Zoraptor

Politico is there, with the WP/ HuffPo. Beeb and Grauniad are there as well and are probably the most used British sites internationally apart from the Daily Fail which amazingly is the most visited 'news' website on the internet, apparently. And as a sad indictment on humanity. The results are pretty weird though, I can't reconcile the Beeb and Economist being in the same position; nor Al Jazeera, even the US/ English version, being in the same position as The Daily Show.

I voted for GTA: Vice City. Wouldn't say it's a cerebral experience, but it was great fun and had fantastic aesthetics. 2 magnificent people of taste and refinement also voted for Elite, which I think made it the highest ranked space sim despite being 33 (!) years old and not making the top 106. I also considered Wing Commander IV and Privateer but didn't choose either in the end.

The expansion pack issue probably has to be handled that way. While I would have happily voted for NWN w/ all xpacs rather than MotB specifically I wouldn't have voted for NWN2 alone. And in Alpha Centauri's case the expansion pack made the game worse.

That doesn't look bad at all. If (and it's a big if) the rumours about meltdown requiring some further fixing are true it might still get worse but at the moment it certainly doesn't look significant for the average desktop user. Everyone and everything (nearly) is effected by Spectre, even including RISC chips. The only source I've seen for everyone being effected by Meltdown though is Intel FUD trying to conflate the two issues. Everything else says it's Intel specific.

Yeah, it's basically in the 3-5% reduction range for games (well, the four games tested, and not in GPU limited scenarios like 4k) which isn't great but also isn't a catastrophe except PR wise.

From what I've seen the minimum hit is ~5% though, since everything does system calls including games. Not nearly as bad as the worse case but since it's a straight hardware fault the only true fix is to redesign the processor. And I suspect from the secret squirrel response that there wouldn't even be an option not to update short of air gapping anyway. Very good news for AMD though, it puts Ryzen on the same effective IPC as Intel already with a refresh coming that ought to have a decent potential boost to both IPC and overclock potential. Plus if Epyc does get a foot in the door for servers that's real money. Then again AMD does have their segfault issue as well.

Said it in the other thread but Sharpie is just supporting brave freedom loving Novorossiya in their struggle against tyranny. Slav solidarity and all that.

Yep, the prequels desperately needed good editing at the concept and scripting stages but the base story and ideas are mostly fine, they just needed someone else to tune them. I'd still rate RoTS as a good movie overall though, and the last third (minus dying of sadness) as very good. But when it comes to Lucas I'm always reminded of a story about The Beatles and why Lennon/ McCartney was such a great song writing duo while Paul McCartney solo was a load of self indulgent tosh- John could tell Paul when he was being self indulgent and most importantly Paul would pay attention when told. But I'll say this for the prequels, they do at least make sense overall as a story even if the journey along the story is not always... optimal, and while the dialogue is often stultifying it is at least memorable even when Anakin is espousing a deep loathing for silica particles. I can't say the same for the sequels, the continuity between them and the original trilogy and even between TFA and TLJ is questionable and while the dialogue certainly isn't bad it is arguably something worse- it's literally unremarkable. "Amazing, every word you just said was wrong" is about the only line from either sequel film I can remember at all. Even setting the memes aside I could probably quote a dozen lines at absolute minimum from any other SW film; and I've only seen the prequels one time more than TFA and seen both sequels far more recently. Still, nice action scenes and set pieces as always, and if you leave your brian in neutral enjoyable enough. (Best thing about the prequels and probably SW overall is and always will be Ian McDiarmid playing Palps as a pantomime villain and mugging the camera unapologetically every chance he got as that made the absolute most of what he was provided with. And whatever else you can say about Lucas he had at times- when he wasn't trying to just sell merchandise- a true talent for impressive set pieces; that very first Star Destroyer shot in Star Wars is still perhaps my absolute favourite.)

Raithe covers most of the reasons people dislike him. He probably doesn't deserve all the hate he gets, but he's emblematic of the problems that TPM had so attracts the hate. It's mostly relevant because he was played by a black actor with an affected ludicrous 'black' accent, but neither was the reason he was disliked so much. The accent contributed a bit, but not much. I don't think anyone knows what the original plan for Jar Jar was (Lucas: "Jar Jar is the key to all of this" is an actual quote), the reaction to him saw his role in the later films massively reduced. I suspect, to use another Lucas quote he "may have got carried away a little in places" especially when it came to Jar Jar and just loved the idea of a CGI character as well as wanting to appeal to kids who are the primary target for merchandising. The end result didn't really appeal to kids and tended to annoy adults. Lucas always needed someone to tell him when he was going too far, shame he only employed yes men like McCallum after RotJ.

