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I know its mostly supposed to be funny, but to be that guy... The original development for SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? was inspired by THE ARCHIES cartoon (where Archie, Reggie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica and Jughead's dog Hotdog are a band) crossed with the radio serial I LOVE A MYSTERY (where former WWII Pacific theater vetrans Jack Packard, Doc Long, Reggie York form a detective agency and travel the world to help people caught up in mysteries and intrigue). The show at that time was called MYSTERIES FIVE and had 5 kids in the band (Mysteries Five) named Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, and Linda's brother W.W. and a bongo playing dog named Too Much. Between gigs, the group would solve mysteries. This idea would be developed further to become SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU, but would also be used for the most obvious Scooby-Doo clones: Goober and the Ghost Chasers (like Scooby-Doo, but with less kids, Scooby could turn invisible, ghosts were real and would usually assist in helping against the fake ghosts + the Partridge Family. No the real ghosts didn't assist AGAINST the Partridge Family, the Partridge Family just showed up a lot) - Clue Club (like Scooby Doo, but with two dogs helping solve crimes) and The Funky Phantom (like Scooby-Doo, but the dog is a normal dog and they partner with the Ghost of a revolutionary war ghost to solve mysteries) - But the Mysteries Five format is also the starting point for Hanna-Barbera's adaption of Josie and The Pussycats (the version where they tended to solve spy mysteries between gigs), Speed Buggy (three kids and their anthropomorphic buggy car stopped villains between races), Jabberjaws (where a band in the future stopped threats to their marine world with the help of their drum playing shark), and Inch High Private Eye (a tiny detective, his two friends and their dog stops criminals). Arguably Hanna-Barbera wouldn't have tried The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan either, even if the source for the show pre-dates Scooby-Doo...

My parents had the bright idea to buy my nephew a train sim for Easter. He's been trying to get the train to move ahead for the better part of an hour. It's still not moving an inch. It's a simulation, all right. I'm not sure if he raised all the current collectors. He may or may not have turned on both engines and have them running in different directions. Hell, who knows, he probably tried pressing every button and moving every lever without knowing what they do. Reading the tutorial and doing things in order? Who cares about that? Drive, stupid train, DRIVE I SAY! MOVE IT! Also I have no idea how people can play first person games without inverting their Y-axis.

In other news, a few Russian "puppet" states are seeing the weakness of the bear, and after Kazakhstan condemning the Russian invasion, this week Kyrgyzstan has "strongly recommended" to it's citizen's to not wear anything with resemblance to Russian Z letter propaganda... This will be interesting to watch. Some analysts are predicting, if Russia will fail with Donbas seizure, that it might slowly spark unrests in less stable Russian territories and Russia will implode. And these ex-puppets might give a lot of resources to this happen... Also about the infamous Putler's picture/video. One of the famous Czech doctors, who previously successfully diagnosed Czech president health condition based on his video footage, has released a diagnose for Putler as well (the only thing which I remember is Parkinson). Unfortunately I am not able to find the article now, but if I ever find it again, I will share it here for sure.

No. That's the price of freedom. Yeah, I remember browsing Skyrim mods years ago and seeing some truly wacky ****. I have no idea what goes through some of these guys heads when they make this ****.

Four bedrooms (1 master bedroom, 1 guest bedroom, 1 computer/work from home room and 1 hobby room for painting and modelling Warhammer stuff). It's a townhouse https://www.iqiglobal.com/blog/6-housing-types-and-what-are-the-differences-in-australia/ Because townhouse may not be the same in other countries. I like having garden and open spaces, lots of green areas and forest around me. Something I also missed sorely the previous place... I'll get around to take a picture or two in the near future Edit: as for the layout of the place, the upper floor is mostly a large area with kitchen (separated by a counter), living and dining room areas. Lots full sized windows (i.e. from floor to ceiling) and a large balcony where I put all my outdoor furniture and the BBQ. One bathroom accessible from the common area and then the master bedroom with ensuite bathroom. Downstairs is a hallway with access to a laundry room, bathroom and the three bedrooms as well as access to the garage.

