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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/24/22 in all areas
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another surprise, but this time positive. animal control retrieved the corpse, and on thanksgiving day no less. 'course we had just moved her, 'cause we assumed it were unlikely anybody would retrieve her before monday after the holiday weekend. given the bruising we saw, the poor thing had clear been hit by a car before she managed to limp her way next to our doorway to die. well, is back to playing nurse to our little and a-bit-less-likely-to-die-immediate dog. as odd as it sounds, am genuine thankful, and not just 'cause his 24/7 care got us out o' family thanksgiving. is hard to see much improvement from the dog, but he don't look as if he is suffering as were the case a month past. is current an unseasonably nice 66 degrees, and is only noonish, so am gonna take the pooch outside to absorb a bit o' sunlight and fresh air in just a bit. happy thanksgiving day. HA! Good Fun!4 points
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Lithuania has crwodfunded three naval drones for Ukraine. The wordplay used in naming them is hilarious3 points
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Happy Thanksgiving to all our Murican forumites and anyone else who celebrates it.2 points
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A detail to catch the eye: The two folders close to Putin are in Ukrainian colours. Unlikely to be a coincidence, but as to what it means, I have no idea.2 points
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War reporter, Yuri Butusov posted a video made by Russian mobiks, about the incident in Mekiivka. Here is the translation. If I understood it correctly, the guys admited, that the now dead Russian soldiers tried to deceive UA soldiers, with pretend surrender. edit: tbh after reading it for the second time, i am not so sure if I have understood it correctly, feeling ill, so my english understanding might be pretty off now. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.2 points
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the most likely explanation is it were alive when it found its way to our door. haven't inspected the corpse as am planning on moving it in the morning, but am assuming injury or disease resulted in the critter's death after she managed to reach our home under her own power. we suffer frequent cervid visitations, but this is the most grim and morbid hooved guest we has had to endure. overnight temps will be chilly, but it will reach almost 70F tomorrow-- can't leave a bloated corpse rotting so near our door during the holidays, eh? is just kinda weird. a dying critter typical don't seek out the lair o' a carnivore as the spot it leaves the mortal coil. then again, depending on the nature of the injury or the disease, is possible she were more than a little disoriented in the hour(s) immediate preceding her expiration. am hardly an expert. is unfortunate, but is possible we will know more tomorrow when we need drag the considerable dead meat some distance away from our doorway. not looking forward to that chore. HA! Good Fun!2 points
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Think that's true for all the major footballing nations, point of pride to have a domestic coach.2 points
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I was listening to a presentation given by a retired high-ranking intelligence officer, and it contained a couple of interesting points concerning some of the reasons Russia decided to attack Ukraine. For instance, he pointed out that outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, much of Russia still qualifies as a developing country; apparently one third of all Russians still only have an outhouse, when it comes to their toilet facilities. The rampant looting of washing machines and such testifies to the fact how backward much of Russia continues to be. Russia has nothing to contribute to the current technological advances in the world -- except raw materials. This has created an enormous reservoir of jealousy and bitterness towards "the West", and what makes Ukraine particularly annoying is the fact that Ukraine has managed to make a significant move towards becoming a more Western country -- even if corruption, for instance, still remains a huge problem and Ukraine is obviously nowhere near to qualifying for the EU. Ukraine is, for Russia, doubly culpable, for not only has it got closer to "the West", it has also simultaneously made a clear move away from what Russia regards as their trinity: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. This is unforgivable. (Interestingly: Belarus would almost certainly make the same move if it could, i.e. if it wasn't ruled by Putin's puppet, with everything that that entails.) There are all sorts of strategic, economic, imperialistic and probably just personal (Putin) factors that also help to explain the war, but the former officer wanted to draw attention to these considerations, which are also significant. Also, there's this today:2 points
