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Timothy Snyder in front of UN security council on Rusophobia.

Are you trolling or just being inadvertently nonsensical?

I think I am finally largely tired of my meal-soup that I've been eating all winter long. Time to figure out some new meal that I can constantly job-lot and be motivated to eat for the next 4-6 months...and then get bored of. I'm still pretty sick of raw salads...won't be that.

Whataboutwhataboutwhatabout! People can handwave anything as long as it aligns with their views.

Spring Sale Giveaway on GOG: Lorelai https://www.gog.com/game/lorelai

The attack on Avdiivka started in march 2022. So almost half year sooner than attack on Bakhmut. It is much smaller stronghold than Bakhmut, and IIRC smaller than Soledar. It was always within high possibility, that it can fall sooner, than Bakhmut. @xzar_monty and a little bit more "speculations" about the visit of Mariupol. The "citizens" are again the same people, which are on all of his pictures

Over 60 dogs rescued from burning building

New York landlord becomes legal guardian of 93-year-old Holocaust survivor: 'She had no one else'

The official position is that it has been clipped out of context. Supposedly he only spoke about 'west in general' and not Poland, also meant 'war with Russia in the eventual future' not this one. Besides the idea is absurd, Poland is way too soft to fight even if it had the means or independence to do so. The really curious part is if this clip was made by Russians or Ukrainians.

The Russian discourse can be seriously weird. (Btw, it would take some serious demonstration to convince me that Mr. P is using body doubles.)

You're asking the person who doesn't own the game. But no, it's not true MMO style. You may see people in towns (I find this acceptable, aka PoE), in the overworld maybe pass them as you're going place to place (or you may never see anyone depending on when you play, or waypoints maybe, not sure etc). And ofc if you join Events or the World Boss or whatever that is. Dungeons seem to be instances, so you can be totally alone or with just your friends, and a lot of the story stuff/missions seems like it's going to be in those. (edit - I've seen a few people stream for an hour or three and never saw another player, but they did no Events). I've seen some say they felt like they ran into people constantly and others saying they got to lvl 25/finished the Act (max level in the beta) and never saw/talked to anyone. So the answer is ... it depends on what you're doing, I guess. What I was hoping for was - people in towns but otherwise not unless you specifically joined an Event. Sounds like you could see other ppl more often than that, but could also largely avoid. No one knows about end-game tho - that isn't part of the beta.

Your weakness disgusts me.

Yeah, I get it. Over the last couple of years, Packers football has become purely stressful without basically any of the positive stuff that used to come with it. It's why I'm relieved Rodgers is finally moving on, even though the Packers are likely to be somewhere between bad and very bad for the coming years. Have been way more excited and have had way more fun with the Milwaukee Bucks' core group of players than I have with the Packers', and it's what made their championship journey so sweet (as opposed to just...the championship itself). Meanwhile, if the Packers had won another Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers taking all the glory, I'd...certainly be conflicted. Maybe that's somewhat enabled by knowing that the Packers have already won four SBs and a pile of pre-SB championships though, as opposed to other teams who have never won anything ever and are desperate for any kind of legitimate chance at the thing. Doesn't matter either way though, as I just don't enjoy rooting for a team whose players I don't like. My "hmm" reaction was actually more about trash can man than not understanding you moving away from enjoying watching the Suns, .

With winter officially over it is a good moment to summaries the energy war. So in short term it clearly failed. The European gas storage levels are still over 60% and are unlikely to drop much by now. And that's partially because the winter was second warmest on record. Consequently the demand dropped and gas prices are back to 2021 levels. Of course it still has a nasty effects of driving up prices and inflation but it is no longer enough to shake-up the politics in Europe. I'd say that barring a record-cold winter it is now unlikely EU will change its policy over Russian energy.

Winter is tenaciously holding on here. We are at least 3 weeks behind where normal temps should be. At one point we were 20x colder than the norm! Today milder and I watching snow lazily float downward before taking the hound for a run ...

