Iz 🌟

This was my reason for avoiding Fat Dog, boo. Nicolina wouldn't have actually been a great choice by that metric either but I was thinking for 'the majority' a recent pop winner that was seemingly decently regarded by alt voters. Not did too well although with only a few participants and a few off predictions of what would be top, thanks for running it Wardy regardless. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more BJSC focused quizzes - we have over 15 years of contest history to explore after all.

+30 Linkin Park - Lost +29 Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha +28 Fat Dog - King of the Slugs +27 Bring Me The Horizon - Lost +26 100 Gecs - Hollywood Baby +25 underscores & gabby start - Locals (Girls like us) +24 Levellers - Down By The River "O" +23 Alessandra - Queen of Kings +22 Last Dinner Party - Nothing Matters +21 Peggy Gou - (It Goes Like) Nanana +20 Noah Kahan - Stick Season +19 Karma Kid - The Gates Will Open +18 National (feat. Taylor Swift) - The Alcott +17 SZA - Kill Bill +16 Olivia Rodrigo - Bad Idea Right? +15 Loreen - Tattoo +14 FIFTY FIFTY - Cupid +13 Dua Lipa - Houdini +12 Chappell Roan - Red Wine Supernova +11 Killers - Your Side Of Town thanks for the reminder PM Dan :blush:

Definitely noticed a lot of migration to Bluesky too - South East and East Asian artists (in particular) tend to drive a lot of traffic to Twitter from those countries as a way of self-promotion, it's not so embedded in the political norms of those countries and they have frankly better apps for non-international social media stuff; and because they are very privacy-inclined, not being able to block is likely a step too far. Probably a step too far for app stores worldwide one would hope. Then there's the absolute interference and algorithm gaming for political matters that should really just be illegal worldwide. It was always these accusations against the previous Twitter leadership that they were supressing free speech... every accusation is a confession indeed.

Biden was certainly the odds-on favourite in 2020. I was very confident of his victory at this point in October and most forecasts were predicting a somewhat wider EC margin than he actually ended up getting, with Florida, North Carolina and possibly Ohio regarded as gettable over and above what he did get - losing Florida in particular was a shock considering the victory in Georgia. Though the bookmakers were quite accurate that election, they were a little bit more bearish than the forecasters on Biden's chances, which turned out to be right. Which doesn't mean they're right this time. I don't put much stock in analysis that bases a key piece of info, like polling error or early voting stats or betting odds, as a comparison with a previous election. Each election has these unknown variables and they're rarely more accurate (and often less accurate) than listening to general feelings from voters about the state of politics, otherwise known as vibes. My reasoning for why this is a 50/50 election outside of following the herd is that this would be a Republican's election to lose due to bad vibes (vibes over reality even though the US economy is actually roaring compared to where it was at the start of Biden's term) on the economy, almost always the most significant issue, but they've picked a candidate with a high amount of unfavourables and key weaknesses with democracy (voters like democracy and punish those seemingly against it) and abortion (motivates women to vote against you). So despite vibes showing voters wish to shift towards a Republican environment, they're reticent with Trump on the ticket. Kamala's vibes are good overall hence why she's still in the race, but not outstanding. If Trump was the incumbent (ignore that he'd be running for a 3rd term), she'd win this easy.

'History' is a fair song to end off with, nice lyrics overall. Thanks for organising this Joseph.

Had to step out for a bit but Story Of My Life and Night Changes are highlights of their later eras, very effective pieces of songwriting both.

Kiss You is very much my favourite One Direction song, it has so much energy :heart:

I forgot about 'crazy crazy crazy till we see the sun', that's a hype line.

My basic opinion of One Direction songs is that the pop part of them is not something I normally seek out so they held little appeal for me but there was a tendency towards pop-rock at times which was appreciated. Particularly in the upbeat songs. Now, it just all sounds pretty pleasant and on a par with other pop bands like McFly - defo for Gotta Be You, and One Thing too, I'm enjoying this relook more than I expected to.

Probably the only One Direction song I heard regularly between 2016 and now, but it was always a good time when this came on at the party. Never looked up who sang what but Liam doing that iconic intro is a testament to his talent.

Yes, but they will obviously be reacting to a shift in the market that huge as otherwise they're vulnerable to arbitrage. This is where that shift in the market is coming from.

That too, and McCain with Obama, it's happened before with Republicans though not quite as brazen as this I think. @1846597997507092901 anyway if you're confident in Kamala (I may be...) there's value in those odds.

further info on the Polymarket weirdness, it's quite an interesting sideplot in that this is either a French millionaire with more money than sense or the point man for billionaires (Elon) attempting to shift reality by shifting the odds https://www.newsweek.com/who-polymarket-mys...edi9999-1969646

Interesting that Kamala responded to being called 'media-shy' by doing debates from radio hosts to podcasts to FOX news, while Trump has been incredibly reclusive. Hopefully enough people take up the 'what has he got to hide' message. I think it's ridiculous that major political office candidates in major democracies still have a 'pick and choose' attitude to debates, a couple of them during the election period is not much of an imposition and whatever format you choose they're good for voters. I would put little stock in the odds, they're being led by Polymarket which both has a huge crypto market and there's reports of a single rich foreign millionaire dumping millions on Trump there that has shifted the odds to reflect. Shouldn't treat them like polls. That and there's a lot of polls with dodgy methodology and funded by Republican donors out there - ostensibly to allow a steal. Overall I've also still got it at 50/50, I'm not sure I'd trust the analysis of someone who thinks otherwise but the early voting stats in Pennsylvania and Georgia have me wanting to believe it'll be okay.

