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It might be laughable to you, and it might be over the top, but Ukraine is also defending my country, from getting even deeper under Russian influence. I would say, the same goes for Baltics, Moldova, Kazakhstan and Georgia. And I am very grateful to them, as I do not want to go through same pro-russian secret police harassment as my family ever again…

It has also shown that if France and Germany had got to decide, Ukraine would almost certainly have ended up obliterated already. It has also shown that an attack on a sovereign country on European soil was not enough to unite [sic] the European Union. It has also shown that Europe was and probably still is complacent on many levels, militarily for instance (with the exception of Finland and a few other countries, but not all that many). It has also shown, again, that when Russia and Germany make plans for Europe together, that's spelled DOOM, or possibly DEATH. Not Nord Stream, anyway.

@xzar_monty I have found another article describing the state of attrition warfare in the conflict. And if it is plausible, it does not look overly bright for Russia. https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-turns-to-longtime-arms-customers-to-boost-war-arsenal-5111bac4?page=1

no one can afford to wait for best long term solution might as well also wait for world peace and ending hunger taking away cheap pill everywhere is taking away abortion from vast majority of people does one have the option to not get counseling before they are allowed to get pill this seems extremely controlling no matter how much one insist on using nice word like counsel

As someone who lives in a state where abortion is banned and where travel is now being attempted to be banned, abortion shouldn't be the decision of anyone but the pregnant person and their doctor. Not the local, state, federal government or even the parents if applicable. For the school district I went to, my highschool was also the one with the most pregnant and parent students. So much so they made a daycare and a playground for the kids. Sex education was abstinence only and that absolutely did not work.

Yeah, I live in the US where we now* have a patchwork of laws regarding abortion and not everyone can afford to travel to a neighboring state (or if in the deep south cross several states) to get the care they're seeking. The best way to reduce abortions is to improve sexual education and provide free and super low cost contraception. The problem here is that a lot of places teach abstinence only or sometimes nothing at all. Because you know, if you don't teach your kids they won't figure it out. Shady story time. I think I've mentioned before that went to Teen Pregnancy High School. It was the school that all other schools would ship their pregnant students to because we had the best programs for teen moms because our rate was super high. Even before high school we had two girls get pregnant between elementary and middle school and a good handful more get pregnant in middle school. Anyways, so many stories I heard were simply because they didn't have access to contraception. Sex is going to happen no matter what so the best thing you can do is set kids up for success. * We always had a patchwork but it was technically legal everywhere even though some states made it a hard as they could get away with.

Most alien interceptor ships have a variation of this kind of look/size: (their game appeal is they can true-hover, so good surface explorers) Meet Mini-Cylon: (needs a better name) Current three main ships. If I can get a small Living Ship I'll replace the larger interceptor. I try to stick to 5 total owned. Also: freighter npc's (they're largely deco) have thoughts. Which is kinda funny sometimes.

What? Who? *looks* Oh ... that seems to be a 90's remake/new version of the series, not the '59-'63 series. Never saw that. Actually, I didn't know it existed. Not that it's surprising, given the now popular story/history period. Outside of Robert Stack's series all I knew of was that Costner/Connery movie. 😄

I'd be totally up for that if the hookers are also real.

Nope, not with Trump around, he had already a lot of negative remarks about what happens (or more like what will not happen) when Russia hits Baltics. And do you really think, that the Russia would change the scorched earth tactics, when attacking Eastern Europe? How many towns would be razed to the ground before first Wave of defense would be created? Putin needs a war for survival of his regime. And from Russia’s political point of view, they are already in war with NATO, because they want to end the current world order. Only some politicians and people in the west are still living in the lie, that this is not affecting their future because it is only Ukraine’s war. 🤷‍♂️ Russian army might be currently a big ****show, but Russian way of conquest is scorching everything to the ground to make everyone else life as miserable as their own, and then rule over the smoking pile of rubble… And for that you need only some fresh mindless meat willing do get grinded for his overlord. And Russia has enough of it. Putin started destabilizing Europe long time ago, first he creates millions of refugees by bombing Syria to oblivion, and then he start funneling billions of dollars to fund populist anti-immigration parties in EU. If you think, that current incompetent army stops him from pursuing his goals as soon as people like Trump stop funding the defense of Ukraine, I got pretty big bridge to sell you…

