Posted by: history79



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Posted by: history79



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Posted by: icon_uk

As John Constantine proves in the new "Apokalips war" animated movie

( Do I LOOK mad? )

Posted by: cyberghostface

 

NSFW for gore

( Scans under the cut... )

Posted by: history79



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Posted by: icon_uk

It used to be the tradition around these here parts to post fan art on Thursday, comic themed, but not comic published, art by fans or professionals.

So share your commissions or interesting art you've seen. (If in doubt, check with the artist it's okay to post it and if they say no, then it's a no!)

( Just for fun )

Posted by: brerrabbit

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Místo zájezdu nové brýle a namísto pravidelné masáže konzultace s lékařem na dálku. Vládní opatření proti koronaviru změnila také čerpání zaměstnaneckých benefitů. Na rozdíl od výplat je však firmy nekrátí.

Preventivní opatření proti nákaze covid-19 zasáhla jak firmy všech velikostí, tak živnostníky. Jenže právě osoby samostatně výdělečně činné patří podle vlády ke skupinám, které krize vyvolaná pandemií nejvíce ohrozí. Zejména pak ty, kteří mají živnost jako hlavní zdroj příjmů a nemají ji jako přivýdělek k zaměstnání. Jak je stát podpoří?

Ještě minulý týden byly úřední hodiny kontaktních pracovišť Úřadu práce ČR velmi omezené. Pobočky sice v pondělí otevřely, ani dnes ale na úřad nemusíte osobně, většinu záležitostí vyřídíte online. Poradíme jak na to a shrneme, kdy a v jaké výši máte nárok na podporu v nezaměstnanosti.

Pandemie koronaviru dolehla v březnu i na hypoteční trh. Objemy poskytnutých hypoték se propadly o čtvrtinu. Průměrná úroková sazba hypoték však roste již třetí měsíc v řadě, v březnu vzrostla na 2,45 procenta.

Říká se, že po krizi spojené s onemocnění covid-19 se probudíme do jiného světa. Otázka je, zda to bude platit i pro realitní trh. Podle odborníků s největší pravděpodobností ano. Což platí jak pro prodejní ceny nemovitostí, tak pro ceny nájemního bydlení.

Řada lidí přijde o práci a začne hledat novou. Už teď je dobré se na to připravit a před podpisem pracovní smlouvy vědět, na co si dát pozor. Je lepší kývnout na mzdový výměr, nebo na mzdu v pracovní smlouvě? A na co dalšího si dát pozor? Na otázky odpovídá advokát Pavel Nastis.

Kvůli koronavirové pandemii pracují z domova tisíce lidí. Home office má však určitý pracovně-právní rámec, což tuší málokdo. Jaká jsou práva a povinnosti zaměstnanců a co musí zaměstnavatel udělat, aby neporušil zákoník práce? Ve spolupráci s právníky Bořivojem Líbalem a Markem Poloni přinášíme praktický servis rad pro zaměstnance a zaměstnavatele.

Sněmovna schválila návrh zákona o některých opatřeních ke zmírnění dopadů epidemie koronaviru. Jaké úlevy se dočkají dlužníci a jaké jsou podmínky pro zastavení exekuce, vysvětluje právník Adam Stawaritsch.

Spodní prádlo obvykle řeší především ženy. Existují však výjimky. Mezi ty patří i Adam Rožánek, spolumajitel české módní značky spodního prádla Styx. Je české ve všech směrech. Všechno od začátku až do konce totiž vzniká v tuzemsku. Poslední týdny ukázaly, že tato strategie je správná.

Od 1. září 2022 nebude možné provozovat kotle na tuhá paliva, které nevyhovují přísnějším emisním normám. Včasnou výměnou kotle můžete ušetřit. Nejenže snížíte náklady za topení, ale stihnete navíc využít státní dotaci na jeho pořízení. Víte, jak na to? Otestujte své znalosti.