I don't think I can be there for all of it but I will join when I can.

@1846841039471984690 I like this from Rebecca Ferguson. Part of what made me note One Direction in particular out of all the boybands is that they were age peers to me almost exactly, Liam was only 2 months older than me. So that they were all normal teenagers with middle-class backgrounds getting thrust into fame, that was odd to watch for me but I can't imagine how it must have actually been for them. The pressures of that fame, and then for Liam in particular, he didn't seem to have much of a solo career once it all ended (perhaps through no fault of his own, the industry can be very cruel at times) and the pop industry seems to have such little support for someone in that situation, even though it absolutely could, and should.

RIP. Really shocked me to see when I woke up this morning. I don't know much about how his life went in the last few years but he always seemed like a good centre for the 1D boys, though perhaps in the background compared to the louder personalities in the group. Really sad to see him gone so young.

Closing this, but leaving it up to redirect conversation to the thread (link below) in the 1D forum. http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=275518

yeah this one is going to be tricky.

So Far Away and Limbo sounded great when I gave the album part of a listen yesterday, may well have to go back for the whole thing.

SPREAD THE WORD (need to go on a tricot binge soon)

That really came out of nowhere damn. @1845087673725132854 He was tweeting just earlier today; though for final public words, those are very fitting.

okay we'll give this one a go don't think I've sent something like this before and it's a style of entry I do like.

2012 Nightwish [575] Nightwish - Imaginaerum [387] Loreen - Euphoria [162] 2013 Rihanna [431] ABBA - Gold [165] Amaranthe - Amaranthine [85] 2014 Nightwish [457] Lindsey Stirling - Shatter Me [172] BABYMETAL - Megitsune [83] 2015 Nightwish [643] Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful [168] PinkiePieSwear - Flutterwonder [62] 2016 Paramore [167] Dream Theater - The Astonishing [82] Nao Hiiragi - Requiem (Stygia Bootleg) [70] 2017 nanobii [127] Gorillaz - Plastic Beach [22] nanobii - Chipland [95] 2018 Audio Paradyne [114] Avicii - True [16] Audio Paradyne & Stahl - Paradise [114] my 2018 stats are so screwed, Paradise is the only song with over 45 plays, the rest of those charts are filled with bad tags, YT scrobbling, 'Nightcore' is nearly my #1 artist, and I even completely stop scrobbling in August and don't start again until a little bit next January - part of that was moving to China but still. I do plan on fixing some of the bad tag stuff but I want to do it delicately so I don't erase memories while doing so. 2019 Nightwish [96] Eluveitie - Ategnatos [41] PinocchioP - I'm Glad You're Evil Too [29] know the numbers are a little lower but everything looks a lot more organised here, this is the beginning of my rebirth 2020 Nightwish [248] Mori Calliope - Dead Beats [73] DEMONDICE - Alkatraz [48] 2021 Mori Calliope [565] DEMONDICE - Alkatraz [164] Mori Calliope - Off With Their Heads [90] 2022 DEMONDICE [436] DEMONDICE - Shut Up, Get Happy [247] DEMONDICE - Take The Bait [76] ngl kinda love how 2022 looks 2023 The Cat Empire [95] Hoshimachi Suisei - Specter [65] The Cat Empire - Thunder Rumbles [40] 2024 (so far) Taylor Swift [271] Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: Nex Gen [49] IRyS - Carbonated Love [32] only counting a studio album LP, EP or single artist GH compilation for albums, that part of my tags was very messed up around 2015-2019 days, finally getting onto streaming services in 2019 started to sort that. Always tried lately to ensure I have an album tag scrobbled, I can still scrobble from singles but most of the time I prefer to scrobble from the album version so I have plays approximating the era for each artist.

+30 Metric - Doomscroller +29 My Chemical Romance - The Foundations of Decay +28 RAYE (feat. 070 Shake) - Escapism. +27 Rina Sawayama - This Hell +26 Black Country, New Road - The Place Where He Inserted The Blade +25 Arcade Fire - Lightning (I + II) +24 Gorillaz (feat. Tame Impala & Bootie Brown) - New Gold +23 Rosalía - Saoko +22 Ibibio Sound Machine - Protection From Evil +21 Cornelia Jakobs - Hold Me Closer +20 Porter Robinson - Everything Goes On +19 Kohta Imafuku - Orihime +18 Black Midi - Welcome to Hell +17 Rina Sawayama - Frankenstein +16 Paramore - This Is Why +15 Caroline Polachek - Welcome to My Island +14 Bring Me The Horizon - Strangers +13 Let's Eat Grandma - Happy New Year +12 Chanel - SloMo (Eurovision Dance Edit) +11 Muse - Won’t Stand Down +10 Sam Ryder - Space Man +9 Taylor Swift (feat. Lana Del Rey) - Snow On The Beach +8 Driftmoon - Nova Imperatrix +7 Chappell Roan - Naked in Manhattan +6 Röyksopp (feat. Susanne Sundfør) - Oh, Lover +5 Rina Sawayama - Hold The Girl +4 Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero +3 Go_A - Kalyna +2 Gayle - abcdefu +1 Rosalía - Candy