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I stand corrected. Man, that's normally my job, being right about minor details. People to this day still comment about how romantic Chibi-Usa and Pegasus were on YouTube videos. There are videos out there who rate them highly amongst the best power couples, so no, it is not just back then. By all accounts, Ikuhara and company made Pegasus worse than he was in the manga. Previously, they filed off the rough edges, like changing the Black Lady/Prince Endymion kiss into an illusion and removed the implied rape, dropping Usagi's suicide attempt from the first arc, making the Sailor Guardians less of a blood thirsty band of murderers, and instead introduced a bunch of other stuff, like actual character development. They also had the good sense to remove Tuxedo Mask's super creepy early behaviour (kissing a drunk and passed out Usagi, watching her transform after urging her to lose no time, stalking her and simply showing up at her open window) and Mamoru's 'romantic' reaction to Usagi showing up and basically accusing him of desiring Chibi-Usa 'like a woman' which was to kiss her and pacify the hysterical woman by giving her his love rod, showing her what he really desires. Usagi is all happy, glowing and fine with Chibi-Usa the next day, only to go back to being jealous a bit later. Typing this out makes me look like I engange in hyperbole, but I really do not. I wish I was. I also wish I would have never watched Crystal and Eternal, and never read any of the manga chapters, but here we are. However, credit needs to be given where it is due, the manga was still really progressive for Japan in 1992. It is just that the anime was better in every regard, unless for some reason one prefers the storyline and dislikes the 'slow moving' filler episodes or dislikes that the stoic and man-hating Rei was changed into a fiery, passionate and boy crazy girl that likes to yell at Usagi but still would do anything for her. I went looking for a Rei hug gif, and found only madness. There's an entire Shipping wiki, and endless material dedicated to UsaRei. The anime fandom is in dire need of a cleansing. Back to the Dream Arc / SuperS: the Amazan Trio, for instance, does not get 22 episodes of raping innocent women, men and - to make that even worse - children. They attack the Guardians and simply get taken out. Their assaults are also not as overtly sexual, they're 'just' trying to seduce the girls with their own insecurities - insecurities that looked an awful lot like Ms. Takeuchi adapted them from Sailor Moon S, but that might just be coincidence. The Pegasus romance is still creepy simply by virtue of him being a horse most of the time and the age difference between him and Chibi-Usa, but he also makes clear that he's more like a thirteen year old boy stuck in this form, and there is none of the pedophile grooming behaviour he exhibits in the anime, but that is partially also because these issues are all really short and there is just no time for anything in the manga. It is hard to see all of that and not think it intentional. Ikuhara and company were fed up with Toei's interference in their work, but how they got what they wrote and animated past quality control or TV censorsphip, I have no idea. That might also be due to the production schedule, they just had to air what they made, in the first few episodes they did not even have all of the stock footage yet, as evidenced by reusing Chibi-Usa's film transformation scene and the curious lack of their combined transformations. Pulling the plug on an episode would have meant not airing an episode of their cash cow franchise, so we got what we have with SuperS. Rape allegories and a pedophile horse, in what Toei wanted to be aimed at younger children than Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S were. No wonder almost the entire creative team was changed afterwards. What is really interesting to note is that Toei just managed to find a team that then proceeded to make Sailor Stars. Stars took a hit in character design, but everything else was pretty good. Some of the show's best episodes are in that season. The only story arc worth a damn is there, and half the basis for Steven Universe.1 point
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I had to go check: in the English dub (and in the subtitles for Japanese that I'm reading), Minako specifically mentions Luna having given her the transformation pen to do it. The creator being young and dumb and thinking it was all naively romantic is one thing, but everyone else going along with it without taking the effort to reframe it and make it less creepy is a whole other...1 point
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If it's anything at all like nettle soup, it should be amazing1 point
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Making chitlins, short ribs, polenta, and collard greens. Wife bought rolls and meats and cheese for a charcuterie board. Cousin is bringing drinks and pie and other friends are bringing brussel sprouts and maybe something else. Pics later maybe.1 point