Eh, I dont blame anyone, were all products of our environment after all. Germans are accustomed to removing free speech whenever it clashes with their "great shame", so Im not surprised whatsoever that blocking free speech doesnt even blip their radar. "Durr its not as bad as <example>". Definitely wont see anyone at a Germany university talking about Hitler.

Mostly it's because I enjoy the discourse surrounding other teams in their futile attempts at beating GSW. I miss that.

Allegedly being the key word, yeah. Apparently everything shown last year was scheduled for release within the next twelve months, but Starfield at least has slipped back to September. Really hoping it does come soon though. There's not a lot on my radar right now, but Silksong definitely is. As for Avowed, if there is still no news at this years Meh-3, then I'm pushing it back to 2025 in my mind and finding something else to be excited about for a bit. I don't expect Starfield to have any real degree of depth as it widens its play space to ridiculous levels, but it might at least tide me over for a few months with it's various systems if it actually lands in September... Baldur's Gate 3 lands around the end of August too, and that's my online co-op game covered for a nice long while.

Add another zero and the same thing could be said about religion.

Didn't it turn out the whole leak had nothing to do with the war situation but was just an attention seeker that even tried to apply for a job at GSC after the fact? At least I saw this on the Stalker subreddit.

All people being free just depends on how you define people.

heard that D4 open beta fried several 3080 Tis, so beware. as for the Stalker 2 leak, I found out about it on the social network (VK) it happened on, there's a huge thread with screenshots and concept art. not sure what the leakers actually wanted to accomplish with the leak itself, as far as I can tell it's free publicity for the company, as the concept art looks amazing, the map is huge, and it actually makes the game look better than it probably is, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if the leak was orchestrated by GSC themselves for brownie points

Well, does Mr. Dobson have a 27B-stroke-6 or not? Those boys up in Central Services are sticklers for paperwork you know...

I have some exciting news, I have decided to play IWD2 next. Not the player made EE edition but the original on GOG I have loaded some mods, further updates to follow

As someone who favors Occam's Razor[*], I would say it's the real one. I would basically vote for the real one every time unless there's some pretty strong evidence to the contrary. [*] Using Occam's Razor, the most probable explanation is that the term refers to the razor of someone called Occam. EDIT: That address by T. Snyder is excellent. Thanks a lot, @Mamoulian War.

I have been playing this game for a long time and have really enjoyed it. I have noticed something about the upgrade system that I don’t particularly like. As you go through the backyard you can find tough nuggets and style nuggets all around at an almost equal rate. I usually end a journey with more style nuggets however. If you look at the system you can see that it takes a lot more work to upgrade weapons. You need tough nuggets, spicy/salty/minty shards, and twinkling shells. For armor you don’t need as many nuggets and there are no other extra ingredients required. I have three pieces of armor and six weapons that I need to upgrade. What I am saying is that it takes way more work to upgrade your weapons then it does your armor so maybe make upgrading armor more difficult or upgrading weapons cheaper. Another thing I noticed is that there is still quartzite in the game. I don’t know if it’s on anybody else’s game or just a glitch in mine. I was looking in some of the sandbox caves when I found some. I think it’s supposed to be tough nuggets but I broke it and got quartzite shards.

^ I wrote all that, walked away for minute or so and realized I should've just said: "My impression from watching some streams is that the story campaign can be played entirely solo but there may be other non-campaign reasons to wander the "world map" areas where players may compete for crafting resource nodes/enemies or whatever may be needed for, say, seasonal or other goals, but not sure." Brevity, they name is not LC.

I don't know how many here have watched Terry Gilliam's "Brazil", but as a British filmmaker he's probably way too well acquainted with the British bueacracy Now to the real life... https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-65002430 In short, the council wrote to the deceased and offered him a tax exemption for being dead, if he filled out the form and returned it. Edit: Just to clarify, the guy wasn't dead, his wife died a month earlier.

The Matrix: Resurrections (2021) Somehow, Neo and Trinity have returned. The movie goes hard in parodying the idea of milking a franchise for all it's worth, which is probably the best part of it. It's certainly not game changing like the original Matrix and it's not as odious as some other sci-fi reboots, it's mediocre. Hopefully this is the end of the Matrix.

