Zoraptor

At least theoretically the Russians had plenty of time to dig in around Kharkov. Combination of too few troops and them being low quality -->--> the Russians inadvertently helping Ukraine out. Of course Ukraine also didn't have a viral internet campaign about that offensive, not hard to prepare defences when your opponent has sportingly told you what they're going to do ahead of time. While true Ukraine was never going to have air superiority. If they waited for that they'd tacitly be admitting to never going on the offensive again. Ukraine didn't necessarily need complete air superiority, it being contested may have been enough to make Ka-52 losses too great to be sustainable and take out the designators for krasnopol artillery. They did try to bring in a lot of air defence assets, there was a big spike in S-300s and the like getting hit associated with it. Who knows, maybe if they'd zerged/ damned the torpedoes Russian lines along with a similar attitude for AD assets like the US wanted they'd have won. Doesn't seem very likely though. (Dunno, the US' schwerpunkt'esque approach probably did have a better chance of success in absolute terms than the more dissipated attacks we got, but it was also far riskier for Ukraine who could easily have ended up with similar losses, just over a far more compressed timeframe. It was far closer to a Kursk situation than Barbarossa. Personally I'd say that the US approach was insane given the situation on the ground, and their supposed insistence on training raw conscripts so they hadn't learnt any 'bad habits' was at very best misguided. OTOH, maybe if Ukraine hadn't wasted a load of experienced troops on Bakhmut or stalled so that Tigers and Elefants could be delivered... but even then, the US' idea was to train and use recruits with ~6 weeks training, not experienced soldiers)

The fundamental problem is that- coincidentally, no doubt- simulations almost always produce the result that the person running them wants. In this case I'd suspect whoever they had playing the Russian side decided to play it stereotypically/ didn't really want to win. If you're actually going to wargame things the most difficult part to get right is having the opposing force behave realistically and having it actually want to win against their own (in reality) side. I do have to admit I'm kind of jealous someone got paid for 8 tabletop wargaming sessions. If they were going to go for actual wargaming instead of outright computer modelling I'd have thought they'd have used one of their computer based ones. Otherwise: Ukraine lost because they didn't follow out superior tactics and sage advice! for the umpteenth time. Which might be an excuse if they hadn't done well previously with their own tactics (albeit with a lot of inadvertent help from the Russians).

Decomposing babies found at al Al-Nasr Children's Hospital. Honestly at this point you have to wonder if the Rules Based Order's accusations function solely as projection. Though I guess, technically, Israel didn't turf the babies out of incubators; just attacked the hospital and its staff, forced them out and made it impossible for anyone to evacuate the babies and for their incubators to run.

Eh, just pretend that they're Rifles and special forces so aren't really used as assault troops. More handwavey than a semaphore class carried out in sign language when it comes to, say, storming Badajoz or having like six men defend La Haie Sainte (or was it the other one?) at Waterloo, admittedly. (kind of funny, I hated the out of scale stuff in Rings of Power and Wheel of Time but would give it a pass in Sharpe because I liked the non battle parts of the series a lot more)

Sharpe is an excellent series. Also one of those series where there's almost always a young guest star you recognise from later stuff, like Paul Bettany or Mark Strong. Its only drawback is that when it comes right down to it Cornwell's heroes are all basically the same character and there's a certain template the stories tend to follow.

The 10% is for the Mongol Empire in general rather than Chenghiz specifically. A lot of the deaths were during Kublai Khan's conquest of China. China's always a bit of a special case, something like Taiping/ Heavenly Kingdom may have killed twice as many people as WW1 but pretty much no one knows about it.

People still use 'The Hun' occasionally as a pejorative for germans, and a lot more so 'vandal' for destructive people so we are at least still linguistically upset about people sacking Rome 1600ish years ago. Pol Pot tends to get a 'pass' because he pretty much only killed his own countrymen, inside his own country, which is small and irrelevant. Similar to how Mao doesn't tend to get mentioned because he killed a lot of Chinese at a time when China was certainly not small but was pretty irrelevant. Obviously Kissinger tended to get a pass because... hey I mean George W Bush paints now and it was all so long ago so all is forgiven about Iraq, right guys? We do rather like randomly rehabilitating our leaders. Funniest thing is hearing Kissinger constantly referred to as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Kind of a shame that Mussolini and Hitler didn't win the years they were nominated. Hitler in particular since the year was 1939.

Funny how many better movies were made of books than TV series. Seems to be the shorter the audiovisual medium, the more likely you are to get an enjoyable conversion of it. Even on my TV list half of them have ten episodes or fewer.