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lol Armenia is just an awful example because... who is the major backer of Azerbaijan? No, not major western ally Israel, they're its second biggest backer (mostly in the hope they'll, double lol, invade Iranian Azerbaijan), but important NATO member with its [belated edit, 2nd, obviously] largest military, Turkey. For anyone who thinks NATO- or the EU, or individual western countries- will do anything at all for Armenia I present the Syrian Kurds who did 99% of the dying on behalf of the 'international coalition' in Syria yet have been and are being hung out to dry by them now. Of course, you don 't hear much about it, now, because it ain't Trump doing it, it's Biden. Who was going to stand up to Erdogan and MbS, and instead is kissing their ring about as badly as Trump did. Oh yeah, and who do you think is a major supplier of gas to Europe? Azerbaijan. Doesn't matter how many times Macron phones Pashinyan to express support, c'est la carte blanche for the Azeris in realityland. Only worse example would actually be the Syrian Kurds not being protected by Russia. Because guess who's been cheerily blowing up civilian infrastructure like power stations in their revenge for a bombing- carried out by a religious arab woman whose brother is a commander of the Turkish sponsored FSA and two other brothers fought for ISIS and who had been repeatedly contacted by the Turkish Nationalist Party; supposedly on behalf of atheist anarchist Kurds? Yep, it's NATO member Turkey. Let's see how long it takes for the Euroweenie Parliament to declare them a terrorist state, shall we? My money is might get passed just before earth gets swallowed up when the sun goes nova, but only might. Mmm, I do love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning. I eagerly await all the accusations of whataboutism from the usual suspects who can't cope with the cognitive dissonance.1 point
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I am sure that Armenia has been very happy be part of security organization that has given it next to nothing assistance when it has been under attack of its neighboring country and lost some of its territories1 point
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Doesn't seem to be that big of an update. I'll wait until the DLC is out before I'll jump back into it.1 point
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Hi Elric! I'm playing around with your newest updates and I wonder if Takedown Combo could receive a similar treatment as all the "from stealth" effects (assassinate, backstab), i.e. a 1 sec "lingering" of the effect? Such that full-attacks would also come to profit from this. At the same time I think that the well-known interaction with dots should remain, although probably not intended by Obsidian.. I think it's a cool little feature to play around. /// And also regarding Ranger.. I really like your changes to Hunter's Claw now providing until end of combat stacks. However, it seems that dual wielding here is by far the best option, since you can get the full stack with only 5 ability points, whereas single- or two-handed would require spending 10 ability points to see the full stack .. which would probably be achieved in almost no fight. Do you think that stacking a fixed value, similar to stunning surge, might be an nice adjustment? Maybe increasing the value to 3 acc/def/dam per hit, then? In this case dual-wielding would still be the optimal option, but not by a huge margin anymore.///As always, thank you so much for working on this! Highly enjoy it1 point
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The manga did not either, although to its credit, they did use the disguise pen in the third arc to infiltrate Dr. Tomoe's acedemy. Although by the time of Sailor Moon S, the anime writing team ignored most of the manga, just making use of the characters and general plot points. With good reason. Indeed, the primary point for most of her insecurities. Which is a little strange in an anime with typical anime hair shapes and colors, but that's why they made her super tall and super strong too, so it is more readily noticable. Well, how strange. The picture of Berly telling Jadeite that she is not a merciful queen and Tuxedo Mullet did not?1 point
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For Active Skills only. Arcane is certainly the skill with the highest potential because it turns any character into a caster... for a cost. That being said catsers are the ones that need it the least because... well they are alredy casters. Main character has skill check to do on its own, so I tend to specialize them less than others. My "rules" : - a couple of Athletic (needed for some check and helps in general) and Stealth (helps positionning) for anybody - 1 specialist for each skill except Sleight of Hand : mechanics (the most important, but only 1 character needs it), arcane, alchemy, stealth, athletic, explosives (by approximate order of priority). Yes, you have 5 members for 6 skills, so one of them has to pick 2 skill speciality. I tend to give 2 speciality to main character since they have to do some checks by themselves and main characters ultimately get +1 to all skills. - a couple of Sleight of Hand points to the Stealth Specialist - spare points can be put into Arcane (the most powerful, and 3 points give access to Tier 3 Scrolls) or Alchemy (healing potions) - try to use starting skill point to your advantage, but only Explosives, Mechanics and Sleight of Hand points tend to be lost since arcane, alchemy, stealth, athletic are at least a bit useful to everyone. Finally, there are no utterly bad choices, and you can respec later. For Mechanics, I would give it to either Eder if Rogue or the "mysterious 4th party member" from Port Maje.1 point