Dorudugan at L16 is probably impossible. You'll definitely need wall of draining and probably potion of final stand as well. Unbending won't do you much good against one really strong enemy like Dorudugan because your healing on the first few rounds is lower and you'll get killed. Even with potion of final stand dorudugan is going to be very very challenging solo because he heals himself faster than you can damage him unless you've procced a high damage conduit crit from deltro's cage helm. Once you get wall of draining you only need to cast unbending once. If you recast it the effect doesn't stack, what happens is you just refresh the duration. Unbending stacks with itself every time you're hit. You'll see in the character sheet it will say something like "unbending (x10): X health over Y rounds" but it actually applies X health every round. Spells should apply to unbending but some abilities don't proc correctly so maybe some don't. I'm away from home so can't check spell interaction atm. In general though, you won't get much healing if you aren't being hit. Also without wall of draining unbending stacks will reset at the end of the ability's duration. You naturally get healing fastest in fights with lots of weak enemies hitting you a lot. In fights where that can't happen, try kiting out one enemy using traps, then let him hit you to build up unbending, and just keep extending it with wall of draining, then once you have decent number of stacks run into combat. Nearly every fight has at least one weak enemy you could kite to do this, but if not, just blood sacrifice to near death, drink a potion of final stand, and throw a wall of draining. Of course you need to be L19+ for that so... When soloing potd upscaled it is usually best to avoid difficult combat until you are high level. You may need to complete some more quests, easy bounties, or just sail around...I'm usually L19 or l20 by the time I've done ashen maw, even with eothas trial constraints, and you can do this avoiding most combat. Check ultimate runs for pathing, they are usually pretty similar, though you have more freedom with eothas off. There are lots of quests you can complete without combat, like motare o kozi, poko kahara (except the very end), symbols of death, Crookspur, etc. Stealth is your friend. When you do get wall of draining at L19 I think you'll find everything really falling into place. Also solo runs are easier if you avoid rests and stack buffs. There are other threads with guides on no rest runs, the most important things to pick up are the dawnstar's blessing in Port maje which gives you +50% healing, and nature's resolve buff on tikiwara Island (+2 res, +10 accuracy). Here is a good guide on no rest runs. You can console in buffs if you missed them. In general you do this with "applystatuseffect player[press tab] [nameofeffect]". You can find the names (for example dawnstar blessing) with "findgamedata dawnstar" or "findgamedata boon". You may get a big list as a result but they have the statuseffectgamedata type. You should easily have room for mule kick. You don't need to memorize spells at all but I'd suggest memorizing wall of draining since it isn't in ninagauth/arkemyr/llengrath/ironclasped. Maybe if you tell me what fighter and wizard abilities you've taken I can give my opinion which ones you don't really need. It's really useful for easy aoe interrupts, even if you mostly prefer casting spells. -- Also yes while you are lower level SC blood mage is going to be better mostly because you get wall of draining a lot faster. But in potd solo runs you typically want to level up a lot before doing hard combat anyway, and it isn't hard to reach l19 just questing and sailing around, so by the time you're doing difficult content (megabosses, DLC etc.) you should be max level either way.

I used to do that a lot, and it has some value in that you learn how builds work as they level in different encounters... Ultimately though I think the best way to test builds is make a save at any point after you get your ship, and use console command OpenCharacterCreation Follow with addexperience 190000 to get l20, can do lots of stuff from there. The "find" command is useful, it shows you console commands and their parameters. "Findgamedata" is also very useful, it finds names corresponding to items (giveitem) or status effects (applystatuseffect) or abilities (addability) etc.

