Zoraptor

Ha yes. From some of the reactions you'd think it was imminently plausible though.

EMP seems imminently plausible. Not that they'd need Starfish for inspiration, the soviets had (an) equivalent test(s) themselves at a similar time.

Hmm. The ABC report says it's nuclear, though as with Reuters from old friend 'anonymous sources'. (Good thing it's not the British MoD saying anything or I'd suspect it's Shovel Deterrence Initiative/ Putin having launched a mysterious yellow object into the sky early August 2023 that creates tactical undergrowth to selectively hinder Ukrainian counteroffensives)

The reason for the re-release of Episode 1 is obviously due to someone at Disney thinking that this is where the fun begins. I've also heard that they're going back to proper analogue film rather than digital too, since spinning is a good trick.

25 years: A surprise, to be sure, but a not so welcome one. Guess that means it's 25 years since The Matrix even sooner.

AMD's (and nVidia's) PSU recs are pretty conservative since they have no idea whether someone has a reputable 850W Corsair or a disreputable 850W ExplodeMAXX one, nor what the other specs and draws are. Corsair's a good brand and HX Platinum ought to be rock solid- most psu tier lists have it as top bracket last time I checked. While you can't preclude being unlucky it seems unlikely that the PSU is the issue. To put it in perspective my PSU EVGA G2 is 150W below the recommended wattage for a 7800XT Pulse and is 6+ years old, and has had no issues. Indeed, it had no issues with a Vega64 with a 750W rec either.

The special counsel's report into Biden's retention of classified information is... interesting. "At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory [..] It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him [..] of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness"* Poor memory included not remembering when he was VP, nor the year his son died- so not exactly the trivial minutiae of a life spent in office. Way better for Biden in many ways than Trump's conduct was for him but still, a choice between a crook and a dotard is not exactly a brilliant one. *should be noted, also not enough evidence to charge apart from having to prove willfulness, which sounds far better.

The Il76 that was shot down carrying PoWs (or, if preferred, 'carrying PoWs') at the end of last month was meant to be the same as an Il76 that was regularly going to Syria and Iran* (and thus carrying a cargo of S-300 instead of prisoners). That Il76 has however been back flying to Iran etc again. *per wikipedia: "The independent Russian media outlet iStories, citing Ukrainian OSINT investigations [NAFO], reported that the aircraft had flown over Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Red Sea and Iran before disappearing from radars and reappearing over Belgorod Oblast."

Not just Ukrainian. Syrsky's the Timoshenko (Semyon, not Yulia) pick: not absolutely untalented, but his main talent was loyalty to his leader. Pretty sure just about everyone would have preferred Budanov if Zaluzhny had to go. At least if Syrsky had been in charge we wouldn't have got all the 'they did not actually follow NATO tactics of zerg rushing the enemy like Guy de Lusignan at Hattin' excuses for the 'counter'offensive since Syrsky would have done what he was told no matter how badly it worked. Not a good week or so for NAFOids. Apart from the Zalauzhny sacking (he RESIGNED!!! and wasn't that good anyway!!!) being a Russian psyops the Il76 they had shot down carrying weapons has also managed to reassemble itself and now plies its trade again like a real life Ghost of Belgorod.

Write it in your diaries, the world ends Feb 8th, 2300 GMT. The only thing that will be funnier than the interview itself will be the reactions to the interview.

Not even the sexiest Sukhoi- that would be the Su-47. This is a family friendly forum, so no picture. Quiet Place sounded like a stupid idea on paper, but they're actually pretty great

Tucker Carlson to interview Vladimir Putin. Successfully resisted crossposting to the Funny thread for now.

It still took a decent amount of time for Bakhmut to go from a similar position, and Sverodonetsk. Should be faster for Avdivka given it's a lot flatter which will make an ad hoc supply line more difficult, but 'should be' doesn't always become 'was'. As with both of those a militarily justifiable decision to hold initially is in very real danger of turning into an unjustifiable mess due to political considerations.

Can't believe Zelensky of all people would spread pro Russian rumours like that. Abrams supposedly (and even from some of the pro UA mappers etc, too belatedly) seen around Avdivka- which is finally starting to look really terminal for the Ukrainians since the Russians are in the last line of houses before open ground near the Coke Plant. Once those are taken they'll have clear line of sight on Ukrainian supply lines and only be ~4km from their southern pincer.