Opened Steam. "Tales of Arise"-Update Required. Hm. So, a new large DLC/expansion, two years later? Ok, I had a mostly great time with it back then. $30 and stand alone gameplay, not a continue from your finished save? So like a quarter or half sized new game with the same characters? Mmm...I'll wait for a sale. This is a case where too much time = not a large drive to have it right away. Interesting that they made such after so long tho. No Man's Sky: ---obsessed for a while re: finding a small Interceptor ship (RNG stuff). Most of them are large-ish. Finally found one. Yay. It's not very pretty, but I like tiny ships. I must have all the tiny ship versions. I even have a "Hauler" that has no tail and no wings, it's like a chunky misshapen blue potato. ---now working on getting a "living ship." A questline that has several steps. Each step has a few tasks that take maybe 10-15 minutes, but then also has a waiting stage of ... 15-20 hours or so. Each step. Like, wait for something to hatch/grow. It's a bit of a silly time padder. Better be a really kewl ship. I hear one may be able to use a reload trick to make sure you like the one you get, because you only get one shot per character/save I think. I want a tiny one. >.> ---other than that, still just flying around/messing around in the giant sandbox. It never ends, and I don't want it to.

Your argument still hinges on taking away some extremely important options from people who are already in a disadvantageous position. You coat it in nice language, but that's what it comes down to.

so it is locked behind counsel that would be nightmare that is like saying people have peace at place where there is no war 24 hour convenient store and pharmacy are almost everywhere with population big enough to support them limit access is again limitation only on the poor

Other than Russia, which party here has a deliberate intention to destroy instead of defend, and what is it that they want to destroy? I accept that there is a deliberate effort to destroy Russia's capacity to mount another attack of this kind, but I cannot see this as anything other than perfectly legitimate, given the circumstances.

But its nice living in Canada and dismissing the historical and current fears of East European countries from Russian invasion and occupation Nothing better than knowing your own Western lifestyle is safe while mocking a country that is defending itself from invasion.

Yeah, it's a shame that there are no checks in place as to who gets to be a parent. Something similar exists in democracy: while it's great that everybody gets to vote, the downside of this is that everybody, indeed, gets to vote. 😛

The situation may look completely different depending on where you view it from, what is the level of your historical knowledge or how cynically jaded your world-view happens to be (and of course there are other factors, too). There is no question that I side with the ones who regard Ukraine as defending far more than its territory and culture. It's very hard to say what the potential repercussions of the war and its eventual result may be, but there is no question that Ukraine is, in a way, also defending Finland[*], along with the countries you mention. As for what is laughable, I think there's an observation by the late David Foster Wallace that bears repeating every now and then: we in the west have managed to create a culture where no writer, for instance, dares to bring forth a novel that sincerely discusses questions of morality and heroism (in the, say, Dostoevsky vein), but ridicule of those concepts is very common. This is not meant to imply that Ukraine is an unblemished good guy, because the country had some pretty serious problems before the war and probably hasn't rid itself of any of them, but it certainly is a small guy that doesn't deserve to be obliterated by an unhinged big guy. [*] Although Russia's antagonism towards and more or less overt attacks on Finland have actually increased since the war began. Russia, of course, and to absolutely no one's surprise, considers that Finland is the aggressor in every single case.

In terms of parent permission, it's pretty clear to me that if a teenager is having unprotected sex without their parent's knowledge, and then wants to go get an abortion, again without the parent's knowledge, that parent has already failed on many levels. There are far too many crappy parents out there for me to think they deserve to be included in such a serious situation. Of course, counseling services are a must. That is what Planned Parenthood actually does. They counsel women and offer them aid. I've had 2 co-workers who credit Planned Parenthood with helping them deal with their teenage pregnancies. Both chose not to abort, and planned parenthood gave them the resources to get through school, go to college, and they eventually ended up teaching.