I recall people were unhappy large parts are underused (which I don't mind, this obsession with filling every square cm with "content" is horrible), but small is one I clearly missed. Anyway, since I can't even get into Star Citizen atm since they literally broke my character's ability to log in like a week ago with no way to do anything about it, I grabbed Elite Dangerous to get my space fix (oh, in case you were wondering how the major Star Citizen patch is going...not well ) I must say, ED is the game with the absolute worst new player experience of any game I've ever touched (and I've played some of the X games, EVE online, and, well Star Citizen). Even watching loads of videos didn't particularly clear anything up. Most are just videos about how to make massive amounts of moneyz pretending to be tutorials, and then skim over how you get the stuff you need to do so, because why would anyone watch a tutorial to get mechanics explained to them, right? There's also this obnoxious issue I already reported years ago (I tried ED once before around 2019 and ended up refunding because of this issue), that apparently it is still around (in slightly less gameplay impacting form). For some reason the game decides it knows better than you which keyboard layout you should be using. Being Belgian this means it forces an azerty layout on me, even though I didn't even have an azerty layout configured in Windows at all (which it "helpfully" rectified by adding said layout to Windows ). So yeah, can't make heads nor tails from the keybindings section, super helpful. Thankfully this is such a simple game... Somehow I did manage to get things done, since it now forces the layout at least the keys are somewhat where you'd expect them to be, but the more specialized stuff (like scanners) is a massive pain in the neck to figure out like this, even after you know what you're looking for...

Another glorious weekend of cleaning. At least the front end for my grocery DB is coming together, should use WPF instead of Forms though, maybe that'll be the next project

Almost certainly it was, and there's a 99% chance I participated in said topic. I don't care, any chance I get to rep some cool, old, hand painted posters I will. Everything today is all digitally slapped together, and some of the posters are kinda cool, but they just don't have that hand drawn magic of old movie posters. Side-note: I should watch Westworld (1973) again.

Yeah in non FF builds I tend to have dex in 13 to 18 range and often dump resolve, but forbidden fist attack does such massive damage compared to weapons, and generates wounds, and heals you, and enfeebles enemies, so for FF builds you want to attack as fast as you can without attacking faster than curse duration. I was kind of surprised you could actually completely dump dex and still attack once per 2s in robes. With devil of caroc bp probably more like 2.4s, maybe bit less with Abraham as pet. Lightning strikes / swift flurry plus dual wield plus two weapon fighting is equivalent to roughly 25 points of dexterity, so you don't suffer much as long as dual wielding, especially if you have some of the passive +dex boons and berath champion stats. You should try tweaking dex and int with the console as the exact optimal values depend on your armor, other equipment, and whether certain abilities have been used. The display value for forbidden curse is going to be way off, doesn't factor in resolve and lone wolf, so you have to pause right after using ability (make sure clarity of agony or enlightened agony is up also to further reduce curse), check character sheet for the actual duration, then compare with attack + recovery for FF ability (with swift flurry and two weapon style active), ideally this value will be the same or .1s longer than the curse time. And in case you didn't know, console is accessed using ' key (grave), then type iroll20s, enter, then "attributescore player[press TAB to compete] dexterity 3" for example (without quotes, and pressing tab completes commands or names of the player which isn't always obvious). Iroll20s disables achievements but only if you save that file and continue from there, if you just invoke it to test things and then reload it won't affect achievements.

Hehe, not the anime thread, but it reminded me of this.

