Actually, we had already gone out a few times. She'd told me she used to hang out with WP skinheads, but that she was well over it. She made fun of their "Hitler worship" and such, and told me it was a really toxic scene, which I already knew. But, of course, old habits die hard. The last time we really talked was on the phone, and I remember being at work at the time, on lunch break, and something set her off, and she went on a huge rant about Indian people specifically, I think it was. It was really belligerent and nasty and left me feeling pretty shitty, as I couldn't get a word in edge-wise and I knew it wouldn't have made any difference anyway. I was going through some mad stuff in my life at the time, went away for a couple of weeks and then just never re-established contact.

Oi, we do have Fox News over here! However, among Argentinians, it's generally appreciated mainly for its comedic value. Guess I happened to find the one person who takes that stuff seriously here

New signature incoming. Fuck, had to edit it to make it fit. Still works though.

@Abom: man, that sounds pretty nasty. You did well in not responding though. It was kind of a lose-lose scenario.

Can anyone recommend a decent free anti-virus for Windows? I have a licence through work but it's going to expire.

I use Malwarebytes for active scans, and I have AdBlock Plus and NoScript on Firefox doing the passive filtering. It's worked wonders for me for half a decade now.

It definitely can get that way sometimes, especially in the winter. I'm thankful I live within a couple hours of the city, and a couple more from the mountains to keep things interesting in the summer. I've been here my whole life, so I'm used to it. With the brief experiences I have living in cities, I'd much rather live in the middle of nowhere, haha.

I love the prairies, personally. I think there is something beautiful about it, different from hills and mountains for sure, but it's got it's own charm. Hella cold here tho.

YouTube to start attaching little Wiki blurbs to videos that are possibly conspiracy theories related:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/13/1711 ... cicki-sxsw

Well thank God! All the time I've spent watching some grainy home video of a UFO, I've never once wondered if it might be BS. NOW I'LL KNOW!!!

Laugh all you want, but it's nice to have some kind of measure against the ridiculous disinformation spread by conspiracy theorists.

I applaud the effort, but that's just gonna reinforce most conspiracy theorists in their believe that "the deep state" or "big media company" is out to silence the truth. On the positive side, it may actually prevent some people from going down that road in the first place.

I wondered what the title of this old Black Metal documentary meant, so...



Thanks google.

Is anyone else getting an error when they try to visit Hell's Headbangers home page? It's been doing this to me for over 24 hours now.

Just went there no problem.

To be fair, this is actually a really big problem. Bullshit documentaries like Loose Change work hard to look legitimate, and the software to make professional-style videos and editing can be obtained and used by almost anyone, and anyone can learn to use it. Yeah, a bunch of them are pretty obviously going to be full of shit, but not every documentary or video handily splashes hilarious grainy UFOs or Illuminatti 666 in flaming orange letters on the front.

It's just sad reflection on the dumbing-down of society today, that BS flags are necessary. Are kids (and people in general) not taught to avoid latching onto the first opinion they hear any more? I wouldn't be opposed to a little message like "this video contains subject matter that might not be factually accurate. We encourage further research." That should be obvious to any intelligent person, but it at least leaves the onus on the individual to not let himself become stupid, while also satisfying the apparent need to protect people from their own poorly-informedness.
But to toss in a Wikipedia link carries the implication "go here for the real authoritative information you should believe on this issue". Not good in my book.

Some conspiracy theories aren't dumb, though. I think 9/11 and the JFK assassination ones are fairly logical. I agree that there are many stupid ones, though, like Bigfoot, aliens visiting earth, the Irruminati, Freemasons, reptilian-humanoids, vaccines causing autism, etc.

I think calling it the 'dumbing down of society' is pretty reductive and misses a lot of the nuance in this story. It's not about the young people and kids being less educated, it's about a large chunk of (mostly right-wing) society that has chosen to mistrust factual news and instead treat inane conspiracies and bat-shit tin-foil garbage with actual validity. See any of those stories about fake news stories out there like Muslim mayors wanting to ban Christmas, Obama constructing desert concentration camps or, most infamously, "Pizzagate." This shit is real and needs to be addressed.

The left does it too but I haven't seen any Pizzagate-style things where lives were put at risk because of misinformation about Trump or whatever.

AboveTheThrone: that is true, but beside the point. Full disclosure, I believe in quite a few conspiracy theories myself. What I was trying to say, was this: when someone who's on the fence wants to look into whether Sasquatch exists, it should go without saying that not every "real Sasquatch" video put there is potentially the real thing. For me, a notice saying "this might be fake" is regrettable but tolerable; but a pop-up to the (selected by whom?) "verified" Wiki about this, does nothing to reinforce independent critical thought.

Empyreal: We might have to write off some people as no longer reachable. I'm not an expert on cognitive development, but there is some evidence that suggests people don't significantly change their minds much after a certain age. Lookie: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20 ... -behavior/
This means that, in order to have any use at combating the BSification of available information, it should be targeted more to protect the young minds that are still malleable and might be willing to research stuff on their own.

FIU Bridge collapses in South West Miami, several fatalities suspected, four confirmed.

Sad and scary. Happened in a matter of seconds. At least 9 cars are smashed under the bridge.

Well, you did misspell the original phrase, so.

Take a look at the comments to this video, and be amazed and horrified how gullible/stupid people actually are.

All songs on Nattestid ser porten vid by Taake are excellent. I think it's a black metal masterpiece.
9.8/10

Hey, you're right! I didn't notice that. Let's try again...



Enlightening.

Does anyone know what the actual translation is?

It's not too bad. It just mixes up "svarte" with "sværte", which means sreious/grave.
It means "the black/dark seriousness".

