2nd yeah!

The above article which I linked to, which is excellent, applies to Oz as much to Ireland.

‘Haughty’ is a great description of modern pollimuppetts from Dreyfus to Macaroon. They don’t even pretend now.

/

Unfortunately so many degenerate ideas from the northern hemisphere have been imported here in the last 50 years.

It is indeed Milton.

I visited France in 1995 nearly 30 years ago and I loved Paris. I thought it was very Parisian if you know what I mean. The Riviera was a big disappointment even then- crummy beaches and so built up. Alps maritime was spectacular though. I don’t think I’d like Paris now- no interest in going there anyway.

I have some favourite places in Paris, around Place des Vosges and the 4th arrondissement, I shall enjoy walking around all those again.

Enjoy. One trip I did in France which fascinated me was taking a train from Paris Est to Nancy- just going out of Paris into the suburbs and into the countryside was so interesting.

I haven’t bothered to include actual links. Isn’t it funny how these people all use the same talking points?

Yes, Wong might vomit up the same talking points very soon.

Can someone with legal knowledge explain to me why Uber had to settle with the NSW taxi drivers for $270M?

This latest Allen abomination should be taken as more proof that marxists took over arts, meja and ejucashun.

Trulicity is an amazing, multi-pathway drug and those with unqualified scepticism of it should outline why it is bad for people with insulin resistance.

To wit: it ameliorates “immediate health concerns”, particularly appetite.

The turdburger is like on anti-Virgin Mary. Yet another meja anti-hero/heroine too.

Dan Crenshaw be clowning. The US intel agencies have been proven to meddle in their own elections.

“I worked with those guys, they’re alright” is one of the better arguments you have for sortition.

Michael Jackson is back in the spotlight, and accusers are still trying to prove he’s bad

• By HARRIET ALEXANDER AND KEIRON SOUTHERN
• THE TIMES

At the end of the hit Broadway musical based on the life of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop hurtles up through the floorboards.

The sudden reappearance of Jackson on stage in MJ: the Musical recalls the “toaster” entrance the singer made during the Dangerous world tour three decades ago. It also serves as a metaphor for the remarkable comeback his estate has orchestrated since his death of an overdose aged 50 in 2009.

At the time, Jackson’s star had waned following years of damaging allegations that he was a child molester – vehemently denied and never proven in court – while the extraordinary details of his private life threatened to swamp his career achievements.
Yet today Jackson is arguably as popular as at any point in the past 30 years.

MJ has arrived in London, garlanded with Tony awards. A US tour is under way and German and Australian dates have been scheduled.
Music sales data suggests Jackson’s appeal is growing again as the streaming industry expands around the world.Last month, Sony agreed to acquire half of Jackson’s catalogue in a deal that valued his assets at dollars 1.2 billion – the largest transaction for a single musician’s work.

But there is controversy brewing around the Hollywood biopic Michael, due for release in April next year and subject to the approval of the singer’s estate.

While the musical carefully avoids having to mention the allegations that Jackson abused young boys, the film is expected to tackle them head-on.

Michael, which features a host of A-list talent in front of and behind the camera, as well as Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar, in the lead role, will reportedly portray the Peter Pan of pop as a victim preyed upon by opportunists seeking a slice of his fortune.

According to the Hollywood newsletter Puck, an early version of the script attempts to downplay the allegations.Dan Reed is the British film-maker who made the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which featured claims from Wade Robson and James Safechuck that Jackson abused them as children.

Reed said he has been informed of the draft script and condemned what he described as a “complete whitewash”.

“It’s an out-and-out attempt to completely rewrite the allegations and dismiss them out of hand, and contains complete lies,” he said.

“You never even see him alone with any boys, when it is a matter of fact that he shared his bed with small children for many years.”

The Jackson estate sued HBO after it broadcast Leaving Neverland, arguing the network violated a non-disparagement clause from a 1992 contract. The case is still going through the courts.

Reed is making a follow-up documentary, After Neverland, which follows Robson and Safechuck’s decade-long quest for justice.

“They are very aggressively defending their commercial asset – and that’s their job,” Reed said of John Branca and John McClain, the Jackson estate managers.

“The Jackson machine has made probably going on a billion dollars since his death. They claim Wade and James are out to make money – yet the people trying to make the money is them.

“They are trying to make out that he was a saint, and yet he was a predatory pedophile who abused children.”