the radical left, as well as the young & stoopid left, is indeed abandoning +200 years o' american free speech values. am appalled. am guessing john lewis is rolling in his grave, and zombie bernie sanders is not too happy as well. no doubt most dead and undead libs is united in their disappointment at the diminution o' american free speech values by the young and/or extreme. however, is mainstream conservatives who is pushing the right's crusade versus speech. the war on wokeism, as well as the misguided and and ignorance based crt bans, not to mention the militarization o' suppression o' protests which were applauded by our resident south african, the oath keepers, maga and trump, represent real threats to US speech and even american democracy itself which is far more serious than the comical and self-defeating efforts o' a handful o' antifa clowns. vile and willful efforts to gut historic american values in general and free speech in particular should be condemned regardless o' party affiliation. isn't happening. instead from local school board meetings to red state governors and even the previous POTUS, there has been a conscious effort to knee-cap free speech in the US. the most serious threats is coming from the right and is a mainstream push as 'posed to a fringe movement. 'course not all conservatives has joined the battle to undermine free speech and core values. general mattis reaction to lafyette square: I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand — one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation. When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside. We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate." At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them. James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that "America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law. Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that "The Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.'" We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis — confident that we are better than our politics. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children. We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln's "better angels," and listen to them, as we work to unite. Only by adopting a new path — which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals — will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad. antifa morons and college-aged idiots ignore the obvious lefty role-models which is john lewis and zombie bernie sanders? those uc davis protesters should be double embarrassed that a guy such as mattis is doing more to champion american values than is the radical and young left. that said, it is the current mainstream right which represents the most obvious, organized and immediate threat directed at american speech values since ww1. mainstream right is attacking teachers, journalists as well as military leaders mattis, kelly, mcmaster and mcraven. ‘Greatest threat to democracy’: Commander of bin Laden raid slams Trump’s anti-media sentiment even so, am increasing disappointed in far too many university students at yale, stanford, berkeley and uc davis who has embraced a view o' free speech which we most assured would not have expected to become prevalent on college campuses during our lifetime. the mainstream right and their war on speech in no way absolves college kid ignorance. am genuine shocked by an anti-liberty trend 'mongst young people, regardless o' political affiliation; is unhealthy and unamerican. no excuse. no equivocation. a parting fyi for the afrikaners and maga crowd: just 'cause fox news pundits talk 'bout the right's championing o' core american values don't make it true. in case you is still unaware, fox lies. HA! Good Fun!

Looks like Wagnerites are starting to find nazis in Russia as well. Using spoiler tag, due to very NSFW language.

This is so cute, pig and puppy videos are the best

indeed. lewis observed we need live in the shadowlands while the sun shines somewheres else. ... "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world… no doubt pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument-- it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. it removes the veil. it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul." -- c.s. lewis on the redemptive power o' suffering you do have a habit o' reading quotes so they mean the opposite o' what the author intended, but am s'posing is refreshing in a way. (our quote is from memory, so is likely we got a word or two reversed. apologies.) nevertheless, unlike c.s. lewis, am actual agreeing with your observation 'bout the value o' good news. am just observing how for the genuine hopeless, good news is yet another hammer blow from fate. isn't necessarily rational, but if you ever try and cheer up a depressed person with good news, you may not get the reaction you intended. the sun shining over the next hill or down the road cements the knowledge that the depressed must endure the shadowlands and while such pain may be proof o' God for the diehard catholic, it is a cruel jest for the disconsolate. HA! Good Fun!

Don't know about you guys but I think good news is more important than ever.

Here's the "manifesto" of the leakers. Cross entitled gamer twąt with ~*regular russian people totally do not condone the war, like at all, you guys, it's just government that's bad, totally*~ fable and you get something noxious to rival fallout in the Zone.

am a fan o' previous harebrained games. we would not watch a paradox presentation, but if there is harebrained specific info presented, am gonna search after the fact. HA! Good Fun!

Still no firm release date beyond an estimated "a few months" but certainly by year's end: Brings to mind a certain Calvin and Hobbes strip that would certainly have caught a ton of flak if released today

The Combat Mission games are probably the most high-profile series using WeGo from what I've seen, though I'm told that the latest Battlestar Galactica also uses it. Hopefully we see more games using it going forwards.

Laser Squad Nemesis is the only game I remember enjoying that had that asynchronous turn based format. It makes a lot of sense in multiplayer, but I'm not sure it has the same feel of control over the battlefield as a traditional turn based game.

Yeah, Weapon upgrades are much more expensive, and the drop-rate on oxhorn beetle horns is disproportionately low for how few beetles there are on the map, so it can take farming the entire yard 5-6 times over before you have enough supreme whetstones to fully upgrade a weapon (especially if you are doing mighty upgrades). Compared with ladybird shells, which - while rare in terms of drop rate - are much easier to farm because of how many more ladybirds there are on the map. Either the cost per upgrade needs to be reduced, or the oxhorns need to be an almost garunteed drop