Wasn't CIWS if it's the video I'm thinking of, as that ship didn't have one. Pecheneg or even a RPK. Seems a bit funny, but during the Falklands British sailors regularly tried to shoot down Argentine A4s with bog standard assault rifles (!) when Sea Sparrow failed. Phalanx being able to depress further was one of the (few) changes actually made due to the infamous Millennium Challenge, iirc. Same depression as the equivalent Russian system though. Not really hitting the target that is the issue so much as detecting it, since you don't need to take meatbags into account you can design sea drones to be only marginally buoyant and sealed thus extremely low profile, and you can pack a lot more explosive in or give it a lot larger engines than one that has to carry people. Ironically, the Russian are still up on Tarantul class corvettes as they captured 4 of them from Ukraine.

Strong western backing for Zaluzhny seems a bit odd when they spent a couple of months blaming him for the 'counter'offensive failing due to not being NATO enough. You're probably not meant to think about that implication too deeply though- see other excuses like it failing due to the Russians unfair conduct in not retreating(!) or the presence of undergrowth. Given the timing my immediate thought was that Zelensky would blame him for the procurement scandal and use that as an excuse. Only reason that elections would be insisted on would be if they wanted to get rid of Zelensky for some reason. 20% of Ukraine's population is held by Russia, 25% is outside Ukraine as refugees; not great circumstances for an election.

According to The Times Zaluzhny was asked to resign, told he'd be fired when he refused but wasn't due to Syrsky and Budanov refusing the post (plus push back from allies).

Now that's unfair, Alexander Boris de Ffefel says he'll be there, with bells on (the Torygraph, via MSN since MSN isn't paywalled). God Save the King indeed.

Most interesting thing about the whole situation: accusations against 12 UNRWA members out of 30,000 from Israel --> outrage, cut off the funding! Israel found to be plausibly committing genocide (ICJ cannot issue instructions if it's not plausible) --> keep up the funding! Hope that Israeli Intelligence was better than the guard roster that was a calendar plus the command bunker under Al Shifa, the missiles launched from two spots 6km apart etc. Not to mention how fantastic their signals intelligence is, now. Shame it wasn't so awesome on October 6th though, eh? Would be good if South Africa adds all the countries contributing to that plausible genocide by cutting aid a few days after that judgement right as all the people on the ground say shortage is turning to starvation to their ICJ action. Feel free to send the Black Helicopters to pick up our craven bootlicker and utter oxygen thief Chris Luxon in particular.

The Deus Ex game was in pre-production for two years so it was more of a decision not to proceed, at this point (since that would require extra staff and Embracer simply cannot afford them).

8 accused out of 15,000? Article says 17000 which is even more, but 2000 are local employees. Perhaps the west should send more than their (checks numbers) 20 peacekeepers to bring enlightenment to and help keep the uncivilised in line? Though of course the best way to make sure that you get precisely zero western peacekeepers is... to give the UN actual power to discipline/ prosecute soldiers under its command instead of it remaining with the contributor. Considering 2.5% of Gaza's population is meant to be members of Hamas' armed wing according to Israel the UN has done a superlative job of vetting if they've managed only 10% with a familial link.

If true it will be interesting to see what if anything they give as the reason since Zaluzhny is meant to have political aspirations unlike most of the other people dismissed recently.

To be precise it's 12 out of more than 30000 UNRWA workers that were accused by Israel. Those pulling UNRWA funding are a who's who of Israel's enablers, making a coordinated effort to drown out the ICJ ruling and provide cover for Israel to continue its policies, nothing more or less. Just a shame they'll never be dragged before a court for it. Not quite Gaza but definitely related- no matter how much some would like to pretend it's wholly separate- 3 US soldiers killed near the At-Tanf military base. US seems to be insisting they were on the Jordanian side (as the legality of their presence in Syria is... tenuous at best under international law) and the Jordanians that they were on the Syrian side.

I think the more realistic take is that if Avowed does well then you get Avowed 2, if it does badly it's proof that the setting is bad and you don't get any more Pillars games at all. I really don't know how BG3 will effect the possibilities for other RPGs. Larian is in a near unique situation with its own very distinct style and prior success/ fanbase based largely on MP and intrinsic hype due to the D&D/ Baldur's Gate names. Obsidian can replicate some of those, but PoE3 wouldn't have a fraction of the hype that the Baldur's Gate name generated, and a lot lot less than Divinity/ Original Sin. You'd probably need an 'isometric' Fallout to replicate that hype.

The distinction between civilians and combatants is inherent. If you're a combatant you give up a lot of protections that civilians have and are under the aegis of a different set of rules for conduct and treatment (eg Geneva Conventions) If a Gazan woman picks up an AK and tries to shoot an IDF soldier they're 100% allowed and expected to shoot back. Essentially, you cannot genocide combatants as they are legitimate targets, only protected groups (civilians). It's a pretty damning judgement for Israel, but it's not one that forces (well, 'forces') them to stop fighting entirely, just be a lot more careful and limited.