Whats amused you (in the news) today ?

"We've looked for a three bedroom, detached bungalow, with a wet room, with a garage, no wood burners, no VOC paint, not newly refurbished, no new carpets and not near carriageways, factories or industrial estates. That's what we want."

Meanwhile on planet Earth...

Is there a property anywhere in the UK living up to their high ideals?  Why does it have to be detached?  Why must it have a garage?  Why do two people need three bedrooms?  Blimey, some people paying their own way through life cannot afford those luxuries. 

They should have used their nasal superpowers to sniff out a fair deal when they were offered it. 

The "no new carpets" demand must have made a refreshing change for the council though. 

bylinetimes.com/2022/02/03/government-releases-private-messages-between-owen-paterson-and-matt-hancock-over-randox-contracts/

Poor Mr Z. Only 90Bn left.

Very good. As long as you don't take it all too seriously.

Quite. The commentary in the article is a bit lazy though... AIUI a huge part of losses come from investment in the Metaverse which - contrary to what's written - already exists in a formative state as do much the mechanics around it (and have done for well over a year). It's not as open in the UK as US yet, rough around the edges and ways and means to monetize it are being floated with varying degrees of success. The issue is that monetization relies on mass uptake - no different from early Facebook days - but this time it requires a purpose-built physical vehicle to access it, is "high-tech" costing a relatively inaccessible amount of money to produce (hardware), retail and support (system development / customer support) which is why the headsets are sold at a loss and ludicrously cheap in comparison to products of similar quality. MZ is throwing everything into this because it's a passion project. I personally average over an hour per day in VR and agree with him that it's the future of the internet, the only issue being speed of mass uptake versus the enormous start up costs before he can start cashing in. If I were a direct FB shareholder in it for the long haul I'd not be fazed by this in the slightest.

Edit: this is a much better article on the subject www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/technology/meta-facebook-earnings-metaverse.html

Sometimes my entire life feels like it is being spent in some form of virtual reality. And I don't even have a headset, or any other VR equipment, including any thing that would entail me  indulging in a 1 hr w****** thingy.