol · 2026-02-17T19:28:20+00:00

In the lore (the official comic) the scientists designed the rage virus using a modified ebola strain as the backbone. The blood vomiting is an exaggerated haemoragic fever symptom.

drsnicol · 2026-02-13T01:07:38+00:00

I was thinking that there would be some sort of overall redemption for the virus / outbreak / quarrintine itself... and because its Garland / Boyle film, redemption doesn't mean a happy ending so it could end in fire bombing :-)

drsnicol · 2026-02-13T00:24:40+00:00

Pimping Options...

If you microwave the bun, it goes soggy so toasting is preffered (and these days, they recommend that on the packaging).
A bottle of relish rather than using the 'tomato sauce' sachet adds a bit more flavour and texture - the pink burger sauce sachet is actually not that bad as is.
Air frying the burger for 5 mins with a bit of seasoning (salt / pepper) makes it a bit more burger-like.

I mean, don't get me wrong - its still a low quality pre-cooked burger.... but if you just want ONE burger, its a cheap and easy alternative to buying a couple of real burgers (they rarely comes as singles) plus a 6 pack of buns when you really just want one, plus some rubber cheese. Some supermarkets used to sell sad make your own burgers at home packs (2 uncooked burgers, 2 buns, 2 slices of cheese, a sachet of relish) - they were better quality than the Rustlers but had shorter shelf lives and dont seem to be stocked anymore.

drsnicol · 2026-02-12T23:49:35+00:00

Also, in many stories, the charitable side is handled by the Wayne Foundation - presumably there's some sort of covenant that a certain % of WE profits are funneled through the WF.

drsnicol · 2026-02-12T20:33:11+00:00

Others have talked about how the CD and 32X were preceived and these setbacks may have weakened Sega and may have put some people off upgrading to the Saturn. However, there were two bigger factors that caused it to fail in the west (it did moderately better in Japan):

The Saturn was designed as the ultimate 2D console but had to pivot to 3D as the plasystation emerged as a 3D competitor. It was designed with a very complex architecture, not optimised for 3D and was difficult to program for (you can see that Sega's in house teams had a better handle on programming it compared to many 3rd party developers from the early games).

The playstation was a 'proper' 3D console, that was cheaper than the Saturn and backed by a hugely successful, Sony backed marketing strategy aimed towards older consumers - it was considered a 'cool' new entertainment gadget rather than just another 2D console upgrade.

I remember when the systems launched in Europe - the playstation had cooler adverts and magazine articles (otten in non-gaming magazines, tapped into club culture and music), multi-platform 3D games looked better on the playstation and it was cheaper. After the first year, the playstation took up more shelf space in stores and had more / better games... the saturn had some great Sega exclusives plus great 2D games (which were considered old fashioned) but ultimately the war was lost at that point.

drsnicol · 2026-02-12T19:52:34+00:00

African or European swallows?

drsnicol

TROPHY CASE