Just saw this and someone theorizing that this is planted evidence done by someone so stupid that they not only signed the book as "Undecipherable signature" but also were supposed to leave three sim cards there but instead left three copies of "The Sims".Omg

Scholz, like every German chancellor before him in recent memory, is beholden to the powerful German industrial lobby, and facing an economic downturn in the middle of high inflation would be hugely unpopular. That's all there is to it. Natural gas is a major component of heavy industry (and agriculture, and a whole lot of other stuff besides heating), and Germany just won't work without it. Other nations around it also refused any gas embargo, it's just Germany that gets the flack for it. Why? Who knows. Hating on Germany is an ever popular activity and that the conservatives are now foaming at their mouthes is fun to see. I mean, how could he have denied them their god given right to rule? Putin doesn't need to have any dirt on Scholz. Also, decrying humanitarian aid to refugees is a little strange. That's just how the Dublin agreement is supposed to work. That one of the biggest crybabies about sticking to Dublin and not helping with the 2015 refugee crisis is now drowning in refugees would be delicious irony if it weren't for the suffering of innocent people (and we all love hypocritical winging, right? Right?). Make no mistake, Merkel would have waffled about just as much. Oh, and she'd have used more of her trademarked platitudes, like "We must not let ourselves be divided on this issue", the only difference is that she wouldn't have run afoul of Germany's very own dual Rupert Murdoch: Friede Springer and Liz Mohn, because she's friends with both. edit: Not a German, by the way. I also am highly biased against the CDU, if that wasn't obvious from prior posts, so if you find any polemics that you disagree with, feel free to do so. edit 2: The SPD has a whole lot of connections to Russia, that part is true, of course. However, you'll find plenty of parties in Europe, some that have ruled or are ruling at the moment, that do. Nobody refused Russian money until it became unpopular, and that was only a while ago. In France, 42% for Le Pen might not seem much, but given today's rather charged political climate and (understandable) anti-Russian sentiment, I think it is really telling that 42% of French voters still cast their lot in with someone with known Russian ties. Heck, Le Pen's party was basically bankrolled by the Russians.

Been there, done that.

Guess it beats Russian missiles having a malfunction in their guidance system and hitting a Polish airfield in response to Poland accidentially losing a hundred tanks.

Well, you hope so for the former...

I don't get how or why people play like that, it's not an airplane

Welcome to our world. -- The USA

I spent a few minutes when I first loaded Baldur's Gate trying to figure out how to move. I thought my computer had locked-up and rebooted it. And I wasn't a kid (but BG was the first computer game I'd played since Wolfenstein 3D)

It is enjoyable. I found it refreshing that all the followers are just people and don't try to become more Morte than Morte. But one playthrough is enough to see everything the game has to offer.

Eventually I didn't. The double keywords help Druid Water / Ice builds that are a bit limited beyond level 4 (even with Conjure Greater Frost Blight) It would have been too much if I doubled Wildstrike effect on PL, but I didn't so... It's a CP KW change, not BPM, so I think I'll leave it as it is. I think it was sort of good Tier 9 spells, that's all. Plus not only Fury can use it. Why Wiz would get all the good spell ? I doubt current Fury is broken compared to Evoker.

Note to self: Never play Trivial Pursuit for money against Amentep

Yes, there's a lot of conflation of issues happening there, to some degree because racism is a trigger issue for the left in the US. However, if you look back at the history of the US, strong anti-immigration sentiment was, in may cases, caused by cultural differences, such as occurred with white Irish and Italian immigrants. People usually prefer their own culture and tend to be intolerant of outsiders who behave differently.

