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During the Great Identity Migration late last year

You could call it a Goldparty

Math is hard, I guess. 78% vaccinated, but those account for 50% (or slightly more) of all new cases - new cases, mind, not hospitalizations. That still means you're ~3.5 times* more likely to contract delta without vaccination, and the data for hospitalization and intensive care looks even better in favor of the vaccine. Not sure where the problem is, to be honest - and that's with being innoculated against the much less infectuous original variant. A booster shot might or might not be needed for certain groups to keep hospitalization and IC rates low, but I don't really see the issue (aside from having one available). I'm living in a major high risk TBE area and have been getting booster shots every now and then for as long as I can remember, and the initial immunization comes with three shots, two a month apart and one after 5 to 12 months. Woo, scary, vaccinations with booster shots. *Leaving out the children under 12, for now, which means it's probably a little lower than that, but eh, good enough for demonstration purposes.

That's amazing. I gave it an icon and some text:

I like her response when he tells her it is in Islam to were the the niqab. Is it really in Islam? No.

https://mirror.fro.wtf/reddit/post/3203545 CNN Journalist in Kabul told to step aside because she's a woman. Proceeded to google her (Clarissa Ward), she seems to be a pretty ballsy lady.

I don't remember it being quiet. Maybe it's an issue with the dub. Hand drawn becoming rarer is sad. One thing I liked about Devilman Crybaby was how it didn't use any cgi, but unfortunately it is an anomaly these days.

They are already up to the Lambda variant, so it might not even be a year. Reportedly they are considering using Constellation names next. Ready for the Andromeda Strain?

I really don't know about that, speaking for myself as much as I've dealt with the big FS encounters left and right, doing this DLC on a ToI run would stress the living crap out of me. I was thinking about how I would approach a Win-or-Die party run with a Crusader and I thought that an all-Pally crew could actually be interesting. Has anyone ever done it? I was thinking: Goldpact/Unbroken Goldpact/Troubadour Goldpact/Ascendant or Soulblade Goldpact/Priest of Berath Goldpact/Blood Mage On paper, this group could be both devastating and almost unkillable with the right abilities. It would require a ton of micro in big fights. But it would have multiple nasty tricks up its sleeve depending on the enemy roster and battlefield layout, while also having several layers of "oh sh*t!" panic buttons if anything goes sideways. Damn... should I make my current Arcane Knight solo run a party run..?

I did it, I finished Evangelion 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time. That sure was something, and I'll probably end up posting more after I've had some time to think. But coming right out of it, I enjoyed it and think it works as an ending.

That disenchanting mini game was terrible. I remember the first area quite well and found everything else forgettable. The game was good for combat execution screenshots though.

Yeah I would agree with that, it's not a complete experience without the original series.

Humankind and D2 remaster. Also looking to grab Pathfinder next. Should be enough for me to have fun for few months. Nothing else on my radar (excemp my friend constantly bothering me to return to Guild wars with new expansion)

It's more **** gets weird issue. If there's one glaring failure with rebuild, it's that to really get it you have to watch the series to really get it. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but it makes rebuild fall short of the original goal of being more accessible.

Aa you have seen majority doesn't want to be involved. Demand seem to be for extreme protectionism instead of global co-operation. My guess is that if Islamic terrorism starts to increase those demands gets stronger.

Better?

I could not find any clip with just her

@KP the meanie zucchini Soooooooooooooooooooooo?

And you just finished the game It is remarkable how they managed to make a game a lot of people enjoyed but can't tell you an enjoyable thing about it.

So you like the Field of Dreams game and movie??? OK, let's make a new TV series based on it. Just like that they went too far. Maybe it won't suck. Not how I'm betting, but maybe.

everything has a risk, even by getting off the bed in the morning you risk tripping and hitting your head. the thing with covid is how the whole thing was handled by governments and the media. here's how it went here we start with a terror campaign, we follow with a failing healthcare system that gets no help, we proceed with lockdowns and more "we're all gonna die", we use the fear as an excuse for authoritarian reforms, we drop a big chunk of the population in poverty by keeping their businesses closed for months until they file for bankruptcy, we implement stupid regulations and we impose ridiculous fines (like no more than 2 people in car even if they are the same family, meaning a mother of 2 can't have both her children in the car with her or she gets fined) with the excuse of stopping the spread we completely and shamelessly ignore the rules that we imposed on everyone else, we cross our arms and just wait for the vaccine, as soon as the vaccine is here we provide complete legal immunity to everyone involved in the vaccination process (from the producing company to the nurse who gives the shot including every member of the government), we give to the media for a pro vaccine campaign all the money we didn't give to the hospitals during the time when they needed them the most and because people (surprisingly) dont trust us after this "successful" handling of the situation, we proceed to use extortion to get them to vaccinate. meanwhile the constitution of the country has become a piece of toilet paper

