The Wow I Can't Believe That News Story Thread

[Synthgirl]

It’s no laughing matter, sporting events can be very dangerous for the audience! Remember what happened to Ned Flanders’s wife?

[Trollheart]

She married him?

[Trollheart]

This guy is going down. You can't have this level of contempt, ignore mass riots and protests, and still remain in power.

Macron signs controversial pension changes into law

[The Batlord]

Hah.

[Psy-Fi]

Originally Posted by Mindfulness

Fox News fires Tucker Carlson

[Psy-Fi]

Originally Posted by Mindfulness

^I don't understand the joke if you're trying to be mean^

Tucker Carlson was a thorn in Fauci's side and last year Fauci said that Carlson deserved to be fired for the outrageous things he was saying about him.

Almost everything Tucker Carlson said about Anthony Fauci this week was misleading or false

[Lisnaholic]

Originally Posted by Psy-Fi

It's a steady job, but he wants to be a paperback writer.

^ Good one, Psy-Fi !

Baths, Beds & Beyond are going out of business, not exactly "Wow I can't believe that", but what surprised me was a line in the report I read that said "...a major chain in America's retail era..." First time I've read such a casual reference to retail being something in the past, a bit like the Civil War era, but more recent.

[Trollheart]

I imagine they're referring more to when the only way to buy something was to go into a store, rather than now, when you can buy just about anything online. If you like, there may then be two eras: retail, up to about 1990s I guess, and online, which is now. Just guessing, but that could be what they mean.

[Lisnaholic]

Yes, that's what I thought, TH. I suppose I'm just slow to accept that old fashioned in-person retail is becoming a thing of the past, even though the evidence is here in this city: shops and restaurants closed since the pandemic first hit here, three years ago.

[Trollheart]

I think shops have the worst of both worlds. They have to pay for their overheads, and so can't lower their prices to match those online (though they probably wouldn't anyway), so they lose out to the internet. I mean, in all honesty, hand on heart, who's going to pay more for something just to keep a shop in business? You have to remember, when all there was were shops, they weren't exactly helping us, so while I don't want to see physical shops disappear, I do feel in a way somewhat as I did when record labels started whining about Napster: we don't want you to get it for free but we will keep our prices high, so support us.

And then shops have to deal with things like theft, fires, floods, broken down machines, broken down staff, strikes, wage cuts, weather... none of which affects online businesses. So they're on a fast track to nowhere really. I hope not, but the time may come when someone goes to walk into a shop and someone else says "where are you going? Why are you going in there?"