The trans example I used was just an example. The lowering of military standards so more women could pass was an entirely different example of a similar mindset. But hardly surprising. To answer your question endurance trumps speed every day of the week and twice on Sundays. But endurance without physical strength is useless. In my own experience every Marine rifleman is carrying their own gear which includes their pack, rifle, several days worth of MRE, six 30 round magazines for their rifle, extra boots and socks and likely one spare set of utilities, shelter half, rubber bitch, poncho and poncho liner. In addition if the Marine is in a rifle squad they will be carrying a spare battery for the radio and a spare drum for the SAW. If they are in a weapons platoon they are carrying 200 rds for the M-60 or two 60 mm mortar rounds of one 81 mm mortar round. That is a hard ask for the average female Marine. And the average female Marine is already in excellent physical condition. The regular PFT (physical fitness test) is already gender normed. Men and women are held to different standards. The combat PFT was not but until combat roles were opened to women they were not required to take it. Now they are and they are failing it at a rate to 10X their male counterparts. Rather than accept that the average female service member cannot perform at the same physical level as the average male service member the WSJWPC mindset says the test is flawed. It's not. If a male soldier or Marine is wounded in the face of an advancing enemy and the only soldier nearby that can render aid is a female, if she cannot pick that man up and fireman's carry him to safety (a part of the combat PFT) he dies. If she had not been there and a male soldier or Marine had been then he lives. I have no problem with women serving in combat roles in general. The idea that they were somehow emotionally ill equipped was as antiquated as it was false. They can be trained to focus on executing their jobs under pressure as well as any man can (incidentally that is the exact purpose of by-the-numbers-drill). If a female soldier or Marine can pass the combat PFT and want to serve in the infantry then welcome aboard. If they can't they have no business being there. But that is not the direction they are going which is sadly no surprise. We've already chased two specific examples too far down the rabbit hole here. The point I was trying to make with all this is that Woke/SJW/PC is not entirely bad until it is. Like Aristotle said this vice is excessive in feeling or in actions. We need to find the mean but Woke/SJW/PC insists its never wrong.

Good reads but I think their is bias and some unfair criticism towards Germany and its response to Putins War I agree with some of it but I disagree with most it like the whole statement " Other than a dishonest agenda and blackmail, we struggle to find an explanation that would be consistent with his actions " .....no I can think of several other reasons to justify Germany not sending heavy weapons to Ukraine For example I cant see Russia ever becoming a " normal " member of the international community until Putin is gone but he will be gone one day. Then its important to have Western countries that are seen as more neutral toward Russia become part of the process to reintegrate Russia back into the global economy and be part of reducing the necessary Western sanctions once Putins War is over. Germany could be that country but Russian hubris will make it hard if a Western country has been unequivocally " anti-Russian " so by not supplying heavy weaponry it is more neutral ? I also expect every EU country to support Ukraine and condemn Putins War which Scholz has done from the beginning but every Democratically elected government in the worlds first responsibility is its own citizens and stability. Germany cannot just immediately cut energy imports from Russia because of the domestic impact. They have already abandoned Nord Stream 2 and that was a major investment for Germanys energy grid https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/31/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-lies-abandoned-after-russia-invaded-ukraine.html And then the whole world didn't act meaningfully enough back in 2014 when Putin illegally and belligerently annexed Crimea and supported the eastern breakaway Ukrainian states. Its not just Germany who tried to avoid a confrontation with Russia But Putins War changed all that and now the West and NATO is more united than ever before, the West didnt start Putins War but we will finish it Finally Germany as a country and a people have done more to address its dark Nazi past than any other country I know when it comes to historical injustice and wars. They even publicly recognized the mass murder of Namibians in 1904-1908 ( I think this type of acknowledgement was well meaning but misplaced because of the unreasonable demands for redress this type of statement leads to but once again Germany felt this was the right thing to do which I respect ) So I find it ridiculous and scurrilous that anyone would suggest that overall Germany doesnt do the right thing in its public actions and statements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Island_concentration_camp

I say a perfect strike. Like when a spider lunges at you. You hit the impact point ending in an impale(spear/sword) or collapsed(hammer/club). These kills would result in more components than normal as the body is more pristine. Maybe allow where an enemy gets a parried debuff and if they have so many (amount of bars of health) the perfect strike is an instakill like you sever the ganglia it could be useful for elite blockers or encourage learning the blocks

So putler yakked the other day that there was a conspiracy to snuff Solovjov, Kremlin's propaganda tool numero uno. Neo-nazi, Ukrainian passports, yadda yadda, you know the drill. (Source: https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/25/fsb-ob-yavila-o-zaderzhanii-neonatsistov-kotorye-yakoby-planirovali-po-zakazu-sbu-ubit-vladimira-solovieva-i-drugih-propagandistov) Aaaaand here be the picture of "evidence". While it looks too silly to be anything but a fake, it matches shots from the video of arrest up there. Mean people are already making jokes about how the assassination plan was to lure Solovjov into the pool and take out the ladder and it seems like a sort of postmodern self-mockery until you remember that russian state TV also presented a tome of Shakespeare as an evidence or "Anglo-Saxon mercenaries in Ukraine"... (There is also a photo of some sort of incriminating postcard that is signed with, I kid you not, "Undecipherable signature").