Miyu talk:

hope am wrong, but am expecting the most shocking thing 'bout the taliban returning to power is how quick the "unthinkable" is gonna be normalized. HA! Good Fun!

Yes you make some good points and accurate analogies like the reality of Gaza and is it really the US fault when Hamas refuses to recognize Israel has a right to exist so the " anger " tends to be selective and dissipate based on certain biases people have and events in the region So I agree that the opinion of US citizens on Biden's decision will be more favorable as time goes on than the current views which are " this was a foreign policy disaster " which much of the US media is suggesting But I dont mean to contradict myself when I say this is what I fear is the reality for the future for women and minorities ....even though I understand the decision Biden took https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/09/asia/afghanistan-girls-school-attack-intl-hnk/index.html

as much as am disgusted by what is happening in afghanistan, and as much heat as biden is taking today, his decision were political correct. President Ford, when he pulled troops outta vietnam, had a terrible approval rating, but afterwards his approval rating actual ticked upwards. by the time ford left office, the withdrawal were one o' the few actions 'bout which he were consistent lauded. vietnam aint the same as afghanistan and am thinking is unfair to conflate, but if biden were looking for a worst case scenario as he reflected on an afghanistan withdrawal, President Ford's experience had to have come up in discussions. am hopeful am wrong, but am expecting a and this too shall pass reality is gonna settle in quicker than anybody wants to admit. yup, there will be horror stories daring reporters is gonna manage to capture and smuggle outta the new afghanistan, but is that new? for all the anger there were regarding the betrayal o' the kurds, how long did the anger last? for those persons on this board who so animated sympathize with the people in gaza, how many posts do we see each week reminding the rest o' us that the situation has not improved for the folks living in gaza? no matter what your position is on this, the anger is gonna dissipate faster than is warranted... with one exception: veterans. last reputable poll we saw suggested better than 90% o' veterans were supporting biden's withdrawal choice and the poll were recent, after the collapse were occurring in real time... though 'course gd is always a curious take. biden resisted the advice o' his generals and numerous foreign affairs experts on both sides o' the aisle when he announced the withdrawal, but somehow gd sees this as another example o' biden being "feckless?" is another inigo montoya moment for Gromnir. whatever. point is that veterans as a whole is not gonna hold the tragedies yet to come in afghanistan against the President, and by the midterms am expecting the only identifiable voting group who will have a strong enough opinion on the matter to sway their votes is gonna be those veterans. we see tragedy in what is happening in afghanistan, but am having a hard time ignoring the recognition the political fallout is gonna be meh. HA! Good Fun!

Miyu stuff: Evangelion: Guess I'll try the first one, 1.0, and get back to you guys on whether I can take a second one, .

Yesterday I was thinking the one good thing to come out of this is that we wouldn't need to keep paying off Pakistan. We've wasted enough money on that region for very little payoff. Better to focus on India.

@Abrax I am not sure I am the best advice giver, I just lost my POTD/Ironman run in FS to the last guy, that said I have some thoughts at least. I think for a Crusader tank to be effective you have to run a heavy ranged group with only 1 melee who hangs out at the edge of fights so they are not engaged by multiple melee enemies. A crusader tank in a melee heavy group is pointless because when the melee engages they will attack the damage dealers who have less defense. So 1. If you want a crusader tank run a ranged heavy group. 2. If you run a melee heavy group use the Crusader as a two handed or duel wield damage dealer/off tank and share the tanking with your other damage dealers. 3. Crusader as a damage dealer is extremely effective in group play as they are capable of dealing respectable damage and are extremely tough for a damage dealer, this is probably your most optimal use of a Crusader. 4. Crusader can solo but will need heavy Arcana in certain fights. 5. Dealing with ranged enemies: use stealth and bring the crusader out first all the shots will go to him if you have heavy stealth skill and stoic steel you can sit in front of enemy for a while and build up your armor before they see you, then when you are spotted use that time to buff up your damage dealers and depending on your group either use counter ranged fire, CC or run your melee group around enemy engagers and at ranged after enemy melee tied up by your Crusader. Blinding ranged damage dealers is great because it forces them to come close to shoot, Chill Fog, Rouge Blind etc. @Boeroer @thelee @Not So Clever Hound @Elric Galad Can all help too, they are better players.