Some people wanted some feedback on the Colony Ship RPG so here it is a decent (15 hours maybe? Not sure how much I put into the indev version) way through. TLDR: basically no change from my reaction to the indev version. It's far more polished than AoD and generally looks nice and crisp. UI is fine and there are some QoL improvements too. The skills are well thought out and pretty balanced with maybe one(ish) exception and that may be classic pebkam rather than a game issue. Combat is hard but there is an easy difficulty for people who aren't masochistic think RPGs are for running around feeling awesome. I, of course, am hard as nails and tough as teak so am playing on underdog. Character development is almost entirely by skill use. You get a feat on level up, and can add implants and the like for stat boosts. Could, maybe, do with some extra tools to improve skills? Maybe. That's related to one of the complaints below. There's definitely a best way to do things (ie do all skill level 2 checks, then since you now have level 3 skill do all skill level 3 checks etc) but it's far better than AoD's saving up of LPs(?) so you can add them appropriately to pass the skill checks you want. Slightly longer positives: Jack of all trades/ generalists are a lot more feasible since you have a party (up to 4). I actually haven't found any more than 3 recruitables (or maybe you don't get offers if your party is full, doing it spoiler free so not checking) but they cover the general archetypes pretty well. The world/ ship feels good, and the game has a pretty compelling atmosphere. The backstory/ factions aren't going to win prizes but are pretty believable and consistent and the dialogue is good, with a decent amount of appropriate skills/ stats being referenced. As prior, the combat is hard, but I've only found two fights I couldn't do- and that's with a stealth and chat specialist among the 4. Just don't be afraid of using grenades etc and know when to use them (and energy weapons, where the ammo is scarce). And you can avoid combat. only major gripe is stealth. It doesn't work that well with a TB system unfortunately, and... well it kind of forces you into having an out and out specialist rather than an assassin archetype. ie you need stealth, stealing and lockpick on one character minimum, and in some case computing (so far). While you can get training in computers to boost it for someone who doesn't have it tagged some hack tools or similar might be useful. OTOH, don't think any of stealth missions have been compulsory but, can't avoid the fact that someone with all stealth feats and high skill (and a stealth gadget) still finds some missions to be impossible. As above, I may be missing something and I'd spec Faythe differently in retrospect. Dunno, from what I've seen if you want maximalist stealth you'd have to build your character on a prescribed path. Minor gripes: all the combat takes place super close together, there's no 'strategic depth'. Probably too many interrupts too, occasionally they get comical where an enemy seems to get off more shots in interrupts that they can in their main combat round. Gear/ itemisation is fairly generic. Could at times do with a more detailed quest log? Some of the maps are confusing in that it's difficult to tell where you can/ can't go, and some of the blocking is clumsy. Ironically, it's kind of like how in Mass Effect you'd suddenly start encountering waist high barriers whenever a combat encounter was coming only here it's narrowed doors and similar. Not much really, and very little of real substance. Obviously it's a game for a certain type towards the grognard end of the gaming spectrum but it's a pretty unequivocal recommendation from me, so far.

There are a decent number of 'as good as (or better)' adaptions. The Boys, I Claudius, Game of Thrones (up to S4), House of Cards (UK), The Wire/ Homicide: LotS, Generation Kill. That's only shows I'd rate as very good/ excellent though*. There is of course a far longer list of adaptions that were either awful, or worse than the original. If the stipulation was no or ignored input from the original author as well almost all of those would be excluded, which is not coincidental. Could probably add some historical stuff too like Spartacus* and the like for being ultimately based on history books, but that may be a stretch. *or in The Boys'/ Spartacus' case, very enjoyable.

If it were Russia you'd presume her husband would be the target and she was collateral damage. Certainly looks like something that was done to send a message rather to actually kill though since heavy metal poisoning typically* has to be long term to be fatal and can be treated if detected via chelation and the like. *technically of course uranium/ plutonium/ polonium etc are all heavy metals, but presumably if it were radiological it would have been mentioned specifically.

The mention of von der Leyen reminds me that Borrell- whose job it actually is to speak for the EU on such matters- deserves a mention for being far more even handed than most. Not really outright condemnation of Israel's appalling approach to civilian casualties* but certainly a recognition of how it plays to people outside the western bubble (and makes his job a lot harder as a consequence). Guterres too, though his position at least officially isn't 'western' even if he is Portugese. *if Israel were bombing Ukraine in proportion to Palestine they'd have killed ~1.8 million (! no typo) women and children over 20 months, to put it in perspective. Though that relies on Ukraine's nominal last (2001) census' ~44 million population and it may be as low as half that now. Or to compare it with the allies' strategic bombing campaign in WW2 civilians (and that's excluding any male civilians, plus of course deaths are only those reported at hospitals and not anyone buried under rubble either, hence Israel targeting them as a matter of policy. Can't count deaths if there's nowhere to count them {taps head}) are dying at between 6-12x the rate from the precise and proportionate strikes from the most moral army in the world as opposed to, well, indiscriminate area bombing deliberately targeting civilians with incendiaries and the like in thousand bomber raids.