Illustrator and Artist James Bama. He had a lengthy career, first as a commercial artist where he did advertising art, magazine illustrations, book covers, and product images. This included illustrations for the like of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST like this one: But also for Argosy, Reader's Digest and others, doing both the slick glossies and the Men's Adventure mag market.. He may be best known to a legion of fans, though, for two different products. First, he did a lot of paper back covers like these - But he may be best known today as the man responsible for the look of the Modern Doc Savage, illustrating the iconic first paper-back release that supplanted Walter Baumhofer's original version of the character. He'd go on to do dozens of Doc Savage reprint covers; when he left the series other artists (including Bob Larkin) would imitate his style (and use the same model who posed for the Doc covers, Steve Holland) He was also did a lot of advertising art, like this for Aurora Slot cars; But he was famously the artist responsible for the artwork on the Aurora Monster models that decorated many a Monster Kid's bedrooms: He even did promotional illustrations for the premier of Star Trek on NBC that got used in print ads (as in TV Guide) and later was used as the cover of the first James Blish novelizations. In the late 60s, he moved out west to Wyoming and eventually transitioned into a fine artist rather than a commercial one. Painting whatever interested in him, he primarily did western scenes (cowboys, farmers, Native Americans, landscapes, animals), but also painted other topics (like a series on the people of China from his trip there). Bama was 95.

The Moscow Times was founded in Moscow 1992 by Dutch immigrant Derk Sauer and Annemarie van Gaal. Where its headquarters remained until March 2022. The Moscow Times started as English language paper for tourist and expats. It started as free twice a week print. 2005 Finnish publishing group Sanoma bought it with 142M€. 2015 Sanoma sold it to Demyan Kudryavtsev who stopped publishing printed version and moved it fully to internet. 2017 Derk Sauer bought it with Vladimir Jao and Svetlana Korshunova. Sauer owns 19% of its stock because Russian law that does not allow foreign people own over 20% of Russian media. The Moscow Times started Russian language version in 2020, it is currently blocked in Russia. English version is still freely accessible.

I've heard of a small minority of people swearing by this, but I've never known exactly what it is that they played early on in their lives that caused them to do this (in your case, it's apparently flight sim games!). I play 3rd person games (e.g. Dark Souls) with both sticks inverted, but that's because my brain is, for whatever reason, attuned to think that I'm directly move the camera itself. Moving the camera left actually moves the camera left i.e. you can see more to the right, while non-inverted 3rd person controls are instead about what you can see, i.e. moving left makes the camera go right so you can see more to the left. That at least makes sense to me why some people prefer one over the other, but switching just the vertical axis in a first person game seems like madness to me - I'd prefer switching both over just one, I think.

No, it's just a little less annoying and heavy-handed than the other two hundred anime films that follow this particular formula. Guys, I don't know if you know this or not, but we don't need to start out every film with a barrage of flat expressions and piano music - I'm telling you, there's more to slice of life films than that! If Grave of the Fireflies could figure out how to do it, I'm sure the rest of you can as well.

Puberty and hormones.

Well the Russians themselves said something a couple of weeks ago about doing to Moldova (and possibly also Georgia) what they're doing to Ukraine, and I mentioned it here. And then a Russian general made similar claims recently, as the "next phase" of the war after they take the Donbas: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61188943 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/world/skepticism-greets-a-bold-russian-claim-about-war-aims-based-on-its-source.html

I don't think anything will be worse that the Skyrim mods I've seen. Ditto. Never got to experience that because there were no original games being sold in my country then (even when they did appear they were prohibitively expensive).

What about those of us just innocently caught in the crossfire between you two? Now I'm in a spiral reading about terrible BG2 mods I never heard of because I never modded the game...

Yeah, that was a great little manual, full of details and stats. I still have it in a box somewhere. I do see more digital games with digital manuals, but it's not the same at all. Especially if one doesn't have multiple monitors to be able to view them without disrupting the game being onscreen. Plus a lot of them are just a few pages and not in-depth. I think even the small Dungeon Keeper 1 booklet was more in-depth than most "manuals" today. And then there's the occasional game like Death Stranding that goes a tad overboard with in-game "help/tips/game lore" menus. Not just because of length but because of organization. Seriously, I never read all that crap.