V době koronavirové pandemie nás bombardují ze všech stran nejrůznější informace. Informační přetížení je tak značné, že v mnohých lidech vyvolává strach a stres. Jak tomu čelit, komu věřit a jaké informace ignorovat, se v komentáři zamýšlí psycholog Jan Urban.

Finanční znalosti Čechů se začínají zlepšovat. V indexu finanční gramotnosti, který každoročně měří Česká bankovní asociace, dosáhli Češi 61 procentních bodů ze 100. Oproti loňskému roku to je o čtyři body více, což je doposud nejvyšší hodnota za posledních několik let. Problém ale je, že pětina lidí přiznává, že má finanční polštář vytvořený jen na pouhý měsíc.

Kvůli koronavirové pandemii lze očekávat silnou recesi. Česká národní banka proto v březnu dvakrát snížila základní úrokovou sazbu z 2,25 procenta na jedno procento. Některé banky na to už zareagovaly razantním snižováním úrokových sazeb na spořicích účtech, což zamíchalo žebříčkem nejlepších spořicích účtů. Ve spolupráci s Finparádou jsme zmapovali aktuální trend a sestavili nový žebříček.

Ze 60 na 80 procent denního vyměřovacího základu vzroste ošetřovné pro rodiče, kteří zůstali doma s potomky v souvislosti s uzavřením škol a školek kvůli koronavirové krizi. Senát novelu schválil v úterý 28. dubna 2020. Předlohu nyní dostane k podpisu prezident Miloš Zeman. Spočítejte si orientačně na kalkulačce iDNES.cz, kolik dostanete.

Podřízení na něj spoléhají v časech dobrých i zlých. A když přijdou opravdové těžkosti, záleží často jen na jeho schopnostech, jak moc se podnik otřese, nebo zda padne úplně.

Pokud jste se rozhodli pro změnu místa, je to jednoduché. Výpověď můžete dát kdykoli a z jakéhokoli důvodu, vlastně i bez důvodu. Naproti tomu zaměstnavatel vás může propustit jen z důvodů vyjmenovaných v zákoníku práce. Jak je to ale v případě, že jste v karanténě nebo čerpáte ošetřovné? Na tyto a další otázky odpovídá advokát Pavel Nastis.

Možnost cestování je silně omezená a nic zatím nenasvědčuje tomu, že by lidé v letošní letní sezoně mohli vyrazit na zahraniční dovolenou. Zároveň ale nikdo dnes ještě neví, zda se nějaká možnost přece jen neobjeví. Pokud jste si koupili dovolenkový zájezd, jste asi momentálně jako na trní. Pojedete? Vrátí vám peníze?

Firmy i finanční trhy mají za sebou první letošní kvartál. Bilance obou není z důvodu preventivních vládních opatření proti šíření nákazy covid-19 nikterak růžová. To potvrzuje i Partners index podílových akciových fondů.

Děti se v online světě pohybují naprosto přirozeně a svými technickými znalostmi často předčí své rodiče. Na druhou stranu jsou právě ony nejohroženější skupinou čelící útokům internetových predátorů a kyberšikaně. Rodiče často o hrozbách ani netuší. Vyzkoušejte si náš kvíz a zjistěte, jak jste na tom s digitálními znalostmi právě vy.

Současná koronavirová krize otřásla finančními trhy, zlevněné akcie jsou příležitostí, jak zhodnotit investici. Jenomže kdy je správná chvíle investovat? Už se trhy odrazily ode dna, nebo přijde další propad? A jak snížit riziko špatného načasování? Nad tím se zamýšlí Michal Valentík, investiční analytik společnosti Broker Trust.

Splácíte hypotéku, u níž se blíží zlomové datum fixace? Jak na to, když chcete brzy půjčku doplatit nebo ji refinancovat? A lze před doplacením využít odkladu splátek?

Zaměstnaní rodiče mají od dubna nově nárok na ošetřovné ve výši 80 procent denního vyměřovacího základu. Důvod zvýšení je jasný. Původních 60 procent většině rodin na pokrytí nákladů na provoz domácnosti nevystačilo. Potvrzuje to i případ paní Anny.

