“Oof. Right in the blocks”

“What a load of absolute blocks”

“It’s the dog’s blocks”

Camera zoom into extreme closeup. “oh… blocks”.

Yep, that’s the one.

I think you’re a little off on the “we need to fix this world” guys.

Although zombie films / TV series lean heavily into the action side of things, that’s just because it’s more entertaining than watching people building things, developing tech, doing scientific research.

Remember with COVID 19? Huge numbers of people immediately set out to find a cure, inventing and deploying ways to prevent and monitor the spread, creating pop-in treatment centres, etc.

It’s the money-men making the decisions now, instead of people who actually care about the product.

Mind you, this isn’t sustainable - by shifting to the more “luxury” end of the hobby, and their refusal to embrace emerging technology, they’re creating huge gaps in the market for exploitation.

They’re on the verge of Nokia-ing themselves out of market dominance.

Warhammerers?

The initial buy-in, especially at a Games Workshop/ Warhammer store is astronomical.

You’ll need paintbrushes to start - here, try these, the most expensive paintbrushes you’ll ever buy. And paints too, how about our mindboggling range of expensive paints?

When I took up mini painting again as an adult, with dirt-cheap acrylic paints and brushes, and achieved far better results than I ever did as a kid with the “proper” stuff, it was a real eye-opener.

That’s not wrong at all, but there is a much more recent Adam and Eve - an actual anatomically modern human woman and man that all of us are descended from (although, again, they probably lived about 100,000 years apart - I.e. they weren’t a couple)

It should also be stressed that I’m not saying that at one point there was only one woman alive or one man alive.

Mitochondrial DNA isn’t like the usual inherited mix of DNA - instead it’s passed down directly from mothers to their children. If they have girls, then it’ll be passed down to their children too. If they only have boys, though, then that mitochondrial DNA has come to a dead end. Basically it’s matrilineal - it passes down the female line.

The same with the Y Chromosome. Fathers pass the Y chromosome to their sons. If they only have daughters, well it’s come to a dead end. It’s patrilineal - it passes down the male line.

DNA analysis shows that all of our mitochondrial DNA is shockingly similar - especially compared to many other animals. Rolling back the clock (by accounting for the tiny random mutations that occur over time) shows that everyone converges to a single person around 155,000 years ago. Before modern humans, as a species, had expanded out of Africa and spread across the world.

Interestingly, especially so if looking for biblical comparisons, the Y-chromosomal Adam can be traced to around 100,000 years earlier than Mitochondrial Eve - so he did appear first.

So, the next question might be, “if anatomically modern humans existed for at least 100,000 years before the Mitochondrial Eve, what happened to all the other mitochondria variants - why did we end up with only one?”

That is simply a numbers game. Compared to many other animals, humans only have relatively few children in their lifetime. This keeps small populations from exploding suddenly, but it also increases the likelihood of only having boys (and stopping that line of Mitochondrial DNA).

You can map it out on a piece of paper:

Get five different coloured pens and a black pen.

Across the top of the page, draw dot in each coloured pen, with a black one beside it. The coloured dots are female, the black ones male). These are the parents.

Now for the kids. Toss a coin twice - heads for a boy (draw a dot in black pen beneath the parents), tails for a girl (draw a dot the same colour as the mum). Do this for all.

Now pair up the offspring and carry on.

You’ll find very quickly, one colour will start to dominate the paper. This represents the Mitochondrial DNA.

Mankind isn’t descended from two people.

Kinda.

The Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam are a thing. Admittedly, they probably lived about 100,000 years apart, but all mankind is descended from these two people.

I’m British, and AC/DC are Australian so… I guess you’re right?

Edit (although I do kind of like AC/DC, so IDK)

NHS = National Health Service

It’s what we have in the UK, and essentially means that all your health care is free.

Vasectomy = free. Having a baby in hospital = free. CAT scan = free. Insulin = free.

Admittedly, it’s paid for in taxes, but at a small fraction of the cost of the American way of doing things.

Had mine done through the NHS. Basically two questions, “do you have children already” and “how long since your last child was born?”.

If you haven’t had kids yet, you just need to explain why you want a vasectomy, usually with a specialist. If your last child was born less than two months ago, they want you to wait (apparently a lot of men’s first reaction to the realities of having a baby is to try to ensure it won’t happen again).

a fun treat like being financially solvent is to generations after Boomers.

FTFY

I think you might have misread my comment. I don’t think George Lucas was trying to make a comment on any of the above.

I’m not sure - just think…

Within less than thirty years there has been:

A sudden massive increase in the number of people who believe the MMR vaccine causes autism.

A global pandemic that large numbers of people: Swear didn’t happen, or Was artificially created, or Was a hoax to encourage people to have vaccines that contain something sinister.

Widespread demonisation of an entire religion.

A sharp increase in people who don’t believe the holocaust happened.

A baffling increase in people who believe the Earth is flat.

In short, people are stupid and surprisingly willing to believe nonsense, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Were the Jedi actually magical? Nah it was just propaganda by a corrupt council. It was all special effects - seriously, a sword against blasters? Wake up, sheeple.

Absolutely - if anything, there’s a reluctance to use formal titles in the UK in general.

I used to teach at university - students and staff alike just use first names when addressing each other. When signing emails, we just use our first name, no letters, job title, anything.

It’s even something specifically touched on in our orientation guide for foreign students.

As for newspapers and Prime Ministers specifically, one of the biggest newspapers, The Guardian, has a cartoonist who has always drawn David Cameron with a condom covering his head. There’s absolutely no deference shown to Prime Ministers here.

Just for balance, I can see how you could think shipping slaves from Africa to America via the Pacific and then the North Sea (of all places?) was unlikely. Maybe this person just isn’t aware of the Atlantic Ocean.

Not sure if joking, but councils are in charge of the municipal borough - usually a big town/city and the area around it.

Some people rent their houses from the council - council houses. This tends to mainly be people on low income, as the rates are low.

Because these are rented, the council can make sure you are not doing anything to harm the value of the house. When the houses need maintenance (new windows, new roofs), the council will perform it at no cost to the tenants - usually an entire estate at once, which is why they look alike.

Obviously the council has no say over houses it doesn’t own. Unless you are breaking the law in some way (e.g. causing a health concern), you’re allowed to do what you want.