I suppose that very much depends on when and with what one started gaming. On the PC, for me that was Wing Commander and Red Baron, both games that came with an inverted Y axis by default because, well, WW1 flight sim and space sim. Mouse-look in first person games came way later, and by then equalling first person with inverted Y axis was so ingrained in my muscle memory that I'm not going to bother retraining that. The fact that every developer keeps adding invert options tells me that there's not too small a part of the player base still used to that. I spent more time reading my StarCraft manual over and over again than I spent actually playing StarCraft. The goods in the Wing Commander boxes were also fantastic. I get that today's mostly digital environment no longer allows for that outside of maybe collector's editions, but it was sure nice. The height of that was Command & Conquer when it came out, it even had a setup routine to match. Best installer ever made - can't recall any other instance where simply installing the game was immersive like that.

Doubt it, Russia does not have any way how to support front there other than push from Crimea. Only option would be from Moldavia region controlled by separatists but even than it have almost 0 logistical support. It would be quick win for Ukraine AND Moldovia as they would just get rid of those separatists in few days

Sounds an awful lot like the way I played Eye of the Beholder. I had no idea how to play the game, so I kept clicking on my equipped weapons and then on the enemy, and thought it was normal gameplay to throw weapons at enemies until they died. I got pretty far, all things considered. Although, to be fair, it was all in English and I was nine or so, had no idea what I'm doing and no manual in sight either.

Well now I feel bad about introducing that mod to you.

I had to google that. But no, rules and reading didn't have much to do with how I played the game. I'm impressed I got as far along as I did.

You don't want to know how I played the Infinity Engine games when I was a kid...

Exactly. It isn't race but rather "the other" who arrives later that is the issue, no matter the race of "the other." So white English and French immigrants to America did not like Italian and Irish immigrants even though they were white too. Then, ironically, those Italian and Irish immigrants did not like it when Polish and Russian immigrants arrived. It's why today a large majority of latinos in America are so strongly opposed to the current 'open borders' situation, because the existing latino poplation is mainly of Mexican or Cuban origin and they don't like the current immigrants who are from Central America. And Indian immigrants don't like immigrants from other parts of South Asia, and Japanese immigrants don't like immigrants from Korea and China. And so on.

Oh those are just fantastic. Thank you many muches @Kvellen

Everyone knows never trust a person that plays the Sims in a wig.

Wow, what an impressive body of work he had!

https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2022-04-19/russias-central-bank-says-that-the-economy-will-plummet-in-the-second-trimester-and-putin-is-ignoring-the-warning.html A sobering economic analysis of the future of the Russian economy from the president of Russian Central Bank Its grim news but exactly the long term damage the Western sanctions have over time The Ruskies have basically burned through their available war chest\sovereign fund. Once this is exhausted you will see real economic hardships in Russia...Putins War is coming home to roost

We know almost nothing. That's a bad thing. Also, given how Putin has operated during his time in power, can we think of anyone who might have been able to build any kind of support or coherent policy? I don't think so. Putin has killed part of the opposition and silenced the rest. I live in Scandinavia. I have worked for decades in both journalism and the publishing industry, which is a curious combination as it gives you very thorough information on some things (depending on your assignments) while at the same time leaving you quite ignorant about others. So, for example, I know an awful lot about Mossad but my knowledge of FBI or CIA is as poor as anyone else's -- I happened to work on a long and thorough Mossad-related project which left me with a lot of info on that.

Well, not sure if posting this is... interesting for anyone at all except myself, but one of our local musicians died today. Apparently an accident at home, which is more often than not code for suicide. A comedian and singer/songwriter, he was most widely known for making a local version of "Heartland Rock", also often covering Bruce Springsteen. It's a bit odd, one of those guys who were always there. Second generation to grow up with that music even. Just recently survived a bout with Corona too.

I really should feel more empathy and not put this here but.... CarAndDriver - French Fighter Jet Joy Ride Goes Tres, Tres Wrong

Thank you very much for this! The converter is pretty easy to use and puts out great results, I'm going to get a lot of use out of it I think.

Thank you! Both for the edits and the mini-tutorial.