-
Posts
3512 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
20
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by Zoraptor
-
The top Euro clubs in the top leagues could do with at least a bit more regulation. In theory they're meant to live within their means and not overspend via being owned by [billionaire] but in practice that's not enforced and most of the top clubs are unsustainable without cash injections or leveraged up to the eyeballs. Won't take much misfortune to make them insolvent. Why ? The big team screwed up and is punished and the plucky underdog managed to work their way to the top! It's a different situation where football isn't so popular, and you also have to consider sponsorship and the like. You don't want to kill support somewhere like New York and you don't want sponsors not having access to that market; somewhere like the EPL though there's both committed fanatical fans of teams and almost always multiple teams for any large population centre as well. I'd use Australia as an example, if Perth got relegated a city of 2 million+ would have no team and the closest one would be thousands of km away in Adelaide, there are multiple other codes competing for attention (AFL and cricket especially) and it practically wouldn't be a national league any more. It's not like the EPL/ Championship where you could have a former European Cup winner like Notts Forest get promotion. (yes, the whole thing runs counter to how 'free market competition' is meant to work, but that's hardly a surprise since that's pretty much never how it does work)
-
RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS - BATTLE ROYALE
Zoraptor replied to Blarghagh's topic in Computer and Console
Really though, Amazon at the moment is dreadful. Riddled with counterfeits, resold fake returns (especially computer components) that have never been checked and fly by night scam artists using the marketplace with no supervision. Garbage wages and conditions get garbage results from staff and they want more documentation that their scams are scams than they want to open a seller account in the first place. It's even worse than steam is, except for Amazon having a fantastic refund policy; which they wouldn't need so much of if the rest of its service- and its absolute core service- hadn't fallen off a cliff. -
Did you have opinion pieces in respectable papers etc saying so or just in right wing National Enquirer/ Drudge Report type places though? Business Insider is not the best regarded, and Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies (ie no, he didn't commit treason, as anyone who doesn't have their head up Hillary's bum on the payroll of Shareblue could tell) but still, it is pretty mainstream and not pure outrage trolling like Vice etc. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of it is that the only thing Trump has done that has earned near universal praise is to chuck tomahawks at Syria, which is an utterly dreadful lesson to teach politicians.
-
Saying it makes think tankers heads explode with rage though, and that's such a colossal plus I cannot bring myself to care about it being 'impolite'. It's fact, and at some point it has to be stated as fact. And for all the outrage he is kind of right (facpov, of course) about most of the controversial stuff he has said; Germany is reliant on Russia for energy and won't not be for the forseeable future and that along with their military being... ill prepared gives Russia a huge advantage when dealing with them, the EU is a rival, the list of countries who have had the US interfere in their elections is longer than those invaded by Britain and included that moron Yeltsin's election in 1996 where US intervention was about as overt as you get short of an actual coup. Realistically there will be a European Army at some point, and that's fact. As soon as that happens the time is ticking on NATO, and it won't be the US pulling out. It just outrages some people to have it said out loud.
-
And people still vote for this douche waffle. Which douche waffle, Captain Orange or the Ankara Watermelon Seller? I'll say this for Trump, he's 100% correct about the EU being a rival of the US and anyone who doesn't accept that is naive.
-
Funny Posts - New and Improved with Same Great Taste
Zoraptor replied to Amentep's topic in Way Off-Topic
6 is the one answer that can never be correct as if you have two consecutive 'none of the above are true' statements only the first one can ever be right* (since if right it consequently makes the second one wrong per its own postulation of none above being correct). So if any of answers 1-4 is correct then both 5 & 6 have to be wrong, if none of them are correct then 5 has to be correct, and since 5 is correct this makes 6 wrong. *so long as there is at least one statement above -
You're an unlicensed anaesthesiologist using non specific doses on whoever you come across no matter their weight or susceptibility or whether or not they are taking incompatible medications and I bet the sleeping agent has not had any sort of rigorous scientific testing either- some anaesthetic toxicity and adverse reaction is to be expected. I for one appreciate Arkane putting this feature into their game as it widens awareness of this very real problem.