one reason (just one) why the trump administration efforts in negotiating with the taliban were flawed and self defeating is he didn't enlist international support. cutting the afghanistan government out of negotiations was unwise and arguable immoral, but international pressure were gonna need be put on pakistan for any peace with the taliban to have a chance o' success. international input and cooperation were kinda the obvious precursor to getting some kinda international agreement regarding pakistan. essential and obvious step ignored. HA! Good Fun!

This is not true. Covid vaccine have gone more comprehensive testing than most of the medication you have ever used, compared to flu vaccine for example testing and approval process was more comprehensive, demanded effectiveness was multiple times higher. Reason why covid vaccines need emergency approval is that new medication needs to be on market 5-10 years before it gets regular approval, because FDA, EMA etc. are quite paranoid about long term effects of medicines.

Vampire Princess Miyu, episode 22... edit: Reiha talked to Miyu's friends. I'm guessing that'll be really problematic soon. Oh dear. edit 2: Heh, they actually noticed that Miyu never wears anything other than her school uniform. Ah, girls, run before this takes a turn for the worse. Just run. edit 3: edit 4: edit 5: edit 6: Yeah, found it. Actually, I called that one, and then said I hope it won't go there because it would be stupid. @Bartimaeus hmm. Apparently you never know when having watched The Outer Limits helps with the potential trauma of a massive plot twist that is about as well telegraphed as Erica's emotions. Also, god damn, poor Miyu. *Not really sure, will check later, that was part of one 2:30 am post or some such (footnote for edit 5 spoiler). edits for final episode: edit: final edit, sort of:

today, a man who was perfectly healthy and had both jabs died of covid here. CDC posted a report (and for some reason it was labeled fake news on twitter) that said that vaccinated people are at the same risk of getting infected and infecting others as unvaccinated. the same report was posted by the british version of CDC and many of the EU countries' similar agencies confirmed the results. so it is officially confirmed that the vaccines cannot and will not stop the spread of the virus and if the virus spreads, mutations will follow. at this rate we will have to get vaccinated every few months when a new mutation appears that is not affected by current vaccines... or we will just end up labeling covid19 as just another flu and forget about it meanwhile the government here is not making vaccines straight up mandatory because they know there will be lawsuits to follow any case of serious side effects but they are coming up with increasingly inventive ways to push them on the unwilling or just skeptical parts of the population. stuff like you have to do 1 rapid test every week (payed in full by you) or both you and your employer will pay a fine. oh and FDA as well as most similar agencies around the world gave the vaccine emergency use approval, which means the vaccines have not gone through the regular procedures that any medication needs to go through to be approved for public use. also, by watching the news timeline you can see that covid started spreading mid febuary 2020 and by november 20 the FDA had the first vaccine brought for approval, which it got on december 11. this is beyond record time to research an (allegedly) "new and unknown" virus, make a vaccine, test it effectively and get it approved for general use. https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/covid-19-vaccines#eua-vaccines

Alternatives presented by the US would have sufficed when there was appropriate investment put into the project. The big kicker is that it was a hell of a lot cheaper for the ISI to pay angry, listless young men with few prospects at home in Pakistan (of which there are plenty) to wreck infrastructure, plant IEDs, and intimidate folks in places where ISAF and ANA forces weren't. Then there's the idea the ISI and generals have of the existence of a functional nationalist state with a reasonably trained and equipped army at its back being nothing short of a threat* to the survival of the Pakistani state. A firm belief in such tends to focus the mind. *Mind you, I heavily disagree with the ISI's outlook.

Hehe, it just mean nobody under 18. Dont want no stinkin kids running around underfoot.

Nah, most incredibly obvious twists I pick up on right away and they live in my head until I'm done with the show.

Back from a week in Mexico. My liver is barely hanging on but Ive got a bitchin tan.

