Maedhros

Saw Dune yesterday. It was very competent, and a faithful adaption of the book. The slow pace will put off many viewers, as will the rather aprupt ending (it's clearly a "Part 1" film, and doesn't work as a self-contained one like Fellowship of the Ring did). I'd give it a 7/10. It's very colorless (as shown in the trailer) and joyless (almost everyone is very stoic, even the Baron!). I found myself almost missing those silly oneliners, and the exaggerated humour of the Marvel universe. Almost.

@Gorth It's somewhat the same here up North, but I'd say the smaller parties have a decent degree of influence though, since the biggest parties are often reliant on them in coalitions to win elections. Meaning they have to concede some of the overall power to them if they want their support. Or are you talking about the absolute looney extremes? They're completely marginalized here too, luckily. Our threshold is 4%, so it's a bit harder for them to overcome it. It's actually election day in Norway today, seems like we'll have a Left-Centre government for the first time in 8 years. Not that it will change much (I think). The two biggest parties here, The Social Democrats (Arbeiderpartiet) and Right (Conservatives) actually see eye to eye on pretty much everything important except on taxes.

Taliban entering the former Norwegian embassy, and destroying a Norwegian children's movie. Love the various expressions.

Apparently ABBA released some new music - almost 40 years since their last release.

Like The Witcher tv series, I think it will be fun for us nerds - but it won't appeal to a more general audience like GoT managed.

He said that fifty (!) years ago. His record has been pretty consistent throughout his career, and he definitely believes what he says. You may not agree with him, but that doesn't mean he's not genuine. Now if he suddenly started advocating for lower taxes after becoming a millionaire... --- Edit: Forum layout tricked me into replying to a two days old post, thought it was fresh. Sorry for the off-topic.

Any good? I'm a sucker for historical biographies, and I don't know much about what Lafayette did in France. Might buy this one on kindle, cheers.

I voted for the upcoming election in Norway. Took me two minutes, as there are booths all over the city. Very happy about that. Voted for this charming fellow, in the hope that his party will get more power in the coalition that seems to be winning.

Right-wing nutjob with DC bomb threat. Fox News unsure about his motivations. https://www.vox.com/2021/8/20/22634061/fox-news-roy-roseberry-bomb-threat

The White Lotus, miniseries on HBO. One of those rare shows where I wouldn't change anything about it. Loved the music, loved the self-absorbed shallow characters. @Wheel of Time pics. Mat's costume is the only one I like, the other ones look like they've never been used. What's with Lan's outfit? Looks like a weird comic-con costume. Sadly getting an MTV series vibe here. @Foundation trailer. Looks good! I like the cast.

The race to succeed them is on, I guess.

Like the top comment says, like a Walking dead episode.

https://mirror.fro.wtf/reddit/post/3203545 CNN Journalist in Kabul told to step aside because she's a woman. Proceeded to google her (Clarissa Ward), she seems to be a pretty ballsy lady.

Made a pretty simple, yet very tasty chicken dish. I pan-fried a chicken breast, and while it rested I made a dressing consisting of garlic, lemon juice and zest, with honey and olive oil. I then cut a spring onion into small pieces, and pan-fried them for 1-2mins in oil. Then mixed it in with the rest, and also added parsley. Afterwards, I made delicate slices of the breast, and did a rustic sort of plating with lots of the green below and on top, and over that; lots and lots of parmesan. As long as you get the right balance between lemon and honey, and don't mess up the chicken, it's a very simple, light and easy to make dish. I had some small potatoes on the side, but they weren't really necessary.

In recent years I got the feeling football is becoming more popular in the US than it is in Canada? No source. Football is a very simple game, not as "tactically sophisticated" as American football - but it's reasonably complex in that there's no limitations on how "optimal" you can play (like all team sports I guess). Tactics play a big role, but it's more about the continous chaos of influencing and adapting. Both as a player, and as a team. Personally I dislike watching it, it's not a very tv friendly sport unless you follow a team (or happen to find a really tense and entertaining match). It's the most fun sport to play yourself though. I love that you don't have to be very olympian to be good at it.

I don't think I detest any film more than I do the first Suicide Squad. So much money, and so little to show for it. Insultingly bad in so many ways. This one was better, but it wasn't quite as enjoyable as I'd hoped. Maybe I'm a negative nancy but I felt like many of the jokes were missing the mark, the music was forgettable, and I never cared much about any of the characters. For this type of film to work it needs to be really funny, and it just....wasn't. They also criminally underused Peter Capaldi, one of the funniest angry men in film/tv if you give him the chance. I'll give it a 6/10 overall, and that's being kind.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins the 1500 metres, beating Cheruiyot for the first time in his career. His father went to school with mine, and is quite the character. He coaches three of his sons who all have notable achievements in the running world.

I can easily see this falling into "young adult" territory, but I hope not. Robert Jordan was one of the few post-Tolkien fantasy writers of his time who managed to create a somewhat "believeable" fantasy world. For all its flaws, it's pretty similar to A Song of Ice and Fire in the sense that even very minor characters feel fleshed out, and with their own special motivations. Happy about Rosamund Pike as Moiraine, she's a very good actor. Daniel Henney seems like he completely lacks the gravitas to play Lan though.

Pretty insane finals in 400 metres hurdles. The top 3 finishers all beat the previous world record. Norway usully fares much, much better at the winter olympics (obviously), but this was pretty neat!

September 2nd, 2022. Lord of the Rings on Prime. As a Silmarillion-nerd, loving that they're gonna adapt some of that book. (The Two Trees of Valinor in the background attest to that). Rumours say the two first episodes will be prologue of sorts that will set up the rest of the show. My guess is they want to show why Galadriel (and co) left the "Gods", and why there is division between the houses of the elves (relevant to the forging of the rings of power), as well as the raising of Numenor/Atlantis - since the rest of the show will take place in the Second Age.

It's just a way of giving nicknames over here. You take the adjective (in this case skarp/sharp) and add an en/one ending to the word to attribute it to someone in particular, as a situational nickname. Won't work in a written text, but it's relatively common when just talking. No matter the adjective you can just add an "en" ending to it and it works as a nickname. When you think someone said something clever you call him "Skarpen". Though it's more often used ironically. (I get that you probably didn't know this, but I still think it's a funny coincidence).

It's ok to be wrong, or make mistakes on the internet. Stubborness isn't a virtue. According to bible law, it's even punisheable by lapidation! (Also, I still think it's pretty funny that "skarpen" is slang for "sharp one" in my country).

One could say that being political is a way to fight for your members, especially if you're in an important sector like healthcare or education where so much improvement is needed. I don't see why a "video game developer union" should be political though. On that note...haha: https://kotaku.com/activision-blizzard-hires-union-busting-firm-as-workers-1847386654

In the same vein, how is this allowed: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57549653 (Transwoman in the olympics). South Park predicted this: