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It will be interesting to see how this one develops. The responsible party is quite obviously Russia; they are the only ones who would want to destroy this kind of infrastructure between Finland and Estonia. But the really interesting part will be the Russia apologists. Will they ignore this, as if it never happened? Will they point to Finland and Estonia's nasty Nato behaviour as a justification? Will they point to how awful a country the US is, so Russia is effectively guilt-free and actually rather nice? I'm pretty sure we will see all of this, but the exact phrasings will be interesting to see.

My employer is going to start running a new combination soon, it's not as impressive as the land trains, but fullsized truck with container pulling a dolly with a link followed by a trailer. The bottom combination. I doubt many drivers are happy about this, but they have nothing to complain about since they're not the people that are going to have to finagle this combination together, that's my job. I get a headache thinking about how much work it's going to be, I ****ing hate links. We're not pulling 98 tonnes though, since parcels aren't that compact or heavy generally speaking.

@xzar_monty regarding the pipeline and data cable between Estonia and Finland, Stoltenberg made a statement today. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/10/11/7423592/ Do you think, something might happen, or the Finish government might choose the similar approach like Romania and Poland, and use a wording, which will try to deescalate the situation, so the NATO would not need to be involved?

Russians started offensive against Avdiivka stronghold. And it did not went very well. Here is a summary of their losses during this offensive: And the only available video, which does not break the community rules of the boards:

I am not making a comment on who hit Nordstream. However, I am very firmly of the opinion that it was completely moronic and counterproductive for them to attack Ukraine. I also believe that an awful lot of experts share this view, including Russian experts.

To paraphrase the historian Timothy Snyder: Russia does not have the capacity to make itself stronger, so it is committed to weakening everyone else as much as it can. Heartbreaking to think of the human waste in all of this: with its population, size and natural resources, Russia could be a leading light it technology, engineering, what have you -- it could produce superb machines, computers and all the rest of it. It chooses not to[*], even if education levels have at least been quite good -- I'm pretty sure they're going to plummet now. (Lovely trivia: during the Cold War period, the Soviet Union was unable to produce even a decent car, but one thing that it was in fact able to build well was nuclear fallout bunkers underneath major cities. Zelenskyi and his staff took shelter in one during the first weeks of the war.) As for the damage, my understanding is that the gas pipe will take months to fix. It has taken a big hit. Not sure about the information cable and its condition. [*] A former Finnish prime minister went (very dubiously) to work for the Russians in order to build better trade networks with them. He subsequently told that all the plans had to be abandoned, nothing became of any of them. Russians simply couldn't get their heads around a trade arrangement that wasn't build on exploitation and cheating. They just couldn't co-operate, they wanted to steal. So the whole idea was scrapped.

I made gołąbki. I've been making gołąbki for decades and I dare say I'm an expert at this point. My gołąbki will take the Pepsi Challenge with any gołąbki out there. There's nothing fancy about the recipe I use, it's a simple traditional recipe, but I've learned valuable lessons over the years: 50/50 beef/pork is king. I've tried every combination of beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and lamb imaginable. Don't skimp on the rice, use at least as much volume of rice as meat. Mix the meat and rice very thoroughly (I get right in there with my hands rather than using a utensil). If you skimp on rice or don't mix well enough you will get meat clumps that may get kinda hard. Drown the gołąbki in sauce. I use a tomato sauce some people use a broth. Either way, make sure the gołąbki are swimming in the sauce when in the oven. Side-note: I should try making stuffed peppers. Weirdly enough, I've never tried. I imagine the process is the same except the meat/rice filling goes into a hollowed out red bell pepper rather than a cabbage leaf.