Meh, if Phantom Menace was released today some people would describe Jar Jar hate as racist. Most people dislike the black guy and asian girl because they were pointless narratively in TLJ and padded run time, with the pandering aspects of their ethnicity being a distant second. Indeed, if the movie was good and their characters good nobody would care- hence why nobody cared about JEJ or Yaphet Kotto. Same for Phasma, people don't hate the character for being female and people don't hate Brienne as an actor; what people don't like is that they clearly aimed for an iconic Boba Fett type, but achieved Capt Panaka instead. People also tend to dislike Rey for being a colossal Mary Sue rather than disliking her because she's female. As for TLJ itself, the whole thing is kind of funny. First movie of the Star Trek reboot was described as someone who hated ST and wanted to make a Star Wars movie instead; TLJ is more like someone who hated SW wanting to make a Star Trek movie instead. One doubts the super duper innovative tactic that should revolutionise space warfare will ever be heard of again once Death Star 2 Starkiller 2 shows up in Not Return of the Jedi- and that is 100% pure Star Trek. At least Jar Jar Abrams wanted to make a SW movie even if it was extraordinarily derivative and made no sense in context; it was always going to be difficult to make movies post RotJ that aren't inconsistent/ 'disrespectful' with the originals in some way. It hardly looks like JJ and RianJ even talked to each other.

The support for Titan Quest really helps it, since it's still getting patches and expansions it stays in people's minds longer. Bit disappointed Thief 2 is so low, but I'd guess its votes will be split with Thief TDP. So far I think System Shock and Thief 2 have made it from my list.

Finally finished Elex. Very enjoyable overall though it does have the same problem most PB games have- its difficulty curve means that exploration at the start is extremely dangerous but by the time you're Combat King a lot of the impetus for exploration is lost since you don't really need another bit of scrap metal and a healing potion by then. Plus it's hard to remember where you've already been and where you've already been but had to run away screaming like a baby because there were some non feeble monsters there. Assuming we get a sequel I'd have no hesitation whatsoever preordering again.

Plot twist, it's actually the flag of Novorossiya.

Take everything with a massive grain of salt. Most in the media and many governments are absolutely desperate for it to be a big deal; but the protests are far, far smaller than the 'Green Revolution' ones- and that revolution failed outright. There's a huge number of fantasy fulfillment tweets and the like being fired off about what they wish were true rather than what is. That's why there are a lot of 'weird' things being reported. If you're a 1979 expat Iranian you may well want to believe that, deep down, real Iranians love their Shah still; if you're a Saudi shill you want to believe that brave 'rebels' have seized a 200k city and an army depot full of guns. A lot of the information comes from unsourced twitter users. I've yet to see video of any crowd of even 10k people which the 2009 protests went way past from the beginning, except the pro government counter demos that seem to have 100ks. Don't read the full twitter thread of that link though, it will give you cancer just as much as the anti Iran tweet chains will.

A genuine population equilibrium is by definition a little c constant though- not in the same sense as some of the physics big C Constants of course, but it does mean that the population stays within a fairly narrow band and does not fluctuate significantly in the medium term, and barring significant outside interference into the system. All the rest of the stuff is correct, but what it means is that we cannot readily apply terms like 'population equilibrium' to humans except in an abstract form. For most biological systems you could actually use it as a practical term as well but, as noted, humans' ability to alter the environment and make rational (or not) decisions as opposed to instinctual ones makes us a special case. We obviously can't ignore the rules permanently though, and that biologically speaking leads to one inevitable result: a population crash. It's actually one of the more obvious logical fallacies when you have governments talking about both reducing pollution, human footprint and the like and wanting to keep permanent economic and population growth going. At some point you have to decide to stop population growth, and at that point a lot of the 'natural' economic growth from things such as house building and house price inflation goes as well.

Meh, amateur slash shipping is par for the course. Empire controlling "nearly the whole universe" though? In any decent society that inaccuracy would surely be some sort of crime against the state. Galaxy far far away ring any bells, meme maker?

Availability and cost. The direct equivalent LG (34UC99W) is ~$400NZ more in cost- well outside budget- and is also only 75Hz. There's a lower resolution 34" option from LG that is cheaper, but I don't like low vertical resolutions much and would stick to my old 1200p monitor despite its problems in preference. Main competition was from an LG though, but a standard 4k one (27UD69W) for about $750, and a somewhat more expensive Asus 4k. I do currently have a Samsung which I'm not that happy with (not due to unreliability or similar though, it's just an 'office monitor' sort that cannot cope with natural instead of fluorescent lighting), so don't have any brand loyalty. The one I bought was the only Samsung I even looked at seriously.