I don't know if that is only the case for animation, or if that also affects live action films and TV. I guess I could watch more Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon to find out, but that is based on a manga/anime too, no idea how original content works. Guess it's not that strange when you're used to it. What it does make is spotting people who learned Japanese by watching anime pretty easy. I suspect it's one of the cases where the development of the spoken language outpaces the written one, and when you use written Japanese as your basis for film and TV, then there being a certain insonstistency is to be expected. I also have a feeling that it's not as easy to reform written Japanese or adapt it to more modern parlance. For us that's no big deal, just issue a correction and yep, suddenly a common misspelling is accepted and correct. For kanji, yeah, probably not so much. Yare yare. Heh. Fun Cardcaptor Sakura fact: Shaoran never really calls Sakura by name and just says "you", in the form of omae*, which when used to address someone you're not friends with can be and is seen as confrontational or impolite due to its informality, which pretty much reflects his initially somewhat hostile and rocky relationship with her. Then there are a whole bunch of ways to say you that nobody uses in real life, like kisama or temee, both of which are often translated as "bastard" or worse, but actually just mean "you" - only, well, a very impolite, aggresive you. Not really necessary but knowing how these things work can give you a better understanding when watching subbed anime, similar things exist for saying "I" like ore which is a somewhat base way for men to refer to themselves, a word you'd not use in polite conversation, or in the presence of women. In Miyu it was used by the Chinese dock workers amongst themselves, or the criminal who got stabbed by his girlfriend, i.e. immediately expressing that he's part of the lower class when he actually uses it in front of her. It's also kind of interesting to note how things are different from our perspective. There's a polite form of you, sochira (sometimes used with honorific, i.e. sochira-sama) which literally means something like "in front of the speaker", and while not adressing someone in direct conversation by refering to that person as "over there" or something could be easily seen as impolite, it isn't in Japanese, because there the idea was that someone of lower standing had no right to directly address their betters. Temee used to be polite and means something similar, but is rude nowadays. Once you get the hang of it you can also hear, in words, not just tone, how excessively polite Tomoyo is all the time (saying arigatou gozaimashi-**ta or addressing her mother as okasama). *omae is also the male version of anata when it comes to affectionately addressing your lover. Yes, it's... confusing, really. **just imagine that hyphen not being there. The word is too polite for the filter. edit: No, not in films or TV yet, but Bioware sure fooled me with Yoshimo. He was such an obvious case that it really surprised me when he turned out to really be a traitor. One forced to be, but a traitor regardless. I first thought he was too obvious to really be played straight, then totally forgot about it and then woah... what? Heh.

Magran's challenge is a lot easier at ultra-slow speed, with only one character, with an AI script to spam salvation of time like there's no tomorrow, and of course when you skip 90% of the fights in the game I actually tried a "conventional" magran's challenge run with a party and hoo boy. Even with all the (vanilla) AI scripting I could muster, and sharpest WC3-style micro I could manage, enemy AI front load all their attacks at the start of the fight, and with each passing level it becomes increasingly harder to manage all your party members in a way that won't result in some of them getting knocked out through sheer stupidity or inaction in the first few seconds. As a fight goes on, it gets quite a bit easier because enemies space out their special attacks and such a bit more irregularly instead of all at once. But I gave up on it at around level 8 because I knew that front-loading of enemy attacks would only get worse over time.

Honestly that depends on 3.0+1.01. Starting with 2.22 they diverge heavily from the anime and End of Evangelion. If it turns out to be awful then I wouldn't want to subject majestic to 8 hours of it, if it's good then yeah I'd recommend it.

Same here, I pause like there is no tomorrow. Pausing is life. Which is one of the main reasons why I'm so impressed by you Ultimate-finishers... Magran's Challenge is more than my nerves can ever take.

I'm pausing like a madman and micromanage everything into the ground - unless the fight is very easy, then I just select all and auto-attack one enemy after the other. Because of that habit I now want to do a mostly AI-run playthrough where I only have to micro one character most of times. I did that in PoE1 as well but the AI was so bad (hello Benny Hill show) I abandoned that back then.

I had a lovely conversation with my coworkers today about places we'd like to go, we were speaking about Italy. Me; "I'd have liked to see Pompeii" Them; "Pom-what?" Me; "Good talk, I'm going home now, bye!"