Did three reviews today and finished a short story. Feels good to be productive. The reviews especially were fun - it was good to take a break.

Does anyone have information on the new Mgla or Anaal Nathrakh albums?!

Thinking about doing a couple of reviews today, myself. It's been a while.

I just have to tell people what I think of random albums of the year. Got a few more I want to do too - both more positive ones that I want to take more time on.

I had a big review ready for the new Judas Priest that I kept talking to myself about at work, and now that I'm home I've got a blank page in front of me and all I want to do is type LET THE OLD BANDS DIE ALREADY over and over again a la Jack Torrance.

I just burned a cd and I decided to make it a data disc. The quality of the data disc sounds excellent considering that it is a demo from Paysage d'Hiver.

So, I'm kinda like, a bit/somewhat/super fucking drunk right now, and could we all just take a moment to appreciate the massive goddamn breakdown in the middle of Raining Blood? I haven't listened to this album in a while, and yeah it's all totally badass from beginning to end, but that fucking breakdown at 2:11, man:


The fucking beauty, man. I know I'm not saying anything new whatsoever to absolutely anyone on this board, but seriously, if Black Sabbath got me into metal, then that breakdown is what got me to stay metal. I'm here banging my head like a clown, nearly crushing my keyboard with my forehead, just replaying that bit over and over. It's like a revelation, man. You guys get what I'm saying, right? AWAITING THE HOUR OF REPRISAL, YOUR TIME SLIPS! AWAAAAAY... *DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN...*

So sweet, man.

I certainly do man and after over a quarter century listening to metal, I'm still floored by the classics and the newcomers. I recently re-discovered how fucking awesome Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence is after owning it for 25 years. Bang on brother

Fuck yeah, man, you get it! I have only been part of this game for around... what, ten years already? Almost ten years, yeah, which feels like a lot yet also very little at the same time for some reason, but every once in a while I just renew my love for this beautiful, gorgeous, transcendent stuff, ya know? Metal is just fucking awesome. I've branched out a lot, and listen to a lot of music I wouldn't have given the time of day to when I was a dumb teen (synthwave, pop, the darker shades of country, hell, even some rap, among other things), but metal is the one I always and inexorably return to. It's home, man.

And fuckin' A, Necrophobic is badass. Cheers

The 9/11 and JFK conspiracies are equally as stupid as vaccines causing autism and reptilian-humanoids. The JFK assassination was one of the most heavily investigated incidents in the 20th Century in the US, because it was kind of a big deal, and the last time an American President was killed in office.

Hell, 9/11 was already a conspiracy--a conspiracy by a group of people with strong anti-American sensibilities, heavily inspired by their religion, and looking to murder as many Americans in as symbolic a manner as possible. When referencing a "Bush did 9/11 conspiracy, what you're talking about isn't "logic," it's just some convenient-sounding "explanations" to fill gaps in knowledge and understanding.

For instance, 9/11 conspiracy theorists love to point out the "explosions" coming out of the building as it collapsed, and to them (hopefully not you), the "logical" explanation is set explosives. This "logic" stops there, however. Real logic would have those people examining from that point to find out if they're correct. They stop. No questioning of the totally random way the "explosion" appear. No explanation why they're so small or if the measured power of them would have any impact at all. On top of which, no measure of air compression or impact. The "explosions" were the blasted-out air pressure from the building collapsing and impacting air below the pancaking floors. That is logic followed to it's actual, logical conclusion, using science and engineering.

Conspiracy theorists do not use logic. They use convenient logic-sounding arguments to support presupposed conclusions. Every 9/11 conspiracy theorists is an asshole who wants to believe the absolute worst in the government at the time. I get that you guys didn't like Bush, because he was a lackluster (at best) President, but this is the wrong way to do it.

That's part of why I always come back to metal even though I have been rapidly expanding what I listen to. There's just something infectious and badass about metal that makes everyone who likes it so goddamn excited, and that's a lot of fun.

you guys are aware that conspiracies, i.e. secret agreements between several people to surreptitiously act and change things, are common practice in politics and other domains, right? conspiracy theories are often used as a combat term to discredit political and other enemies and turn into true accounts of true facts the moment they are proven, which in the majority of cases happens much later after the events, by newly gathered documents, testimony or whatever. which is exactly why "conspiracy theorists" are so easy to be discredited, all the more so by people in power (notwithstanding the fact that many conspiracy theorists are paranoid-schizotypal-delusional-you-name-it dorks who are indeed trying to fill gaps in their distorted perception of the world).

regarding the JFK assassination for example, even if oswald was the sole perpetrator, there was most likely at least a cover-up conspiracy, which will probably be proven once those withheld CIA documents get released at some point in the future, or somebody involved irrefutably comes clean on their deathbed or whatever.

Xlxlx: is this you?

How long ago was it that the idea that there was a little known security agency keeping records on the phone calls of every American was a totally kooky conspiracy theory?

I think everyone stopped caring the moment we realized none of us ever say anything interesting or important at all, much less over the phone. At the very least we'll achieve a limited form of immortality by way of our pizza orders and awkward conversations with grandma being stored in some government database forever and ever amen.

I don't even look half-way like that guy, what you talking about, Colin?

Also my god, what a tone deaf asshat this guy is. Has no idea what he's talking about.

Thanks to clearance and discount prices, I picked up the Mega Bloks TMNT: Technodrome set for my son over the weekend. Originally a $250 set, I paid $90. It is nearly 3000 pieces. So my weekend activity with my kid was us making our hands sore spending around 8 hours assembling this monstrosity.

Over a dozen bags filled with bricks and pieces and a glaring horror that separates Mega Bloks from Legos. None of the bags are labeled. It takes forever to find some of those pieces. But man, it's a pretty sweet set.