That's from 3 years ago and he admitted to thinking about Chirac doing something similar beforehand. It's also, most significantly, not really a 'moral qualm' situation: it's a situation of France's (and his own) 'honour' which he knows will play well domestically. It's better than some, certainly, since a lot of people let Netanyahu humiliate them then thank him for the honour.

I'm as religious as a slab of concrete but the Pope is definitely a world leader. It's more whether he'd count as 'western'. On the narrow level, Francis is from South America, so not really western; on the broader level I doubt the secular west regards the RCC as being western (too 'backwards') and I doubt the church regards itself as western either since that's limited and they think they're universal. Indeed I'd suspect the church would actively reject the description. Lame duck doesn't mean much. Can't get any lamer or duckier than Rishi Sunak yet he's cheerleading children getting blown up and hospitals destroyed as much as Biden so long as it's Israel doing it (and he thinks he can leverage it against Labour). Macron probably thinks he'll be able to sell a few more Rafales to the arabs (and tamp down some unrest in the banlieues) rather than having any genuine moral qualms about the situation. The only western nation that seems to have genuine moral qualms is Ireland due to its history. Might have been NZ too if our outgoing PM had his way, but our incoming PM is a loony tunes death cult evangelical* so no chance of it now. *who of course owns 7 houses and coincidentally has landlord rights as #1 priority. Funny how they always forget about rich men, camels and eyes of needles...

I was playing C2077 when my Vega64 broke. Didn't fancy playing it on a 580 for some reason and ended up uninstalling it since I needed the space. I'll go back to it when I've picked up Phantom Liberty, which isn't on sale. Metro Exodus will be the first demanding game I use in on most likely.

Picked up a 7800XT on Cyber Monday. Well, Black Friday, but bought on Monday so I can pretend I got a super deal to reward my patience. Opening it to find the shroud wasn't broken a definite plus. It's actually smaller than the 580 that it's replacing, guess that's Strix vs Pulse more than anything. Now to put it through its paces by playing, hmm, EUIV and the Colony Ship RPG?

5% and coattail rule for Germany unless it's changed, since we 'borrowed' their system wholesale back in the 90s when we went for MMP*. So if you get an electorate MP you bring in any extra seats your proportion entitles you to even if lower than the threshold. Or you get an overhang parliament if a party wins more electorate seats than their proportion entitles them to- which is what we got a few months ago, think there will be 123 MPs this term instead of 120. *Should have gone for Multi Member STV (ie, what I voted for). Less electoral manipulation like the Epsom Pity Party (ACT) staying in parliament because National refused to run a candidate and far more chance of good local candidates getting elected even if they weren't members of Labour or National.

The F35 is not that bad. It's certainly an inefficient program and the first time a 'replacement' 'fighter' is worse than what it's replacing (F22, and yeah, in certain scenarios, even the F16) but it will likely brute force profitability. OTOH, can I introduce you to the Zumwalt class destroyer: per unit program price 7bn USD, nearly three times that of a Virginia class sub (!), and with two 6" guns that can't be fired because the ammo is literally too expensive- 1mn USD per unit- to make?

Finished Days Gone. Enjoyed it, all things considered. Typical open world do jobs and find collectibles while fighting 'zombies' and fellow people just as an Outlaw Biker (with mick sometimes taken over that cliché) so the end effect is basically Walking Dead's Darryl meets Assassins Creed. Objectively I'd say it's too repetitive in its gameplay loop and the story is, well, extremely predictable* with a lot of guns being very ostentatiously placed on the mantel and later fired. Subjectively none of that actually matters. The plot may not be the most original, but it's well executed and is present enough to break up the gameplay and keep it feeling relatively fresh. Overall effect is like having spaghetti bolognaise for dinner: you may have eaten something similar hundreds if not thousands of times before and it's not going to win prizes for adventurous departures from the culinary mainstream; but it's yum so if you really care about that over enjoyment you're probably a bit of a pretentious git. Took me literally two minutes to work out Deacon's va/ mocap was Sam Witwer. For a guy who isn't particularly famous he's nothing if not distinctive. *Biggest and pretty much only surprise was the final post end game mission where you find out the FEMA FEDRA NERO guy is actually an Alb from the Elex games...

