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instant recognized as lemmings... 'cause am old. HA! Good Fun!

OK, few more interesting things in the last few days and today happened, and it looks like something is starting to boil in the Russia: quotes from ISW May 14: "The Ukrainian destruction of significant elements of a Russian motorized rifle brigade that tried to cross a pontoon bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River on May 11 has shocked prominent Russian milbloggers. Those bloggers have begun commenting on the incompetence of the Russian military to their hundreds of thousands of followers. The attempted river crossing showed a stunning lack of tactical sense as satellite images show (destroyed) Russian vehicles tightly bunched up at both ends of the (destroyed) bridge, clearly allowing Ukrainian artillerymen to kill hundreds and destroy scores of vehicles with concentrated strikes. The milbloggers who have hitherto been cheering on the Russian military criticized Russian armed forces leadership for failing to learn from experience in the war. They also expressed the concern that the constant pushing of Russia’s propaganda lines was making it hard for them to understand what was actually going on." another quote from ISW May 16: "Russian military bloggers continued to post analysis that is skeptical of Russian efforts and increasingly in-line with Western assessments of Russian military failures in Ukraine. One such blogger, Igor Strelkov, claimed that the Russian offensive to take Donbas has ultimately failed and that “not a single large settlement “has been liberated.[1] Strelkov even noted that the capture of Rubizhne is relatively insignificant because it happened before the new offensive in Donbas had begun. Strelkov stated that Russian forces are unlikely to liberate Donbas by the summer and that Ukrainian troops will hold their positions around Donetsk City. Strelkov notably claimed that Russian failures thus far have not surprised him because the intent of Russian command has been so evident throughout the operation that Ukrainian troops are aware of exactly how to best respond and warns that Russian troops are fighting to the point of exhaustion under “rules proposed by the enemy.” The continued disenchantment of pro-Russian milbloggers with the Russian war effort may fuel dissatisfaction in Russia itself, especially if Moscow continues to press recruitment and conscription efforts that send poorly-trained cannon-fodder to the front lines." "Frictions between Russian occupation administrations and pro-Russian collaborators is growing in occupied areas of Ukraine. The Zaporizhia Oblast Military Administration reported that Russian forces are having serious conflicts with collaborators due to interpersonal power conflicts.[4] A well-known collaborator in Zaporizhia accused the Russian-installed governor of the area of stealing his 10,000 ruble compensation. Advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryshchenko additionally claimed that relatives of those mobilized into the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) are holding a mass protest against mobilization in Donetsk City. While ISW cannot independently verify these claims, such discontent amongst occupation elements suggests a general lack of planning by Russian authorities in occupied areas, now compounded by increasingly evident Russian losses." Also there are some intercepted calls, where collaborators are complaining, how their life turned for worse now... Recruiting officers are starting to catch on fire around Russia (11 so far). Something like that never happened in last 100 years...

They could learn to code.

Alright family, mission accomplished. My Shifter forms now have independent cooldowns (it was way easier than I'd feared). I plan to play with it a while to see if there's any unexpected behaviour and fiddle with the cooldowns. They're at 180s right now. My pet goal is to have playable Shifter/Cipher or Chanter builds that go back and forth to cast spells while still making you have to think twice about shifting back and forth too quickly if you don't want to get locked out. I don't know how long it will be before I test something like that properly though - work is rough right now and don't have a ton of time to play. Happy to make it available to others if there's any interest. Maybe when I'm happy with it I can upload it to my own Nexus as an optional rule change for BPM? Would that be appropriate, Elric? Oh, I've also changed that other file to make bear claws Slash/Crush and boar tusks Pierce/Crush. Thought those suited a mauling bear and charging boar better

Don't buy it yet. It's a 30 bucks barely-tech-demo. Maybe it will be better in year, who knows. For now it isn't even close to what Arma 3 is.

All, just run a solo hierophant few months ago (bm/ascnd), suboptimal build draft abusing Arkemyr invis rolftstomped 98% of encounters, tbh I got bored of it somwhere in BoW (I did FS, SSS and tested vs megabosses) bonus points for disintegration not breaking Call to Slumber lol edit another quirk was casting screaming souls on skeletal wizards with spell reflct on, you won't get dmg but AoE will trigger

Here's an interesting juxtaposition suggesting that Russia's understanding of its capacities has taken a step towards realism. First, we have the president of Finland commenting on how Putin's strong demands made late in 2021 were an important factor in Finland's decision to apply for NATO membership: https://yle.fi/news/3-12446141 Second, we have Lavrov saying how Finland and Sweden joining NATO makes no big difference: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-lavrov-says-finland-sweden-joining-nato-makes-no-big-difference-2022-05-17/ If this means that Lavrov is essentially saying, "Well, we can't do anything", then that's quite different from Putin's earlier message of, "You can't join NATO".

