Halloween is upon us again

And boy do we have a scary induction for the Sick Phoque Club to round off October 2020: all you idiots that voted National in the NZ general election two weeks ago (along with all the shitheads that voted no to legalisation of marijuana, but we’ll cross that bridge once the special votes are counted). In what was marketed as the first “Leaders Breakfast” on NewstalkZB with Mike Hoskings, the leader of the National Party, Judith Collins, commented on the secondary education curriculum of Aotearoa New Zealand, stating; “The trouble with NCEA, Mike, to be frank, is there’s too many photography classes, too much media studies, too much woke stuff." The contempt for the creative arts and media studies expressed by Collins should be read alongside similar such attacks by the far right on critical pedagogy across the globe. That Collins places the teaching of media studies as “woke stuff” sheds light on what her problem with media studies really is – that she sees the discipline as teaching students how to ask critical questions, which I think is a good thing. In fact, being woke in general is a good thing. Stay woke, people, and if you’re in America and are eligible to vote, vote Howie Hawkins for president on Tuesday.

Gay sex and weed in one number

Planning for a plandemic be like

Reflections of Rona

Gaming, Plandemic Style

No goals to break the tie

Chip-faced

With this ring, I thee imprison

Do I matter or should I give up?

Note to self: brother and sister do not good parents make

Free speech isn’t free

This is why the Senate needs to be flipped like right now

Nude your food before it nudes you

All about them cables

Reds bounce back from early own goal

Magic wings for the linesman

Just when you thought Apple couldn’t drop any more iPhone features

BE NICE TO BIRDS

I think they forgot about the existence of Scumbag Steve

Muppets and Computers

It’s Rudolph time again!

Of course this coward would turn off comments

“Proven” antiviral = most likely hydroxychloroquine

Happy Burnout to Me

We're all familiar with the concept of burnout - the emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion we feel when we've been under prolonged stress. And now scientists have predicted when it's most likely to hit you. When you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet the demands being made of you, you're likely facing burnout. According to a new study, it's most likely to happen to you at age 32, reports Metro UK. A UK study commissioned by The Office Group found that this age group, who form 50 per cent of the British workforce, are experiencing burnout triggered by the second economic recession they've faced in their adult lifetime. There's a number of reasons why people in their early thirties are feeling so stressed and exhausted - whether that's working longer hours from home, not being able to separate work from personal life, or dealing with an increasingly uncertain and competitive job market. Those under 30 are also experiencing higher stress levels, with 59 per cent of Gen Z workers also feeling the strain of "always on" working culture, according to the study. Nearly half of those surveyed have quit their job due to stress, and 29 per cent of them said they would take unpaid leave if faced with burnout. And I wouldn’t blame them. 2020 has already been a dumpster fire, both figuratively with the COVID-1984 plandemic and the current wave of election-year race riots (the latter of which started over a US$20 bill believed to be counterfeit), and literally with wildfires in Australia and in California. We still have 3 months to go, and if you’re on the verge of burnout, you should quit and join my quest to turn it around.

The Swapping of X and O

Sony confirmed PlayStation 5's DualSense controllers in Japan will be different than former generations since they're changing the action and cancel button to match its global model. Although PlayStation traditionally used the circle button as the action button in Japan since its 1994 original console, they no longer want to support making a controller specific to one region. "The decision was made to avoid different button settings across countries, as well as easing the burden for developers," a Sony spokesperson recently said, as reported by Kotaku. Japan's PlayStation controllers uniquely used the circle button as the action button, unlike the rest of the globe that uses the X button as the action button. The reason for this button change initially was due to a cultural difference to what the circle symbol represents. In Japan, the circle symbol or "maru means ok or correct" whereas the X symbol or "batsu botan" translates to "no" or "not available," leading Japan gamers to see the X button as one that means cancel and the circle as one which means accept, as explained by Kotaku. After the announcement, early feedback from Japanese gamers was mixed, with some gamers being happy to have some clarity when they play non-Japanese games and others being upset by having to reframe how they've always played games on the PlayStation console. I’m not from Japan, though, so this doesn’t really concern me.

My Neighbour’s Plant and Me

Spurs spurred on by the dreaded red card

Now that’s what I call garnishment

I guess the closet door is finally opening

Bread, to be unsure, to be unsure

Ireland’s Supreme Court has ruled that bread sold by the fast food chain Subway contains so much sugar that it cannot be legally defined as bread. The ruling came in a tax dispute brought by Bookfinders Ltd., an Irish Subway franchisee, which argued that some of its takeaway products – including teas, coffees, and heated sandwiches – were not liable for value-added tax. A panel of judges rejected the appeal on Tuesday (Wednesday NZT), ruling that the bread sold by Subway contains too much sugar to be categorised as a “staple food,” which is not taxed. “There is no dispute that the bread supplied by Subway in its heated sandwiches has a sugar content of 10 per cent of the weight of the flour included in the dough, and thus exceeds the 2 per cent specified,” the judgement read. They could always reduce the sugar content - after all, Subway is supposed to be a healthy option. But they probably won’t because doing so would alter the taste of the product and this would not go over well with customers.

GaN they pull the stacking game off?

Hyper, a gadget maker known best for its small and ultra-fast gallium nitride (GaN) chargers under the HyperJuice brand, is back on Kickstarter with a new plug that’s even more impressive than its last: a stackable GaN charger that can support an eye-popping 1600W of passthrough power. This follows Hyper’s first 100W GaN charger released via Kickstarter last fall and made available for purchase back in July. The charger, which comes in a 65W option with three plugs (two USB-C and one USB-A) and a 100W option with four plugs (three USB-C and one USB-A), has a built-in plug of its own rated at 1500W, so the charger can be plugged into a second unit to multiply the passthrough power available and double the ports. (Or in the event you just don’t want to lose an outlet.) Hyper says you can actually stack 16 of the 100W model on top of one another for a max of 1600W, 48 USB-C ports, and 16 USB-A ports. But think about this for a minute: are you sure you want to piggyback 16 plugs into one socket? I’m not saying not to do it but just be careful because it’s bad enough they have power boards with multiple plugs in them where all the appliances have to share one socket and risk drawing too much current (the maximum load on a socket can vary from 10-16 amps depending on where you live). I think 16 piggybacked outlets is just asking for trouble.