No point answering. A fair (/best) resolution will require enforcement on Israel- especially with its current government- and as above there's no realistic way to get that enforcement.

I could have doubled the length of my post by adding in all the issues Palestinians and pals would have with it, sure. Not really necessary to do so since the problems with the Israeli side are more than enough to show why aspirational 'plans' can't work on their own.

Based on the 1967 borders is all well and good as a hand wave. So is Jerusalem having shared sovereignty. Easy to write, but the practicalities... ..are that Israel is not going to be able to remove the Settlements en masse. If nothing else where are the ~800k people who live there going to live? Are Settlers going to be fine with Palestinians moving into their old homes? It'd be OK for those who are non political and were basically paid to move there as policy, but the Itamar Ben-Gvir type Settlers will neither move, nor allow their homes to be taken over by Arabs. They'd quite literally die before doing so- but would far, far prefer to have others die before doing so. It's vanishingly unlikely that Israel will be willing to fight a civil war to remove Settlements, and that is what would be required. The Settlements have also quite deliberately been placed to scupper peace and to divide the West Bank into handy little Bantustans. The alternative is a Kushneresque 'just give the Palestinians the Negev Desert as a swap, it'd be contiguous!' which is and was best summed up by lol and laughing at Jared for being a partisan muppet. The same is even more true for Jerusalem. Israel has spent nearly 60 years trying to drive Arabs out of its east, and build Settlements specifically to break up contiguousness of/ contain Arab areas as deliberate policy and in the knowledge that it would be too hard to reverse even if they wanted to. The International Community could, of course, theoretically force Israel to accept it. Which is even more hand wavey considering Joe Biden can't even bring himself to condemn 5500 children being killed in 6 weeks because it's Israel doing it. The US will always veto anything with teeth, Scholtz is a quivering jelly so the EU won't do anything, Karim Khan won't take a leak without asking Rishi Sunak first so the ICC is out so there's zero actual leverage on Israel to do anything other than the status quo knowing that the Rules Based Order will have their back. But that's what any peace plan requires more than anything, actual leverage on Israel. If you don't have a plan that addresses the how everything else is window dressing, pie in the sky, hopium, whatever.

Looks like a (temporary) ceasefire with (partial) hostage release is incoming after the Israeli cabinet approved it.

Meh, that's not a peace plan. That's the geopolitical equivalent of Neil from the Young Ones or 'Give Quiche a Chance' Rimmer from Red Dwarf ie literally nothing apart from a set of principles with no ideas about how to implement them. The principles are all well and good, but the question has always been how, and the devil always in the details*. On the positive side it's pretty even handed comparing Hamas and Netanyahu, though the canker there is a lot larger and more long running than just Bibi. Every Likud PM has viewed Hamas as an 'ally' right back to Shamir helping to establish them in the first place as a radical (religious) counter to the PLO. *eg Palestine apparently has to be demilitarised, Israel, doesn't... so one is an actual country, the other isn't. Who gets the water? What happens to the Palestinian refugees? Golan Heights? Jerusalem? Settlements? What's the enforcement mechanism(s)? How do you stop another Baruch Goldstein/ Yigal Amir (or Ariel Sharon) from derailing everything? etc etc.

I'd have no problem with Putin being charged by the ICC if they were charging him with the correct crimes, eg waging aggressive war and pillage. The reason they aren't is of course that then they'd have to charge people like Tony Blair and Donald Trump as well and We Can't Have That. Nothing inconsistent with being inconsistent about the worth of the ICC. They could prove themselves to be even handed and worthwhile by bringing charges against members of The Rules Based Order and other protected persons, in the future. 95% of the criticism of it would go away tomorrow if they applied the rules even handedly and did not give carte blanche to favoured nations with 'reliable' judiciaries to investigate themselves and inevitably find themselves not guilty (or simply not bothered, that's still enough for a country with a 'reliable' judiciary*). It's kind of naive to expect that at this point, clearly the ANC are full of positivity and hope though which is nice. Still you never know, might see Bush, Blair and Bibi in the dock sometime. Not going to be holding my breath though. *Case in point, the guy who leaked the Aus SAS atrocities is currently on trial (actually changed his plea to guilty yesterday, it seems) in Australia for those leaks. Don't think a single SAS member has been charged for kicking Afghans off cliffs, shooting them because they wouldn't fit on a copter etc yet though. Makes you wonder which one Australia's reliable judicial system sees as the worse crime, eh.