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

am not unsympathetic to the plight o' the working class american. has gotta be soul crushing to need work harder and longer every year to functional get less and less. for far too many americans, there is little job security and even less hope o' a better tomorrow. health care is a huge factor 'cause the number one source o' crippling debt in the US is related to health care costs, but health care is a big problem and not easy to fix. american farms have seeming been in trouble since before Gromnir were born and now we got climate change and regardless o' whether you think the climate change is man-made or natural, a difficult job is getting tougher 'cause natural calamities is happening with more frequency. even w/o the climate change aspects, struggling farmers has been a reality for decades. no easy fixes. automation increases has happened slower than expected but at the same time former agrarian nations is finally entering the industrial age, and those countries pay their workers a fraction o' what US workers need to make poverty level wages. it is impossible for american producers and employers o' working class americans to compete with foreign labor cost. transitioning working class americans to current and future jobs which might provide money enough to purchase a house and send 2.5 kids to college is requiring creative thinking. no easy fixes. etc. the problems ain't simple and the anger from working class whites is understandable. trump came along and told working class whites that their fears were not only legit, but he acted as outraged as they were. he told working class whites that the media and the elites were lying to 'em 'bout their problems and that he had simple and obvious solutions which would make their lives better... if he could just get another $5 campaign contribution so he could win the battle with the deep state. working class whites always suspected they were being told lies-- bs receptivity and conspiratorial thinking is most pronounced amongst groups who feel as if they has been getting the fuzzy end o' the lollypop. lack of education (as opposed to lack o' intelligence) is also a typical factor o' those likely to fall prey to bs and conspiracy. am doubting most o' the washington gop politicians believe the stoopid trump is selling, but they need the maga base to win national elections and so they engage in performance art to keep the maga base satisfied. that said, am thinking it is a bit myopic for libs to write off maga brand working class white anger. the anger is real and legit. the only reason the white working class were such easy targets for trump is 'cause from their pov, nobody were helping them. reality is complicated, but the anger is genuine. am thinking democrats need to get their act together 'cause we has seen that just 'cause the gop embraces the proud boys and david duke white supremacy does not prevent cuban-americans and second generation mexicans from supporting republicans in increasing numbers. whatever. as for the issue in gaza, the mowing the lawn/grass metaphor were swell as long as it continued to work for israel. obviously there were intelligence failures and now israel is gonna need come up with a new scheme. neither the arabs or israelis has been true interested in peace since the second intifada, so it is difficult to pretend to be surprised by the recent violence save for how unprepared were israel. the hamas attack clear took considerable planning and coordination. maybe not massive amphibious landing kinda coordination, but the hamas attacks didn't come together in days or even weeks. thanks to the cell organization employed by hamas, not a whole lotta people had to know every detail, but numerous people had to know something were happening likely months ahead o' the actual attack. israel not knowing is disappointing 'cause they is considered among the best at sniffing out such info. regardless, am not seeing any difficulty in being revolted by hamas and simultaneous recognizing israel is part to blame for the current conflagration. given the tribalism surrounding the issue, it appears impossible to find fault with both israel and hamas w/o being labeled as traitorous/naive/immoral/hypocritical/etc. yeah, hamas is a group o' terrorists who has an espoused goal o' eliminating israel by any means necessary. mistreatment o' women, jews, lgbqt, and anybody not aligned with hamas? people on this board support such a group? well, ok then. simultaneous, the situation in gaza, while hardly the genocidal campaign by israel described by a few, represents brutal and uncompromising efforts with no meaningful progress being made towards a peaceful resolution or even bettering the situation o' the multitudes in gaza. israel is active trying to maintain conditions bad enough in gaza so that hamas cannot mount effective terror attacks while at same time making not so bad that US and world outrage lasts much longer than whenever the current mow the grass effort ends. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/commission-inquiry-collecting-evidence-war-crimes-committed-all-sides-israel again, we got some sympathy for israel as they fight asymmetrical a terrorist organization which has been voted into power by the arabs living in gaza, a terrorist organization which has already committed war crimes in this most recent conflict. am recalling a line from a J. Scalia opinion: "one could hold up a sign saying, for example, that all "anti catholic bigots" are misbegotten; but not that all "papists" are, for that would insult and provoke violence "on the basis of religion." st. paul has no such authority to license one side of a debate to fight freestyle, while requiring the other to follow marquis of queensbury rules." am not having difficulty condemning israel if/when they shut off power and water in gaza. we won't hesitate to condemn hamas if/when they purposeful fights from places of worship, hospitals and civilian housing. am similar not so naive as to expect one side to adhere to marquis of queensbury rules. that said, regardless o' asymmetrical realities o' fighting a terrorist organization, am thinking israel needs be aware that from a practical pov they cannot expect continued US support if they exceed some fuzzy and unspecific threshold o' terrible. hamas is not constrained by limits related to western notions o' fair play and morality. just a fact. the whataboutism will be rich. apologists for the russians, serbs and chinese is already whatabouting israel and will continue to do so for howsoever long this particular bruhaha lasts, as if that in anyway diminishes the excesses o' the aforementioned. so it goes. HA! Good Fun!