Except for that I don't have some mental list of which are okay and which are not, especially given that people often label sources as not acceptable purely on the basis of their personal ideologies and partisan politics. So instead, I base my judgments on each individual story, and not on some abstract and general notion pushed on me by others on whether a source is "acceptable" or not.

Of course it was. But that claim has been presented here at least twice in all seriousness, which is a bit baffling. My sense is that right after the initial attack was repelled and revealed as a bad idea, Russia resorted to its age-old tactics i.e. wholesale destruction of anything it can destroy with no regard for civilian life, civilian infrastructure or basically anything. One interesting thing about this is that while Russia appears to want to conquer Ukraine, it clearly has no interest in Ukrainian buildings or stuff like that, as it's quite happy to destroy everything.

Erdogan will change his mind in the end IMHO. He always says no, just to negotiate blackmail, their counterparts. I bet he will want something from EU to help him out with crazy inflation rolling at Turkey, for an exchange of his YES.

I'm really happy to hear of this. When Hitler began doing this same thing, that's what hastened Germany's military collapse. So Putin micromanaging his war is the best news we can get.

Erdogan is just playing his games, he will follow once US put pressure on him, I am certain of it

96% (188-8) of FInnish Parliament voted for seeking Nato membership Although Turkey has said that they will block Finland's membership

And here's another interesting piece of information. Particularly relevant against the claim that "actually Russia isn't doing that much damage and most of all, it makes an effort to limit the damage it causes". Sure it does, sure it does. Of course it's still true that Russia is not going all in. But this means very little.

This is something quite extraordinary and highly recommended. I wonder if a change of some kind is happening or about to happen inside Russia, as far as the war in Ukraine is concerned. Look at what this fellow says. (I have seen that female presenter / TV personality before, during this same war. She is, quite frankly, frightening. What I mean by this is that any professional on any TV channel should maintain at least a semblance of impartiality, for the cause of journalistic integrity. That should be a given in her profession, as absolute as the fact that a medical doctor will not talk about his patients' problems in public. I understand you can perhaps see something similar on Fox News and worse, but I've never watched Fox News so I don't know of any examples.)

You have outdone yourself with this link, its definitely the best example of propaganda and Putin War alternative facts I have ever read. Dont you love the Ukraine was never about a military win. What is being accomplished is the slow, painful destruction of the European Union (EU) economy, coupled with extraordinary weapons profits for the western military-industrial complex and creeping security rule by those nations’ political elites. Its so true except for the fact the EU and NATO are more united than ever before with a country like Sweden close to joining NATO after being militarily neutral for the last 200 years or so. I was just expecting the article to say something like " and we all know the Moskva was not sunk and sails proudly on the Black Sea " The end of Putins War will not be decided by the West but the Ukrainians who are emboldened by the Russian military incompetence and war crimes. Because they have the military advantage at the moment it will take more for them to agree to peace terms than in the early days of the invasion where many of us assumed Russia would defeat the Ukrainians in a few weeks But thanks for the link, it provided a great laugh

That article describes Lavrov as "a diplomatic master", which instantly gives the whole thing the seal of ultimate credibility. I hope you're all aware that I'm a chess grandmaster and a master chef. I mean, I know the rules of chess and I can cook my own food.

Sure, just put the appropriate link and credit !

Once again I bring to you: Games you most likely don't want! BEHOLD! ↓

Hitman47101 delivering the good once again: Could kill to see Lucas "The Rifleman" McCain firing animations for lever-actions:

I think it's why inequality plays a role and not just poverty itself. Extreme poverty puts people in desperate situations, but I feel (this is just a supposition, I've not done nor read research) that people can also recognize circumstances. I've less impetuous against my neighbours if they are struggling in similar ways than I may be. There may also be other mitigating circumstances such as whether or not people empathize with each other's positions and provide any sort of community support, even if that support is low in absolute wealth. Doing a search I found this (bold emphasis mine): https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/10/07/south-africa-a-new-social-assistance-assessment-aims-to-help-strengthen-policies-and-programs-for-the-poor "The report finds that overall, South Africa’s system of programs is effective, well-targeted, and provides sizeable benefits to the poorest households. The social assistance system effectively reduces poverty and inequality rates. Cash transfer programs are having positive and important impacts on a wide variety of outcomes, including nutrition and food security, educational attainment, health, labour supply, and livelihoods. Furthermore, the grant system has established effective delivery systems that identify beneficiaries and include registration, payment, and grievance redressal processes which can be scaled up rapidly during crises such as the COVID pandemic." What's interesting is that this article talks about how social assistance reduces both poverty and inequality rates. I'm not sure the intricacies of how Gini coefficients are calculated, but it would be very interesting if the world leading inequality rates assessed by the earlier link still took into account the social services. That is, are the inequality rates still the highest in the world even with some of the more generous social services in Africa? Because that could mean the circumstances within the country would be even worse without any of the social safety net that the World Bank says is helpful. EDIT: Also interesting is there are gaps in data for crime rates in a lot of the poorer countries in Africa. When looking at Macrotrends.net many of them had their most recent data put in 8+ years ago. It's possible that the poverty levels of the country make assessing the criminality almost impossible? For reference, same link is able to show poverty rates for many of the same countries.