Nová zákon „Lex voucher“ stanovil pravidla pro vypořádání cestovních kanceláří s klienty. Na problematické situace, které mohou být s koupeným zájezdem spojeny, jsme se zeptali advokáta Ondřeje Vokála.

Do pracovních i osobních životů vstoupila pandemie, jakou nikdo nepamatuje. Krize, která nastává, se dotkne všech. Nad aktuální situací a tím, co nás letos čeká a co je klíčové pro rozhýbání ekonomiky, se v komentáři zamýšlí personalista Tomáš Surka.

Mohlo by se zdát, že pojišťovny budou v koronavirové době zaznamenávat zvýšený zájem o sjednání životních pojistek. Zejména kvůli krytí rizika pracovní neschopnosti, což se vztahuje i na onemocnění infekcí covid-19. Praxe je ale zatím opačná.

Práci z domova u zaměstnanců soukromých firem nelze jednostranně nařídit, vzniká jen na základě dohody obou stran. U pedagogických pracovníků a zaměstnanců škol však platí trochu jiná pravidla. Ve spolupráci s právníky Bořivojem Líbalem a Markem Polonim přinášíme odpovědi na nejčastější dotazy pedagogů.

Potřeba finančního polštáře je dnes aktuálnější než kdy jindy. Jaká by měla být naše rezerva? A kam ji uložit? Zmapovali jsme aktuální nabídku spořicích účtů. Příběh klienta Poradny při finanční tísni ukazuje, jak se dá náhle dostat do dluhů, až k osobnímu bankrotu.

Česká rodinná firma SSI Group vznikla v době, kdy jsme ještě neznali mobilní telefony a podnikatelské prostředí 90. let bylo poměrně divoké. Přesto se ji Václavu Vodrážkovi společně se synem Janem a dalšími členy rodiny dařilo každý rok posouvat o něco dál. Letos tak na trhu významná bezpečnostní agentura oslaví 30 let svého působení na trhu.

動画アップ出来てますね。『違うな、違うんだよ、違う』 ってな具合でtake4の動画です。そして、更新しようと続きをみる

『著作権保護のため、記事の一部のみ表示されております。』

• 1 head romaine, chopped ($1.70)
• 1 orange, peeled and sectioned ($.50)
• 1 banana, sliced ($.30)
• 2 tablespoons sliced onion

• 2 oranges, peeled and sectioned ($1.00)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar ($.20)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or two droppers stevia) ($.40)
• 3 tablespoons tahini ($.40)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• crushed red pepper flakes for the top

1. Prepare the salad ingredients.
2. Place all the dressing ingredients except the crushed red pepper flakes into a blender and puree until very smooth. 
3. Assemble the salad ingredients on plates or in bowls. Add the orange sections, banana slices, and onion to the top.
4. Pour salad dressing over and add a sprinkle of black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes. I added both.

• 1 cup carrots, cut into chunks
• 1 banana, sliced and frozen
• 1 cup almond milk 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• pinch nutmeg
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans or other nuts
• 1 cup chopped apples

1. In a high powered blender, puree the carrots, banana, and almond milk until very smooth.
2. Add in the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg and pulse a few times to blend well.
3. Pour into a bowl and add the chopped dates, pecans, and apples. A sprinkle of coconut flakes goes well, too!

Thanks to ambyr's rec, we watched Dukhtar ['Daughter'], (2014, directed Afia Nathaniel).

ambyr described this very well: it does include misogyny and violence, but ultimately it's a hopeful film. The film feels almost like a stage play; it is almost entirely about the characters, a mother trying to save her young daughter, and the roadster who reluctantly helps them. The camera doesn't dwell either on the beautiful scenery (there are mountains in the background, but no gorgeous cinematic shots) or on the violence; there are quite a few shootings in the film, but it's never gory because it's not about gun porn, it's about trying to escape from that violent world of gang / tribal violence. Quite a bit of it is filmed in shaky-cam style as if it were just incidental video of people's lives.