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Generally speaking, playing with the natural strengths of each class in your team (i.e. focusing on skills where they get class bonuses) is a good idea but it doesn't matter a ton. If you do so with a balanced party, you'll cover everything. It is good to have a character focusing on mechanics, the natural candidate is rogue-type but others will work too. Having your primary social skill (e.g. Diplomacy) on your Watcher is not a bad idea as they're the face of your party, even if in many cases you can use your total party skill score to pass checks. You'll get many ways down the line to boost your skills with gear, consumables and quest rewards. Finally if you want to know what I usually like to prioritize early game to pass the checks I deem important: Diplomacy, Athletics, Survival, Mechanics.1 point
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Narutaru 9 A disturbing episode. Shiina arrives at Tsurumaru’s place at the right time. A few more seconds and I think they would be discussing how to impregnate the dragons. Thank you Shiina. Later, Shiina starts working with Akira’s father. “Do you want to be my daughter?” Then Sudo arrives and they go fishing. Impressive that Akira is happier near the guy than with her own family. And Hoshimaru is once again doing his thing: I wish I knew what he was thinking here:1 point
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I'll admit, this does make me want to check it out. Why use a pen when you've got Star Gentle Uterus?1 point
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It's pretty 'incredible' that they couldn't find more uses for that in the series. Then again, the show mostly didn't give a crap about the functional applicability of their powers in the first place, as they mostly just used whatever was the latest they had "unlocked"...with just a few exceptions. I was thinking Makoto could be possible as well...but really thinking about it made me reconsider: it would probably be significantly easier for somebody white to have some kind of resemblance to Makoto than someone Japanese.1 point
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https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1595720663427334144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1595720663427334144%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url= Ruskie CSTO is in a dire state, another good example of the new " Russian led world order "1 point
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Random observations about Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Usagi's pen she uses to disguise herself early on in the series is a gaudy looking mobile phone she uses to take a picture of whoever she wants to disguise herself as. That seems somewhat more limited in use than the pen. Usagi's mother is insane. She brings coffee to Ami and Usagi, then starts wrestling Usagi on her bed, yelling: "Get your coffe, Ami!" Rei is scary, but understandably the only one who even remotely looks like her counterpart. Unlike in the manga, Rei does not immediately burn Jadeite to a cinder. That's a win in my book, although with Nephrite in the preview for the next episode, I'm guessing he's toast either way. The sound effects are hilarious, sometimes Usagi just walks around and the ninja fighting sounds are playing.1 point
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There are many builds/threads scattered around, I had started this one earlier this year looking at strong solo classes for vanilla game vs BPM if that's helpful. BPM or not will affect what's viable quite a bit. BPM = less cheese = less broken combos for soloing.1 point
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I guess it is too late to back out now: I have all Manowar albums up to and including Warriors of the World, and I listened to them a lot when I was a good deal younger, and I know most of their lyrics by heart. They also have 'fantastic' cover art, and in various metal magazines the cover of Into Glory Ride was ranked rather highly in 'worst cover art of all time' lists. For me, Manowar's biggest draw is Eric Adams, and insfoar they share something with Evanescence - neither group would be all that remarkable without their charismatic and talented vocalists. I do not know how it is nowadays after their split (rather nicely put, considering he was fired after being accused of posessing child pornography, for which he was convicted and currently serves prison time), but in the days of yore a good Manowar concert was one where Karl Logan only hit a couple of wrong notes. Anyway, while All Men Play On Ten is inherently silly, there are Manowar songs with worse lyrics. Kill with Power from Hail to England comes to mind, or the infamous Pleasure Slave from Kings of Metal. My favorite performance is the live version of Master of the Wind from Hell On Stage. Song in spoilers because the