I tend to agree that curved monitors are a fad, but at least they're a fad that makes some logical sense. Shows how well you know me, internet guy. (Yeah, bought. Even got an extra $10 off. I think it's my most expensive single purchase in nearly 20 years which didn't involve a house or a car- I'm not exactly YOLO when it comes to the financials. Might be cheating a bit, as I've built 2 computers over that time that cost more in total though the most expensive single component was ~500$)

So, anyone want to talk me out of buying some ridiculous oversized curved screen monstrosity? Meh, I'll probably talk myself out of it anyway. Mainly tempted because it's $1100 (670USD, GST off) and for some reason that's way cheaper than it should be when compared to US and UK prices. Still 400 bucks more than I wanted to spend though, and my 580 would struggle with it in games at high settings.

So Valve lost their appeal against the Australian ACCC wrt deceptive practices, not offering refunds etc so now have to officially pay a 3 million dollar fine (well, lol) and a few other things like put a Naughty Boy Letter up on steam for all Aussies to see. (The initial legal action and the parallel EU action are the reasons that Valve now offers refunds.)

lolwut, try ~91%. In terms of Israel's neighbours, literally none of them are 98% muslim, and their largest minorities are christians. Indeed, the palestinian population of the West Bank was 20%+ christian, though most have left now- due to Israeli pressure specifically. Every single one of Israel's neighbours except Jordan has a 10% or more christian minority. Lebanon even has 40%. Most are not truly artificial countries- only Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait are. And oddly enough 2/3 of those are theoretically fairly sensible religious ethnic mixes. Turkey, Yemen, Oman, Iran and Egypt are all old countries; Iraq and Syria are old provinces. The old colonial powers drew arbitrary lines on maps where there had never been true borders before, but, say, the general principle of Iraq/ Mesopotamia/ al-Iraqiyya and its general shape including areas with a lot of Kurds and the sunni/ shia split is a very old one. 1948 proposed Israel was 100% artificial though, whether it's still artificial now is a matter of opinion.

I'd half expect an Arcanum like setting, but there's no realistic chance of it being Arcanum 2. There was never any realistic chance of it being Arcanum 2. I can however exclusively reveal that it is, in actual fact, No One Lives Forever 3. The whole 'new IP' thing is misdirection. (When it comes to Arcanum I'm with Enoch. While aspects of it are good it's not a good game overall)

There is an additional reason why it's a big deal which is related to the annexation/ occupying power stuff, though it isn't directly a matter for the UN per se; the US is meant to be brokering a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. Realistically that would end with Israel with its capital in Jerusalem anyway and everyone including the Palestinians knows it. All the recognition does with respect to the peace process is to remove leverage against Israel without any concessions granted and make the US look even more biased, while throwing 20 years of negotiations into the bin. Understandably even staunch US allies like the UK are deeply annoyed at that since they've both backed the negotiations wholeheartedly and backed the good faith of the US in those negotiations- to them the US is reneging on commitments and it's a yuge slap in the face. It's a great decision for Israel which now has even less incentive to make concessions, and it's an on the face of it great decision for Trump domestically as the response stokes jingoism and mobilises his base. It just happens to be an awful decision long term and for the US internationally, made worse by the childish threats.

Looks like the separatists have won the Catalonian elections with about the same majority they had previous, so no doubt there will be more fun to be had there as well.

Apparently everyone else in the world is butthurt over it to the point of wasting time in a non-binding resolution. That will show us! In all seriousness, politics is absolutely about 'pointless' posturing. It's wasting time when someone brings a resolution to the UNSC that they know will be vetoed yet it happens rather a lot, and it's mostly the US doing that bit of pointlessness. The whole point is to make Russia or China- or in this case the US- look like Neville No Mates and embarrass them, nothing else is expected. In this case it isn't time wasting though, the UN is founded on the idea that you cannot just conquer bits of other countries any more yet that is exactly what Israel did to get East Jerusalem, and recognising Jerusalem as Israeli capital legitimises that. It's now on the record that the UN still maintains their position, whatever the US says. As for butthurt, you can guarantee the vast majority of those voting for the resolution aren't even slightly butthurt about the US position, since it doesn't directly effect them. Instead they disagree with it since they think it's a dangerous precedent and, well, moronic. Which is completely different from butthurt. Maybe the 40 odd muslim majority countries are butthurt, but that's it. OTOH, Haley and Trump could do with a good dose of Prep H going by their response. Most of the abstentions were from those who had to take the US threats seriously- like the Baltic States. I haven't checked but I'd bet that Ukraine didn't turn up at all, for example, as they cannot support annexation by force for obvious reasons, but also can't annoy the US. I expect their ambassador got locked in the toilets or had a pressing prior engagement literally anywhere else.