The characters are all really vivid, and I cared about them a lot, partly because the film is so careful to avoid piling on the drama. The tribal enforcers who go around shooting almost-random people in order to make people fear them are squalid, not glamorous. The elder who is desperate enough to sell his 10-year-old daughter for protection is basically pathetic rather than evil. The main character, Samiya Mumtaz' Allah Rakhi is beautiful and brave, but not really a heroine, she's desperate and runs away with her daughter with almost no plan for how they're going to survive. In other words she's really plausible for a barely literate woman married at 15 and sent to a remote, very patriarchal village in the mountains.

The romance between Allah Rakhi and Sohail is likewise really understated. He's not a white knight saving the princess, and in fact they even joke about how much he doesn't fit that romantic stereotype. He's a troubled person who has survived and escaped from the Taliban training camps, and he doesn't really want to get involved but can't just abandon a desperate mother and daughter to their fate. They have a certain amount of tenderness, but don't instantly fall in love and it's not clear whether their relationship will last, or whether it will end up being romantic or more friend-based. I also really liked that the dashing, handsome man who is avuncular with the kid and flirts with the mother in a rather aggressive way turns out to be a bad guy, not the love interest.

The ending is really odd. The credits just happen in the middle of a desperate car-ride taking the heroine to hospital bleeding from a gunshot wound. I think we're meant to infer that she survives but it's really not clear.

Next up: Nigeria, our first African country. Any recommendations of Nigerian films? Ideally from the 21^st century, and not primarily about violence or depressing real-world history.

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Well, as they say, that escalated quickly.

Day 5 (Friday): Stayed home all day with jack. We ordered takeaway for our date night while we still can. The delivery guy wore a proper facemask.

Day 6 (Saturday): Woke up feeling kind of grim. Decided, on consultation with my partners, that I was fairly sure it was just a cold, so we agreed I would go ahead with my planned evening with cjwatson and the children.

In the morning I virtually 'attended' a livestreamed service, which is a really really new thing for my community who normally ban telecoms and electronics on the Sabbath. It was weird, but I felt good for praying with the community even if I wasn't actually interacting with them directly. In the afternoon I did a virtual play readthrough over Zoom, organized by the lovely wildeabandon. It was really really fun, and I got to see the faces of friends I haven't seen for ages, as well as a couple of internet acquaintances I had no mental image of previously. The play was Loves labours lost and I played a couple of small but fun roles, Lady Katharine, a slightly bitchy court woman, and Sir Nathaniel, a pompous curate.

And then I walked to my partners' house, and it was sunny and seemed basically normal. Plus I was feeling completely better by mid afternoon. I took a winding route to stay most of 2m away from any other pedestrians. We played Labyrinth and watched TV and I stayed the night.

In the morning (Sunday) there was more TV and another game, Robot turtles, a sort of cut-down, child-friendly version of Robo Rally, which the children have got much better at since we last played. And we walked part way together to metamour's house where there was mother's day planned, which I didn't join in with, I went home to jack. We went out to the local shop, I walked with him to enjoy the spring weather and he did the actual shopping, as I'm in theory more vulnerable than him.

Sunday evening I did my chevruta (traditional paired Jewish text study), which has always been online because my partner is in New York, and we had a long and pleasant video call with some old friends of jack's I don't see often enough.

Today, day 8, well, jack and I stayed home, mostly working. And anxiously watching the news of how most of the country treated the weekend as a bonus bank holiday and flocked to tourist spots and crowded into parks and gardens. It was kind of obvious the restrictions would have to get stricter, if that was how people were interpreting more gentle restrictions.

Then they cancelled the daily "briefing" (I haven't really been listening to them as it's mostly just our incompetent prime minister waffling with no substance) for a COBRA meeting. I carried out my intended plan of collecting Judith from OSOs' for a Hebrew lesson, and am I ever glad I did. Because as of an hour ago, and starting from tonight, we're no longer allowed out at all except for "essential" purposes. And we're explicitly no longer allowed to meet friends and family. So I don't know how long it will be before I get to hug my partners again.