cover art is slightly not safe for work. Not very surprising, it puts Eric Adams front and center, and puts the band where it belongs, in the background, playing along. Joey de Maio likes to take credit for that, after all, amplifiers that go up to eleven appeared after the album was released, but it is much more likely they came out in response to This Is Spinal Tap than Manowar, both the album and the mockumentary were released in 1984 after all. Sigh. Another post like that and I might lose my street credibility as poster of utter drivel, although Manowar could easily be argued as drivel when one does not like heavier rock or metal. Hm, how to offset that? I time coded the video to the song part, feel free to watch everything: Although the lullabye is catchy as hell and the lyrics are hilarious. Cascada's cover of How Do You Do should suffice: Fantastic 'live' performance.1 point
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Narutaru 7-8 There are so many subtle hints of the creatures and the plot that I can't even remember. Things like how they relate to the children or why the effects are different. And I think one of the bad guys mentioned something about Akira that sounded weird. Unfortunately, I had to watch the episode in a hurry since I had a meeting right after lunch so I didn't have time to check on it again. If the military are not stupid they should eventually find out who is connected to these creatures and deal with them in the easy way, that is, directly. Poor Akira. She is in a far worse state than Shiina. And Shiina has her father, while Sakura would be better far from hers. Well, that is one way to put it. The ending song: "and let's kiss until it becomes an obsession." I saw somebody on Youtube saying that some fans got angry about hints of a Denji-Makima romance, so I think there is definitely something bad about her. Not to mention he now revealed he is only 16. We need a zipper, a Feng Shui and a baby-generator-laptop devils.1 point
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The utter silliness of that reminds me this equally silly song. The lyrics are pure gold. Highly recommended -- and do pay attention to the profundity of the message. (No way I can ever do the scream before the second chorus. I don't have pipes like that.) And yes, these guys haven't realized that all proper gear goes up to eleven.1 point
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Its a funny thing, you target energy infrastructure with missiles and that energy infrastructure is damaged And its just another example of the cowardly nature of the Russian military, they cant win the conventional war so they resort to targeting civilian infrastructure. Thats why they deserve to seen as a state sponsor of terrorism1 point
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Can't beat Yannis Papadopoulos (can a name get any more Greek than that? He might as well be called Greek McGreekface) when it comes to sounding masculine. The lyrics are fantastic too.1 point
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At first I thought you watched a Neil Breen movie with your wife. That would show serious commitment on her part.1 point
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Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback! Will give the chanter a try then1 point
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Waski is right, but in practice you don't need to retrain much. The end game skill spread is about maximizing the Giftbearer's Cloth bonus, at this point this build is more than prepared to handle a failed Diplomacy check. You won't miss out on anything important. The only important thing is Mechanics 13 + gloves + thief's putty that will unlock the hardest important lock in the game which is in Splinter's Reef. And up to late game (i.e. before hitting SSS and FS, possibly late BoW) Survival, Diplomacy, Athletics in the 10-12 range keeping items around that can buff it further will allow to pass other important checks. Many checks in SSS and FS are real high anyway for a solo char unless you retrain a lot and they're not worth it IMHO so you can just go onwards like the arcane mobile artillery platform you were meant to be.1 point
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Having just spent 3 hours attempting to log into my microsoft account, I feel I need to vent and here seems that best place. I really like Grounded and even though I've only spent 4 hours in a multiplayer game. So this is not an issue with the game.1 point
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It just crossed the 20 million sold mark. I don't think refunds were as big a problem as reported.1 point
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I did. The game sold like gangbusters. That is a weird expression.1 point
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My choice of cars in Cyberpunk 2077 is as simple as it is functional. There's only one car that is the epitome of handling, speed and off-road capabilities: The Mizutani Shion "Coyote", don't leave home without it. No, seriously, all other cars just suck. A Rayfield Caliburn might be slightly faster, but handles like an old ass.1 point
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