Michael Jackson testifies in Santa Maria Superior Court, on 13 November 2002, in a trial in which he is accused of cancelling concert appearances, costing the promoter several million dollars. Picture: AFP
Michael Jackson testifies in Santa Maria Superior Court, on 13 November 2002, in a trial in which he is accused of cancelling concert appearances, costing the promoter several million dollars. Picture: AFP
Robson and Safechuck have filed lawsuits against the estate and, in August, a judge in California agreed that the pair’s negligence case can proceed to trial and their allegations against the Jackson estate be heard.

The trial will probably begin early next year – which, awkwardly for the estate, could coincide with the biopic.

The estate did not respond to a request for comment.

The extent to which Jackson has been rehabilitated is indicated by the A-list talent connected to the film, which will be directed by Antoine Fuqua, who made Training Day, and written by Oscar nominee John Logan.

Oscar-nominated Colman Domingo is playing Jackson’s abusive father, Joe, while Miles Teller, one of the hottest young stars in Hollywood following his work in Whiplash and Top Gun: Maverick, will play Branca, Jackson’s manager.

While some have questioned why such bankable stars would want to be involved in a contentious project, Teller has already come out swinging.

“Regardless of what you know or what your opinion may be, Michael is one of the greatest to ever do it, if not the greatest,” he told Variety at an Oscars party this month. “He deserves a movie, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

Michael Niederman, professor in cinema and television arts at Columbia College Chicago, said a “well-done biopic can rewrite history, to some degree”.

However, he does not believe there is “much wiggle room” for producers of the Jackson film, given the subject matter of the allegations, with a public backlash possible.

“That’s what I find astonishing,” Niederman said of reports that the film will address the allegations directly.

“And if they think they can retcon [retrospectively revise] his story, that will be a problem in today’s world.”

Niederman believes the actors who have signed up to the biopic risk damaging their reputations, if, as the early script suggests, the project attempts to dismiss the allegations.

“I think it will get very, very uncomfortable,” he said.

Reed, meanwhile, has condemned those taking part in the film.

“You have some of the really top minds and top talent in Hollywood working on this, and I don’t know how they are not ashamed. In one scene Jackson tucks kids into their sleeping bags – how do they not throw up when they do these scenes?”

The Times

Oz

Can someone with legal knowledge explain to me why Uber had to settle with the NSW taxi drivers for $270M?

Hmmm.

‘Fought tooth and nail’: Aussie taxi drivers set for whopping $272m Uber payout in world first (News.com.au, 18 Mar)

Uber is set to fork out a whopping $272 million to Australian taxi drivers in a historic world-first-class action settlement.

The US company has agreed to compensate taxi and hire car drivers, operators and licence holders after they lost income when Uber hit the Australian market.

Michael Donelly, Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, who filed the 2019 class action, said the settlement comes after a gruelling five-year legal battle.

…

“This case succeeded where so many others have failed. In Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, cases were brought against governments and all of them failed,” he said.

So the try on failed in three states but got up in NSW. Uber’s only crime seems to be that they had a competitive business model. If such things required compo then car companies would be up for billions for the horse cart industry.

I’ve no legal experience or training though. On the other hand someone once said the law is a long-eared beast of burden.

A side effect of the “war on drugs”: punishing the sick.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/uselessness-phenylephrine

Now we turn to phenylephrine. As you can see, that’s a somewhat different structure – there’s a phenol on the aryl ring, and there’s no longer a chiral methyl group bretween the hydroxy and the N-methyl. It also has adrenergic effects, but different (and often weaker) ones than either ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. Its main effect seems to be raising blood pressure, and it has medical uses in that area as an addition to anaesthesia agents. But what it does not do well is act as a decongestant. There have been several controlled studies that show that it is indistinguishable from placebo in conditions like allergic rhinitis. Pseudoephedrine, however, is very clearly distinguished from placebo and in most people has very noticeable decongestant effects that last for several hours. 

Why is oral phenylephrine so useless? It is extensively metabolized, starting in the gut wall. You can find a bioavailability figure of 38% in the literature, but that appears to be the most optimistic number possible, and you can also find studies that show 1% or less. Overall, the Cmax is highly variable patient-to-patient, and the lack of cardiovascular effects at low doses argues for very low systemic effects (and expected low efficacy as a decongestant). The bioavailability increases at higher doses as you apparently saturate out some of the metabolic pathways, but at the 10mg dose typically used for decongestants, you can forget it.

in which an artist will be drugged and then penetrated in front of an audience as she lies unconscious.
X (formerly twitter) does much better than that, and some even have decent production values. The females are fully conscious and participate in all manner of poses.

his decision to be an utterly neutered gelding.

Tautology alert!