In a way, lockdown isn't very different from how we were already behaving, with one vulnerable person in each of our three houses (me and metamour have asthma, girlfriend is pregnant). We were already going out only once a day for exercise, we were already only visiting shops to buy, like, food. But what it has taken away from us is that we can no longer bounce between the three houses, treating the polycule as a closed pod. I think our behaviour for the past week has been safe. If I walk a kilometre to my partners' house, that's no different from walking a kilometre in a random direction to get exercise. But the problem is everybody thinks they're an exception, (and multi-household poly relationships are never thought of in official rulings), so now it's forbidden.

The announcement says three weeks, but I think what's actually going to happen is that people will again not take the restrictions seriously and it will have to be extended.

Personal status: I thought I was doing ok, and the tighter restrictions are almost certainly necessary and not really a surprise. But it hurts.
Social circle tally: three cases, including one person I see face to face (though not for at least a month). 8 mostly online acquaintances with suspicious symptoms.

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Rituals of childhood (content note: gun violence, mass shooting) The Stump That Didn’t Die Growth mindset lessons had no impact The Costs of Reliability Everyone I know is mostly going about their days right now slightly dazed with horror about the detention camps on the southern border. Piece of string? I’m a frayed knot (Included … Continue reading Links — September 1

When the Public Feared That Library Books Could Spread Deadly Diseases The Difference Between Happiness and Joy Who’s Considered Thin Enough for Eating Disorder Treatment? The Cost of Next Day Delivery Attending Burning Man or Parenting a Toddler? Not having kids is nothing new. What centuries of history tell us about childlessness today. Prehistoric Parents … Continue reading Links — October

Laundry. Built deer protection for my garden. Purchased materials for deer protection for my apple trees. Dishes. Mended one sweater and one pair of jeans. Reinforced neckline on another sweater in an attempt to have it fit better. Culled my wardrobe. Verified that garden deer protection withstands wind warning type winds.

Well, here we are on the eve of SIGBOVIK 2019. I'm in the midst of a long day of video-making for one of my projects, but I can get 2 for the price of 5 by posting now about four of my papers. This year I've been on a chess kick, which I think I've successfully gotten out of my system by writing all these (previous posts alluded to there being five, but one of them didn't really go anywhere and/or just became part of the other(s)). They are sort of intertwined:

Survival in chessland is about how to stay alive if you are being a chesspiece to the death

Color- and piece-blind chess is about, among other things, playing chess without being able to tell what the pieces are (only where they are)

Elo World, a framework for benchmarking weak chess engines is about exploring the full spectrum of computer chess play

CVE-2018-90017117 #KingMe is just a short joke, but based on a true story


My last paper is on a different (maybe even weirder?) topic, and I'm putting together a video for it now, so I should be uploading that tomorrow some time. It's been a bit rough going, though, since I replaced my computer a few months ago and forgot that I hadn't actually set stuff up for this kind of work; I'm experiencing small problems like custom key commands aren't set, and bigger problems like audio drivers acting crazy. Looks like I will be able to finish with some vacation time, at least.


Speaking of vacation, this month we also went to Belize, which was pretty cool. The highlight for me was swimming/scrambling 1km into a cave ("Actun Tunichil Muknal") to access an approximately 1000 year-old Mayan site where they performed human sacrifices; it's remarkable because almost all of the artifacts are still in situ, including a number of calcified human skeletons. Was pretty wild. I got some good running done, found some New Haven-style pizza (!?), and wrote papers about chess (?!).

Well, not that much to say about October. This is the busiest time of the year at work, and this year for some reason particularly so, and I don't get much time to do anything but that.