I don't even have a doubles/triples endorsement. It's easy enough to get and it's a one-time deal not like hazmat which you have to renew every 5 years, but I don't want it because I have no desire to pull doubles or triples ever.

It's for transfers between terminals, i.e. from Gothenburg to Stockholm, Malmö, Örebro, Jönköping and such. So mainly it's for highways, though there are a few roundabouts to navigate, but as far as I know they have been rebuilt recently to allow longer vehicles to cut through the center part a bit. Like this

I really don't know. Historically, Finland has been extremely cautious towards Russia, so unless this policy has now changed, that's perhaps going to be the most likely scenario. It is also within the realm of possibility that the pipeline and data cable have been damaged by the anchor of a Russian vessel which chose to remain stationary (relatively speaking) in turbulent waters. We shall see.

I agree that there are an awful lot of things that the Russians could do that are potentially much more effective and cost-effective. But I think their penchant for symbolism might take the upper hand here, if it was them who did it.

@Keyrock

Almost everything is OP in late game. The only thing still giving me some issues are those boss encounter, everything else is just ez. Pretty much what I noted already in one of my earlier posts. The level scaling makes it so that once you hit a certain threshold, everything is just easy and plays out always the same.

That's not really a problem, I even make sure to execute peeps that accidentially survived after I massacre my way through any given location. No loose ends. The few instances where you need people alive, like the Buddhist side job or the cyberpsychos, well, that's what overheat or incendiary grenades are made for - or non-lethal takedowns.

My money is on Liliana. I'm going to have to examine her thoroughly to make sure. VERY thoroughly. ... Because you don't want to sentence an innocent to death. You can't be too thorough.

Easy - just say it's Hamas fault. Either as they were using human shields or they started the conflict in the first place. I like the last one, apparently some munitions are just forces of nature. At least that's a bit better than the people that say they don't condone or excuse things but "understand" them.

Breakfast: Take 2 cups of Kefir (plain), mix in a chopped banana, 1 avocado (messy but worth it), one chopped apple, 1/2 cup of walnuts, a handful of crushed shredded wheat, and toss in a small bit of organic kelp powdered seaweed (Go easy on the kelp powder! The iodine content in that is intense and too much can trigger an autoimmune response where your body attacks your thyroid, which in turn causes hypothyroidism). Mix it all in a bottle and shake the Hell out of it. You really want a breakfast morning rush w/o drugs/pharmacautical aid? I dare you to give this a shot, take an acetyl l carnitine supplement for a bonus.

Gorilla arms + berserk might be OP. I am straight up wrecking everybody and I'm playing on hard difficulty.

Finland's northern neighbor is our Nato partner Norway In south we have our Nato partner Estonia In west there is unallied Sweden In east, there is great yellow and we don't talk about it Also every nation except Sweden (and yellow, which we don't talk about) around Baltic sea are members of Nato So it has to be Sweden

Yeah, it doesn't seem to matter if the very little that Republicans want to do (and there really is not much they seem to want to specifically accomplish, which is not surprising for a party that does not currently have any clearly defined platform besides some "we hate x, y, and z" bullet points...and also we love guns) is actually completely counterproductive to helping the people suffering the most, the point is to make those voters identify with you and have them feel like they belong and that their grievances are legitimate and perhaps that they even accomplished something important by voting you in. Whether they believe genuine problems will be solved, or if it's just stemming the tide of evil, hurting the "right" people, ending 'wokeness' or some other kind of lunacy - it doesn't really matter, not so long as they tie feeling better about their life and the state of the world to their side winning. That's a very strong and rather intangible feeling that's hard to quantify or argue against, so no surprise that there's not a lot of movement among the believers no matter how objectively laughable the results were under Trump and Republicans.

Crazy how many people say the attack was justified because Israel is bad.

Or maybe people could adjust there spines when a music festival is attacked by Hamas and hundreds of revelers are slaughtered, really appropriate target Those spines really need to be adjusted consistently

HA! Good Fun!

ruined a hollandaise, and not in the typical manner. when finished, the sauce looked creamy and perfect. unfortunate, we didn't realize we were outta our regular butter choice until we had already separated a couple egg yolks in preparation o' making our sauce. so we used "really good" butter a friend o' ours had gifted us. we did not taste the butter before using 'cause we were already poaching eggs at the time and, well... saltiest arse butter... evar. HA! Good Fun!