nudge

What do you mean? Thailand borders are closed, they are not letting any tourists in at the moment

Alex's pace is horrible when the car is heavy on fuel; his second stints on low fuel are usually much better, but still - not good enough.

You should also take a boat to Schiermonnikoog (or other Wadden Islands) and spend a few days there for something completely different...

Haarlem is very beautiful and well worth a visit. Might be a bit "boring" depending on what you like, but it's a charming and peaceful little town... the North Sea beach, Zandvoort racing circuit, Keukenhof Gardens (only open in spring though), Zaanse Schans windmills are all just a short trip away too. Utrecht is also very nice, so is Leiden. Both essentially similar to Amsterdam, but less crowded and touristy. But I love the Netherlands in general. Regardless where you go, both bigger cities and small towns and even villages are so damn beautiful and have so much to offer.

You mean how long am I going to stay in Thailand? Don't know, a few weeks probably, before I go back to Cambodia. But then again, it all depends on whether or not the borders are opened and if there are flights in the first place... Have a bad feeling nothing will change until 2021.

Thanks, but I'll pass. Have a flight back to Bangkok booked in September (will likely have to reschedule though as I don't think they'll reopen the borders by then), and will generally jump on the first chance to go back, so not willing to take any unecessary risks until then...

The UAE's mission launch has been delayed due to bad weather.

no, thankfully not... Just met too many pretentious hipsters who built their entire personalities around the fact that they work remotely and use it as a way to make a mundane set of activities seem enticing in order to boast about how cool they and their lifestyles are, so it carries negative connotations for me

He actually made it! Well not quite, but almost there... Will drive a Porsche for Proton Competition in European Le Mans Series 2020 Maybe the real Le Mans next year, if he does well!

Yeah, it's irritating and also pretentious af.

That Welcome Stamp is only for remote workers ("digital nomads", although I hate this term), Chris. Not sure what the local job market offers and what are the requirements in terms of work permits, etc. I already looked into it too once I heard about it But the rent and overall cost of living seem to be a bit too expensive for my liking.

I read about that too, and it would make sense for it to have circulated undetected for a while. I thought at the time that it was a bit weird, didn't feel that bad in general but the breathing pain and coughing fits were a bit bizarre, and normally I rarely get ill at all... I thought it was due to me not being used to cold anymore as I actually flew back to Europe last year for what was supposed to be a few month holiday, couldn't possibly have chosen a worse time to do it So I'm not sure what it was, but essentially, it doesn't matter now anyway haha.

We're apparently in talks with Patrick Erras. Would be a good signing; a proper defensive midfielder on a free transfer. No news on Kruse. Christian Groß will stay in the first team for next season. Romano Schmid and Manuel Mbom return from their loan clubs and will be part of the first team, too.

I had a weird flu-like thing in December, where it hurt me to breathe and a bad cough which persisted for at least 2-3 weeks. Think December was too early to have it, though.

I would say that it was not really the case of evidence being mixed, but rather the case of there being few scientific studies on mask wearing by general public outside of medical setting + fear of mask hoarding which would have led to panic and mask shortages in hospitals. In other words, absence of evidence was mistaken for evidence of absence... while in reality, you don't need a scientific study to understand that any barrier on nose/mouth will play a part in preventing the spread of any virus which is primarily transmitted via droplets, it's just that different barriers (i.e. different materials used for mask + number of layers) will have different filtering efficacy.

Oh yes, it's absolutely down to poor leadership, no doubt. To be fair, there have been a lot of mixed messages and misinformation throughout this pandemic, the WHO is a big culprit in all this, especially when it comes to the mask fiasco. Those last 6 months have clearly shown the levels of incompetence prevalent in high positions of governments and health authorities worldwide.

Mask wearing in public (both indoors and outdoors) was made mandatory here in the end of March, about a week after we went into lockdown. At some point in May, it was eased a bit and masks became mandatory indoors, in bus stops and public transportation only. Since the lockdown was lifted in June, masks are only recommended, but if the cases rise again to over 15 in 100000 of population, the government said it will make masks mandatory again. I don't really get the hissy fits about mask wearing, it's literally the easiest thing to do to help prevent the spread without huge inconvenience to anyone, while still being able to do things you normally do...

Just finished it... There definitely has to be a second season, haha. Quite a twist there at the end EDIT: just did some googling, Season 2 has been in the works since last year and the filming was done in March, so we should get it on Netflix fairly soon, apparently! Also, have you watched the Season 2 teaser??? (not a massive spoiler, but spoiler tags just in case)

Thought this was quite an interesting read about the key impediments to building machines that understand meaning, what meaning would look like for artificial intelligence, and how far understanding is necessary for artificially intelligent machines to approach human-level abilities in language, perception, and reasoning. Nothing ground breaking, but a nice if somewhat philosophical discourse. https://bdtechtalks.com/2020/07/13/ai-barrier-meaning-understanding/ @Mel81x @Eco

I can't wait to watch it tonight after work! Is it the end of the season now?

Should have gone for this one:

And Diego with the assist. Nice.

Come on, Diego!

LASK sacked Valerien Ismael and appointed Dominik Thalhammer as the new head coach and sporting director. It seems there were a lot of internal issues at LASK, with intrigues and power struggles in the coaching team, conflicts with the squad, player complaints to the club president, numerous meetings with Thalhammer while Ismael was still in charge, so just total chaos overall. Given that, their downfall is not surprising at all.