I hope this is not true. If it is, it takes a kind of unprofessionalism to new levels, again. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/16/putin-involved-russia-ukraine-war-western-sources

Thousands of Britain’s ‘fish and chip’ shops could close within a year A sad fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. My Mum's parents ran a fish and chip shop in England, and eating chips and meat pie from a newspaper wrap is one of my fondest youthful memories.

Who would Australia have to invade to make them leave Australia?...

the thing is, you are being reasonable, and that is a flawed starting point. first step is you need imagine total lack o' self awareness coupled with a me and mine mentality which challenges credulity. school lunches for kids is bad 'cause is free for them. welfare is bad 'cause even if the vast majority o' adults receiving welfare benefits do so for less than six months, they are undeserving; likely using the free money to buy drugs and alcohol. programs which tax me and mine to provide benefits for they and them is necessarily bad even if those programs may be shown to benefit society as a whole. however, if a program is designed to tax the "fat cats" so everybody else benefits, including me and mine, then is good. unreasonable? sure but not necessarily irrational. rationality may be maintained even if the initial premise is unreasonable. as long as internal consistent, unreasonable may be rational. regardless, you gotta start with embracing a comical unapologetic me and mine perspective which am guessing is difficult for hurl. good luck with that. HA! Good Fun!

Just like many animals, it's an instinctive begging food/warmth "where'd mom go" thing. That familiar/stereotyped "hey mom, mom, mom, MOMMMM!" meow type vocal- that is kitten behavior/communication, which "we" as humans reinforce them to keep doing forever, albeit with their adult vocal tonal range.

Poor hedgehog. Hope it survived. Left field: I don't find Tom Holland at all attractive in any way...not even remotely...except for some reason when he's doing that Umbrella lip sync in drag routine. I can watch that video and he suddenly becomes a little hot. ...I saw a comment under one dance group video: "every man that can dance automatically becomes handsome." Seems sorta true - at least for that 3 minutes they're dancing. Kind of like the drummer/musician or a few other cliche similar things. I'm going to assume this is true (the instant hotness) for females too. It just speaks to our lizard brains in some way I guess.

Like I always said, buying crypto is buying nothing

Ukrainian soldiers reached Russian border northeast of Kharkiv, and according to British intelligence, Russia has lost one third of all the servicemen, assigned for invasion (probably counting all servicemen unable to fight, not only the dead ones).

@Azdeus asked 'bout punishing "soldiers," and a position none wants, so we couldn't help but think o' the old quip 'bout corporals. HA! Good Fun!

There goes the American embassy...

Has someone posted this before? For some reason I can't see half the posts in this thread (maybe my noscripts). Whatever, it's adorable/funny.

That ongoing thing: Column: Disney's unpaid artists - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) The house of mouse and it's interesting take on royalties on media it acquires...

LOL no they get to oversee the s--t details. That's a Corporal's s--t detail. Believe it or not Corporal is a pretty good rank in the Marines. There are three ranks that. once you make them, your quality of life improves noticeably; Corporal, Staff Sergeant, and Major. In the other three services (not counting the Space Force because it's stupid) E-4 is pretty meaningless. In Navy you get your rating at E-4 so there is that. But in the Corps E-4 is where you start to be exempted from some of the petty BS

It's called a s--t detail in the USMC

They do, but the future tachyon beam is done by the Pasteur, not the Enterprise. The Pasteur is still using their tachyon beam to 'find' the anomaly when the Klingons attack and disable it. The Enterprise comes and rescues them just at the Pasteur is destroyed, then disables the Klingon ships and leaves the the area. Picard has to convince Admiral Riker to go back to the system to investigate the beginning of the anti-time anomaly after Q makes him understand that the anomaly is moving backwards in time and that leads to the future Enterprise being back in the system and able to join its shields with the other two Enterprises to split the time/anti-time reaction and stop the anomaly.