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A very polarising Bundesliga round leaves the standing looking like this. With many of the top players from Round One also scoring highly in the latest round, there is quite a pack of realistic title contenders at this point. @Lucas' victory in Germany sees him join the tail end of the chasing pack while @Michael has a clear lead with a round win and a second place. @nudge and defending champion @Viva la FCB failed to take advantage of 'home advantage' in the last round and sit at the other end of the standings as the only pair yet to register a point.

I always found those stories fascinating. We analysed quite a few such cases at uni, focusing on language acquisition in particular. It's crazy that there's a critical period in a child's life to learn a language, and if they miss it, they'll never be able to acquire the functional ability to use a language. Brain development is completely bonkers...

You are right, I don’t mean to sound as I do sometimes. I’m certainly not on the side of anti-vaxxers or the piers corbyn types. Anyway, I think I’m best off keeping a distance from it all. Fingers crossed new year brings something better.

This just isn't true though is it? You're putting it this way to make it sound worse than it is and possibly winding yourself up more by doing so, and that's my problem with these posts. They're not isolating because of a runny nose, they're isolating because continuing to mix in classrooms of 20-30 other kids allows them to pass the virus on to another 10 kids who will take it home to their parents and then on it goes to their workplaces. Hopefully less so with increasing vaccination rates but still. I get that schools closing down should be unpalatable and only deployed as a last resort but I'll get cross about it if and when that happens. I agree with the majority of what you're saying but asking them to take two weeks off when they have a highly transmissible virus isn't an unreasonable sacrifice. The technology available to schools to allow them to keep up with the work even during that two week period is pretty good now as well. As for the long term consequences, I totally agree and you can see the start of it now, I think I posted about it at length a few pages back. Schools are pretty much always at war with circumstances beyond our control, deteriorating standards of mental health, ill-equipped parents, funding cuts, distracting smart phones, unnecessary curriculum reforms, etc. Covid is the latest one and it's by far the worst yet, we will fight on day to day and drag the kids back up to scratch eventually (from an academic perspective at least, the social and personal development costs are a whole other kettle of fish) but governments will have to face up to the fact at some point that they're going to have to pour a fuck tonne of money into supporting this generation if they want these problems solved. In the UK I'm not holding my breath because they already turned their nose up at the findings of the education 'tsar' that they employed to review what needed to be done to get kids caught up. Even he, a supposed 'friendly' appointment made by the government fed a number back to them that they really didn't want to hear so they ignored him and he went on to resign. I dread to think what the real number is to make up for some of this lost time.

Schools are closing down, the plans are in place. Kids having to isolate because of a runny nose, educations ruined. It’s every adult’s responsibility to ensure that children get the best of the world. We’re showing an absolute disregard for them and have right from the outset. There has never been anything like it in history where the youngest sacrifice their futures (and please be realistic on this, the outcome of this is not yet known but it’s going to lead to all sorts of negative effects) for the old. All proportion has been lost, the media are gripped by this vicarious thrill seeking. It’s a result of the West’s inability to accept that we are ultimately at nature’s pleasure on this planet and we cannot control everything. The idea we can manipulate human behaviour to outwit a virus is the height of human hubris.

I did similar! I was driving home yesterday and was making sure i could remember specific dates and birthdays and memories

This is making huge waves in China

For me the pain wasn't so bad, it was bearable but feeling dizzy + fatigued + slightly blurry vision is what scared me most, due to it's similarity to having a stroke I literally did fast multiplication tables with random numbers in my head in regular intervals to ensure my brain cells weren't dying

Sounds like a migraine to me... I had a bad migraine with aura (sensory/visual disturbances) twice in my life, and they can be a bit scary. What helped me was laying down in a completely dark room and drinking loads of water. Wouldn't worry too much if it goes away on its own and doesn't happen too often/regularly, otherwise you might want to get it checked to make sure it's nothing more serious.

I don't think they did. They just moved on.

He’s not daft.

When he has the paint on, WWE have him as an actual demon with special undefeatable powers (except when God chooses to interfere and help Roman).

You should consider reading, then. So many great works waiting to be discovered by you

I'm a strictly hard sci-fi kinda guy nowadays.

Yeah, but I don't mind it. Sometimes mindless, visually impressing action flick is just right what you need

Looks like a typical Roland Emmerich over the top action movie. The most astounding thing I learned from the trailer though: Donald Sutherland is still going.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59673271 An absolute disgrace. Never have children been so betrayed by the older generation.

Well I wished it happened to those kids next door, hope they are alright these days, can't forget the sound of 'abby ya fucking slut' or 'douglas ya little cunt'.

I recently learned that feral children are a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child

@The Artful Dodger Go to the gym 3x weekly. Bench press, Squat, overhead press and pull ups. Maybe some curls and triceps extensions at the end of your workout. If you can't do pull ups, do band assisted pull ups or use a pull up machine. Watch you tube videos for form, and start at a comfortable weight, that you can do for 5 sets of 5 with a 3-4 minute break between sets. This is step 1. Good luck! Get on the exercise bike for 20-30 min after your session if you have time or for longer periods on off days.

I doubt Hilary ever runs again. She's politically damaged goods - pretty unpopular amongst democrats (partially because of the way the DNC fucked over Bernie Sanders & partially just not campaigning in areas she probably should have campaigned before losing to Trump & I think even more democrats just don't like her simply for losing to Trump) and she's absolutely hated amongst republicans. If she goes again, I think it's nailed on that a republican (whoever it is) ends up the next president.

I've stopped drinking and smoking (well, stopped smoking cigarettes). That should be good for my health, probably.

Confirmation of the league table one round into this season's competition:

Had a splitting headache on Tuesday after work. Never felt a pain like it so spoke to someone who suffers from migraines and it sounded exactly the same. Can't be 100% sure it was a migraine, but this was more than just a headache. Vision affected ever so slightly, painkillers didn't work too much. Just felt restless and tired and fatigued. The pain is as if someone is cracking your skull open but at the same time, your brain is about to shoot through any gap that appears. Not pleasant in the slightest. I've put it down to just being in front of a screen for 2 days at work and not taking enough breaks (not totally in my control). Other general stresses around but mainly work and the new role I'm in.