-
I can't imagine Juncker getting drunk and dancing in his underwear like Jelcyn though. Or maybe my mind refuses the image. Trump's obvious negotiation tactics- gotta play one side against another- and grandstanding are obvious, and about as subtle as a herd of elephant in a bottle store. After all what are they going to do, kick the US from NATO?
-
Funny Posts - New and Improved with Same Great Taste
Zoraptor replied to Amentep's topic in Way Off-Topic
If it's the case I'd heard of previously his 'suicide attempt' involved driving his car into an oncoming vehicle on a motorway- killing its occupants but not himself. That's why he got the death sentence, not for a suicide attempt per se. -
I'll be backing France as well, well done to Croatia getting to the final but I just plain don't like them as a team. "It's my last ever game, might as well go out doing something I've always wanted to..."
-
1st season was the worst, and time travel is inherently confusing hence it being 'slammed'. I haven't seen the 4th season but it's definitely worth watching up to then. I do prefer the movie, but that movie is one of my absolute favourites.
-
There was a 'scientific' study (almost certainly ghost written by Nestle themselves, taking a leaf out of cigarette 'science') that said formula was better than breast milk and iirc it was extensively marketed as such in the 80s. Doctors/ hospitals also regularly give new mothers 'free' formula (taking a leaf out of crack cocaine dealer methodology) but just enough so that when used natural lactation stops and they are, therefore, forced to buy formula milk from then on; and they also used the same tricks and marketed extensively in areas with unsafe water resulting in (and who would have thunk it) lots of babies getting sick from the bad water used in hydrating the formula. There's a reason Nestle is utterly loathed, and that summary doesn't cover the half of it.
-
b00bies? More like Devil's Dumplings. As the artiocle briefly says it's probably not the risk of impressionable kids being corrupted by a surreptitious glimpse of Charlies, Bristol Bits or Mammaries when a baby feeds that is the problem, but the secondary part of the resolution; to whit, not being allowed to falsely claim that formula is better than mother's milk- formula which makes a bunch of corps and dairying a lot of money. Nestlé being the best known perp, but others play the same tricks and the have to source their milk somewhere.
-
RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS - BATTLE ROYALE
Zoraptor replied to Blarghagh's topic in Computer and Console
I dunno what she did wrong, nothing wrong with hating your customers. Gamers are useful trash to be exploited, after all You do have to dress it up in MBA language and be in management to actually say that though, it's bad PR if you make it obvious and mere devs are not far enough up the food chain to get away with it. One person hating Infinity War, one person loving it. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. -
I suspect the Russian footballers are in for some sort of bonus given how low they were ranked. They definitely made the most of their team which cannot be said for many others that have been knocked out or didn't even make it. No Russia v England makes me sad, the chance was there for maximised awkwardness. In terms of 'rewards' I'd be a lot more worried about the Saudi team ending up on a trip to Sana'a or Hodeidah after their performance. (The Russian coach would make a great dictator though, he looks like a cross between Belarus's Lukashenko and Yemen's Ali Saleh and was not exactly the most verbose interview in the world)
-
They already have brought back paid mods via the 'Creation Club'.
-
Nothing has been cancelled, they're just re-evaluating forthcoming projects- most of which have not even been formally announced anyway. It probably means no annual releases (for a while) but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
-
France will roll through Belgium like Louis Quatorze reborn. Hopes and prayers for England and Russia to win their quarters, the god of lulz demands it.
-
Funny thing is that much like the Prequels in general Jar Jar has largely been rehabilitated by the fans. TPM is not a good movie, but I've always thought that it really suffered perception wise from having The Matrix release just before it with the Matrix being 'cool' and TPM being so kitsch in comparison. She absolutely should go, but not for any rage inducing reasons. Her primary goal was to keep the franchise successful financially and instead it's declined notably in that respect. In particular having two directors with diametrically opposed views for TFA/ TLJ was abjectly moronic; complaints about 'forced diversity' and the like would have no weight if it was being run well otherwise.