Ive settled on playing Wasteland 3 over everything else. I love how the choices are I that game... I enjoy thinking I made the wrong decision everytime I make a decision. There either isn't an outright "good" choice to make... that or I always make bad decisions... either way I wish more games would follow the "road to hell is paved in good intentions" saying. New Vegas did this very well, wasteland 3 might even do it weller. More well... better

It makes absolute sense to not do elections right now.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/07/11/ukraine-democracy-wartime-elections-russia-zelensky/ No there are valid and legitimate reasons to cancel the elections, to quote "Whether objections to the postponement of Ukraine’s elections come from a place of hostility or sympathy, they fail to understand that voting during this war would be legally, practically, and institutionally impossible. Ukraine is under martial law, with constant threat of Russian bombs and many of its people displaced. Postponing elections was not a function of any fear on Zelensky’s part, since his approval ratings have soared during wartime. A country under a full-scale invasion and occupation is simply in no position to vote "

cheap pill at every pharmacy anything less would be choice for the rich but not the poor it is simple

Nanowar's take on the world we currently live in... 😁

Son has been on 80s rap this week. He still likes synth pop but he also likes Kool Moe Dee videos a lot apparently.

You shouldn't need booze to get HARDCORE TO THE MEGA.

Disco Elysium is designed to be played with a strong drink in hand. You are doing it wrong if you played it any other way. It's like you guys aren't serious about RPG's here.

Now it all makes sense.

https://www.igorslab.de/en/smoldering-headers-on-nvidias-geforce-rtx-4090/ TL;DR: Not every burning RTX 4090 was necessarily user error. The PCI SIG specs for the 12VHWPR headers and plugs were (and still are) so unclear and incomplete that production tolerances alone are enough to potentially fry them under heavy load, i.e. anything above 400W power draw, before factoring in manufacturing cost reduction by making them as cheap as possible, next to a few potential issues caused by AIB's placement of the headers, i.e. some RTX 4090s are potentially more prone to burned headers than others.

Resident Evil: Ebola Village DEMO Because when Russians rip off create survival horror games, they do it based! I don't know about you, but I like scantly clad protagonists! Gruesome! This may, in fact, come in handy. Shoot, this door just flung open, what could be behind it?! Shocker! A zombie/Crimson Head/Ganado type beast. What's behind this door?? I found a knife, an herb, some shotgun shells, and more .45 ammo, lots useful stuff in one little entryway. Also there's some aggressive moaning behind this door and notice the bloody footprints. I shot him in the mouth and face and look what happens, gruesome! I took him down and found some clothes! She looks awfully familiar doesn't she? Also found this shotgun, and here is a save phone and an inventory box, very fitting. Now let's go back outside... I become surrounded and have to fight them all off! After taking damage I prevail. You should have seen what their faces looked like when I blasted them! I've never seen such graphic gore before. That's it, the demo ends here, short but promising.

The Talos Principle 2 I didn't get to explore New Jerusalem in the demo, so I took a couple of hours to explore the place; not every nook and cranny, mind you, but enough to get an idea of the layout. I have a feeling I'll be back here for some puzzles closer to the end. Oh, and there's an entire shrine dedicated to cats with a boatload of cat pictures. But, off to the island I go. The game has a photomode with all the usual sliders and filters and frames and a lot of poses.

I've subscribed to around 200 channels, many are sister channels to a main channel, like Extra Credits and Extra History, Nightwish & Floor Jansen, Charismatic Voice/The Singing Hole, Tom Scott/Tom Scott plus, Hardware Unboxed/Monitors Unboxed et.c. Some storm chasers like Pecos Hank, Reed Timmer & Melanie Metz, some science channels such as SciShow, Kyle Hill, Vsauce, ScienceAlert, Engineering Explained, BBC Earth Lab. I've got a bunch of gaming channels, TotalBiscuit, Matt Barton, Spelrum, Jim Sterling, Liana K, Girlfriend Reviews, Noclip, Joseph Anderson, The Neon Arcade, AlexJordanVO, Luetin09 and Bricky, plus a few more. There's a couple of hardware channels like JayzTwoCents, Gamers Nexus, Linus Tech Tips and AdoredTV. Some firearms, weapons and military related ones like Forgotten Weapons, InrangeTV, TFB TV, Garand Thumb, Demolition Ranch, Skallagrim, Shadiversity (MACHICOLATIONS!), Kentucky Ballistics, Brandon Herrera, Tacticool Girlfriend, Perun, The Chieftain. And a few randoms like Ask a Mortician, Jonathan Pie, First we Feast, Steve1989MREinfo, Plainly Difficult, Bruva Alfabusa, Davie504, RoomieOfficial, ContraPoints, Viva la Dirt League, Juice Media, Tasting History, Nicole Johnsons Detour... And a whole metric shedload of different artists, singers and musicians. Oh, and DW News.

Yeah, like Bioware aka "The Romance Company" didn't market and showcase their games on their "mature" love scenes, companions, blood and boobies. What do you think Average Joe was more likely to pick Origins up for? The "heavy" duty of having to pick in between as many as three classes for his character or gushing over Morrigan's cleavage and heads a rollin'? Bioware had their own answer to that one. I mean, this is the most cringest trailer of all time, hilariously misplaced choice in music included. Obey and learn from the masters, Larian. Hey, the game IS a sequel to a Bioware game, after all. 😄 On that note: I've only recently really started playing this after playing around with the Early Access three years ago (the fun and creepy start into Act 2 currently reminds me in a painful way how it's been TWO decades since Bloodlines -- the last major gothic/horror RPG since, which is INSANE, but that's another matter). However, I was expecting and prepared for far more in that regard. There's only been one character that was hitting on me so far -- and apparently I didn't need to level her up nor provide her gifts to score with her, true and PROPER Bioware-style. Maybe something to do with playing a drow, though, who knows. Also, I don't have access to the actual numbers. My biggest gripes so far are typically Larian things. Controlling a group stuff, camera stuff, inventory stuff. Difficulty on normal seems also rather low. Oh and some patronizing handholding. There's a quest that asked me to find somebody BEING LOST IN THE UNDERDARK -- only for the in-game GPS aka mini-map guiding me right there immediately upon accepting that quest. So much for that guy being "lost". I mean, Larian-style maps are heavily compressed affairs anyway, it's not like they're huge sprawling landscapes all booted up at once. And Mazes they aren't either. If you don't find yer stuff, the stuff is gonna find you eventually. You just have to poke around a bit. Developers, pretty please: If you think your players would get lost in their own toilets without heavy guidance, just don't include quest like that. Thanks. Otherwise, I really like this so far, and I wasn't overly fond of DOS. It's also refreshing in that regard in that contrary to DOS (or even the originals), you don't run into mobs of enemies every two meters or so, even deep down in the Underdark (which really was just a dungeon crawl in BG2). There's a quality over quantity approach attempted -- and even then not every combat is mandatory, with skill, even character checks applied. My drow commands some respect out of goblins et all. who'd otherwise turn hostile ASAP. Recently I avoided a fight against an enemy able to disguise itself by having a companion succeeding in a skill check likewise. There's oft also numerous routes throughout the maps, including entry points, which alongside to sneaking can skip encounters entirelly (or entry quests in various ways). The 3 billion endings are certainly hyperbole right there, but the same area can play differently solely by all of that alone. If this game is gonna have an influence (big IF), it will be a better one than any influence Bioware had in like the last two decades. Mechanically, for 100000% sure either way. Also, in a sense, this looks like the anti-Fallout 3 so far. Both Fallout 3 and BG3 were made by a different developer than their respective original games, and attempted to make them more popular. Fallout 3 "streamlined" much of what made Fallout SPECIAL (Hah) in a bid to reach a more mainstream audience. By Fallout 4, the series was literally a completely different game, being turned from a series reknown for its complex quests with multiple solutions, unique experiences (and dialogue choice) depending on character builds and choice&consequence into a sandbox exploration action game where squat all matters (including that dialogue). BG3 is, at heart, still a party-based tactical CRPG. Generally, it's not a game afraid of its roots, but wears them proudly on its sleeve. If all it takes to inject some boobies and a popular license, I shall be expecting more AAA CRPGs of all kinds pretty damn soon. And the reign of the Canadish "Romance Company" and the Polish "Movie company" over the bigger budget space to be truly over once and for all.

There is punctuation in the announcement that he has no rights to zero punctuation. Makes sense.

RIP Zero punctuation

In terms of gameplay I think that Disco Elysium is fine. It's a good move for a game this narrative focused to make the talking and all that the gameplay instead of slapping on some mediocre at best combat between chapters of text, like both of the Torment games, but the downside is that if you aren't hooked by the detective work or aren't very interested in the world you're going to check out. "You can now read the recipe for the Emperor's favourite soup." Finally.