Two running-related things. The Shadyside (that's my neighborhood in Pittsburgh) 5k was earlier this month, and I finished with a time of 20m21s, which is pretty good for a 40 year-old (6m33s/mile). This continues the recent theme of coming close to PRs I set as a 30 year-old, with some dubious excuse (in this case, I "felt sick that morning") to explain the gap, and to motivate myself to keep trying to match/beat those old times and "just lose 15 pounds" etc.. We also traveled to Kentucky, my first time there, for the Ragnar "Bourbon Chase", which event is a relay race from Louisville to Lexington, which route passes through the sites of various bourbon whiskey distilleries. William calls it the "Kentucky Bourby," which IMO should be canonical. Ragnars sound like a lot when you say it's a 200 mile relay, but that's split over 12 people, and honestly the running is not really the hard part (it's all the sleep deprivation and van logistics). Two of my legs were kind of monotonous but one was very scenic, almost "Kentucky" pastiche, with the rolling hills and perfect fences and horses and grasses. It was also cool to visit these distilleries (and e.g. Four Roses was moderately open for us at 3am), but this kind of running and sleep deprivation doesn't really set the best mood for drinking whiskey and touring the grounds (e.g. in the dark), so maybe it is not the best way to visit Kentucky's whiskey scene. Still, was a good trip.

Games-wise, I finished RAGE 2 (IMO a fine game as far as dumb shooters go, I think underrated even) and a little bullet hell roguelike called "Monolith," which I liked. This weekend I unwisely installed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (distinct from "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered"; cf. related joke) and have been saving America over and over. It's exactly what you'd expect.

I've found some time to spend on my ongoing engineering project, and made some impossible-to-undo steps (e.g. cuts into irreplaceable pieces), which is an unarguable sign of progress. This weekend I finally did one of those integration steps where I first tested a bunch of things together, and unnervingly it worked on the first try. I still have one mechanical part that I think has a pretty good chance of not working due to my naivety, in which case I will have to get creative, which is part of the fun!

Happy halloween! see you soon!

Well, April felt simultaneously short and long! I should have just posted these at the beginning of the month, my SIGBOVIK papers from 2020:

Is this the longest chess game? is another needless chess paper, here trying to figure out the longest possible legal game. There are several rules that make sure games can't go on forever, and some surprisingly subtle details/ambiguity to those rules. The whole game is of course included in the paper (17697 moves), but I was far from being the largest waste of space in this year's proceedings, as one provocateur had a paper with 150 pages of citations. Mathieu made a 5-hour video of the chess game I computed for his companion blog post.

What is the best game console? A market-based approach is a silly idea taken too far. It was a year in the making (mostly waiting) and didn't quite turn out the way I was expecting due to world events, but that's part of the "fun" I guess!

Conditional Move For Shell Script Acceleration was another collaboration with Jim (mostly his doing, but I like to lather on an additional patina of absurdity).

This month I have mostly been trying to keep sane and healthy during the shelter-in-place order. It's been harder than usual to find the energy to be creative, but I have had some spurts. I basically only leave the house to run (not going anywhere near other people). But I have been doing that pretty regularly, so between that and the prohibition against going out to bars and ice cream, I'd say I'm currently in the best I have been in ~6 years. Yesterday I claimed some course records for some Strava segments in my neighborhood! I also finished up Doom: Eternal, which was good but you pretty much already know what it's like and I'm playing Animal Crossing and haven't yet gotten sick of that. The timing for the release of that latter game couldn't have been more perfect, huh? Sometimes I need something with a little challenge, so I just started Nuclear Throne. I'm liking it but not sure if I have decided whether it's good enough to invest the time in to win (I almost always play games to the end but these randomized roguelikes demand a certain kind of potentially infinite investment. Like I never did beat the last boss in Wizard of Legend, and even in Dead Cells, which I loved, I had to settle for some modest personal criteria for "winning.") Any other recs? Could use a good Metroidvania perhaps?

I’m not sure if it’s depression or just life catching up but I’ve been having a lot of quicksand days.  Those times when you feel like you’re moving in slow-motion and things that should take 10 minutes for a normal … Continue reading →

I feel bad that I haven’t written anything funny here in awhile.  I know you can tell that I’ve been up and down but I think that’s pretty common for everyone going through this.  I have a million things I … Continue reading →