-
Yeah, Best was not going to be recognised by the vast majority of people since he was playing a CGI character, and most people simply wouldn't recognise his name. I have a lot less sympathy for him than for Tran who has played a 'hated' character in the social media age or Jake Lloyd, who was a kid and does seem to have been effected quite badly by things (then again, child stardom is seldom a path to mental stability). In all cases the primary blame for the characters' failure as characters lies on the writer/ director, since it would be doubtful anyone could have made their characters successful without a rewrite or Fordesque disdain for bad writing (and of course none of them had Ford's clout). I've actually read two articles and in both it's clear Best was primarily disappointed with how Jar Jar was received and took it personally- rather than being the subject of personal abuse. The framing and undertone of the articles is one of those contextual things, there's been a fairly consistent attempt to frame dislike of TLJ as being neck beard misogyny because so many people loathed Rose and Holdo (and want to get rid of Kathleen Kennedy; a load of old bollocks since Lucas, Jar Jar and Anakin all got pilloried as much if not more), and as professional reviewers and entertainment writers largely loved it but it was highly divisive to fans. But, if the people who didn't like it were all bullying women haters stuck in the past that means they're wrong, their opinion can be disregarded and the entertainment writers were right all along. And at worst all the haters might just shut up in case they get accused of being bullies.
-
Diving ('simulation') is cheating under the rules ('unsporting behaviour') so it's legally poor sportmanship. Pretty much everyone considers flopping to be part of the game, whether they admit it or not- though feigning injury is considered the same rule as diving. In most places diving is thought of as part of the game though since there was no way to consistently punish it and since everyone does it it's 'fair'. Solution to feigning injury is to call for the stretcher every time. More video reviews should eventually do for outright diving as well since the risk/ reward equation will shift. Though the results with video refs in rugby have been... erratic to say the least, albeit not helped by rugby's ridiculously inconsistent laws.
-
This world cup is the best ever. It just needs a [somebody] 7 1 Brazil result, an England v Russia semi final and somebody to headbutt a player everyone secretly wants to headbutt and it will be perfect. Only thing missing is New Zealand finishing higher than Italy in pool play and being the only unbeaten team at the tournament. The England v Russia match has to happen, just has to.
-
I presume the Youtube version is 'unofficial'- it was on TV here last year (and is on DVD) with the original soundtrack reinstated. Definitely a program which has aged well, but I wouldn't even bother watching without Paint It Black et alia to be honest.
-
With super sub Roger Milla dribbling the ball inside his Zimmer® brand Frame they always have a chance, even when they're not in the tournament.
-
Reserves and reserve currencies have always been a bit arbitrary. Even with something tangible like gold Spain bankrupted itself by having too much gold flowing in from the americas- and if they'd picked aluminium when it was more valuable than gold the whole system would have crashed when cheap electrolysis hit. The 100B benefit from being reserve currency is massively understated anyway since it is at best the proximal benefit. The main benefit is both political- ties everyone into US systems that can then be used to push geopolitical aims, such as vs Iran- and the economic benefit of having built in currency stability and foreign cash inflow (not just the loans and lowered interest but added cash availability), an advantage in financial services, economic influence and most importantly the knowledge that you will almost certainly never have your loans called in or difficulty raising more. The last is crucial as the US shows no willingness to control spending as opposed to talking about controlling spending and even if the US becomes technically insolvent who is going to call their loans in knowing that doing so will not just make their loans worthless but any reserves held in USD and would almost certainly crash the financial system? For example that would be like setting trillions of dollars on fire for China. The current US recovery is built on quantitative easing- printing money- and has been got away with with relatively few negative consequences due to the USD being a reserve.